Tesla finally unveiled its highly anticipated all electric pickup truck
and people have opinions.
Talking about that truck again that crazy looking moon truck.
The design of this is pretty spectacular.
I have never heard a truck owner say, "you know, I just love cyberpunk and
what I'd love to buy is my next truck to look like something from Blade
Runner.". It seems a little incomplete for production purposes because
there are no side mirrors and the wheels and tires do not look production
ready. I've got more questions than answers.
From the unusual design to a failed demonstration that led to a shattered
window, there's a lot of hype surrounding this vehicle.
Prospective buyers can reserve a truck by putting down a $100 fully
refundable deposit.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at the pre-order numbers on Twitter, saying
there were 250,000 Cybertrucks put on hold as of November 2019.
So we spoke with six people who decided to pre-order the vehicle about
what made them take the plunge.
One of the most controversial things about the car was its futuristic
design.
(Chuckles) It is definitely different.
And that's actually the one reason why I like it, because it's so
radically different from anything else that it obviously grabs people's
attention right away.
That's not what I was expecting him to look like.
Honestly, I was put back, in a good way.
It took me aback. I was like.
Well, you know, that's a little out there.
But it was really cool.
Like, you know, once you looked at it.
That was probably one of the most interesting things about the reaction in
the crowd is it was kind of immediately like 50/50, like half the people
were like, oh, my gosh, I love it.
And half the people were just like taking it back and being like, what is
that? Not everybody, even in the fan crowd loved it.
Well, at first, I mean, obviously, the design like this.
The angles are a little different.
I think that was the first thing a lot of people were thrown off by: the
look of the vehicle. I think that has a lot to do with like why there's so
much negativity around it because there's nothing else out there right
now, that looks like that.
I mean, looks like a spaceship and it's built out of some of the materials
he says is used in his same rocket.
I mean, especially if it's going to come out in four years, like I don't
know what cars are gonna look like.
A lot has changed in four years as it is.
So it's possible that people will be more accepting of it down the road.
But I think that's why it looks like a spaceship, basically, that you
would shoot into space because he shoots rockets into space.
Everyone had a different reason for wanting the Cybertruck.
Hannah Straight plans to build a truck camper to live and travel in.
I think it's there's a good potential for a more basic bill.
Maybe it won't be extremely decked out, but I really think - I mean, he
already has the type of camera design out there and he's pushing camper
living, off roading.
He knows how many people out there want to live like that.
So I don't see why there's not a very good potential that I could put a
truck camper shell on the back of the truck.
She's not the only one with ambitious plans for the truck.
Damen and Katie to me plan to use the truck as an everyday vehicle,
freeing up their Model 3 for another lofty goal.
You can have the car drive yourself to work, and when you're at work and
the car is fully charged, they can go pick people up like a Tesla network
type of a service.
They could drive people from point A to point B, make twenty dollars and
you'd collect 70 percent of that.
Maybe Tesla would collect 30 percent.
And it doesn't have to have bathroom breaks or anything.
All you have to do is just recharge and you could just drive all day and
all night while you're sleeping.
So you really use the vehicle.
You may use like one hundred thousand miles a year.
But since the cars are designed for a three or four, five hundred thousand
miles, I think it's a good way to make extra money.
David Forrest is a Marine Corps veteran who struggles with PTSD.
He hopes the Cybertruck will help him manage his symptoms.
For PTSD I'm just on one part of the
spectrum, right? And for me, a lot of that is for post-traumatic
stress is just being able to go through a certain action.
So for me, it would be driving.
And it's not that, you know, we have some people have fears of that
there's bombs on the side of roads or anything else.
Sometimes it's just the fear of what the possibility is.
And there's not great drivers out there.
There's people that don't pay attention.
Sometimes when you're out, when you're very hyper -vigilant about one
thing, you don't realize that you just you're all those other things come
up, you know, your stresses, your anxiety, your mood.
And with the Cybertruck with the A.I.
being able to take over at times, you know, that's an asset that I could
see that would help me.
I'm in traffic. It's just too overwhelming.
OK, well, take me home.
Michael Hodges served overseas with both the Navy and as a private
contractor. He started a GoFundMe campaign to help donate Cybertrucks to
veterans and wounded warriors.
It definitely would help in terms of putting you back in that reference in
mind that, OK, I'm in a protected vehicle, therefore I can
relax more so than any other type of vehicle.
Because you know that, hey, if something were to happen, you know, I'm
going to be much more protective, which puts you back into the same
reference of mine. The Cybertruck is competing against some pretty popular
cars. Both Ford and GM are planning to release electric versions of their
best-selling pickups.
So what made the people we spoke with choose a Tesla over competitors?
Some obvious patterns emerged.
They all thought highly of Elon Musk.
I think Elon Musk is Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Michael
Faraday all in one.
He's a very polarizing figure.
Either love him or hate him.
Basically, I mean, I haven't seen too many people who are kind of
in-between. He generally always puts out where he says he's going to do.
It may take much longer than they want, but it generally always happens.
In that case, that is why I'm a fan, because he does what he says and he
says what he does.
I read the Ashlee Vance's book about Elon and this was
a number of years ago now.
But it was actually after reading the book about him that I was like, OK,
I need to go and check out Tesla, because this guy really sounds like he's
really trying to do innovative stuff, that he's really intelligent guy, a
genius even.
And I need to go check out the car.
So I was actually reading his book that led me to check out the car.
And it was like, OK, this is by far the coolest product I've ever
experienced. I've been following what he's been doing ever since.
Elon Musk is one of those people that is not afraid to think outside of
the box and push boundaries.
And a lot of crazy innovations that exist now started from people that
other people thought were crazy.
And if we hadn't pushed the boundaries and thought outside of the box, we
probably wouldn't have changed at all.
So I think it's cool that he's pushing forward, even though he's gotten a
lot of push back.
So I would like to support that.
And he's been successful in what he's come out with so far.
Another pattern: Tesla runs on recommendations.
How this typically goes is it's a referral from a friend.
You met somebody.
You knew somebody. They took you out for a ride in theirs.
They even let you drive theirs.
Because myself, I know a lot of other Tesla owners do that.
And that's usually how the experience goes.
I don't think this is a car. People are buying without experiencing.
I'd have to go off personal recommendations.
And so far, everyone I know loves driving them.
They're fun to drive.
But we have a family friend who got the first roadster.
So we saw that. And that got us into Tesla.
For the Tesla naysayers, what I'd suggest is sit in the car.
Drive it. Once I drove it, I was convinced.
I evem. all I did was drive it really quick in a parking lot and I knew I
wanted it. That's all you need.
You need butts in seats.
And the car sells itself.
A more public example that happen in the past week is Cramer, who's been
very critical and open of Tesla.
Finally ended up driving one because his wife wanted to buy one.
And his comments and his talk and even his price target on Tesla has
completely changed.
I can't tell whether your newfound love for Tesla's price is sardonic or
honest.
No, it's wife.
It's wife.
Wife and kids. The wife and kids have warn me down.
You know, we were in the Model X this weekend and she just said, OK,
enough with the balance sheet.
The people we talked with also spoke highly of Tesla's tech and the
Cybertruck specific specs.
When I first heard of electric, it was like, what is that?
Why would I want that?
The only thing I had in my mind about what electric was was a Prius,
right? Which is always the car in the left lane on the freeway, slowing me
down. It wasn't a positive perception.
But then when I experience the product, it was like, oh my gosh, this is
so next level that it's not even fair to call this thing a car.
The reason I say that is because when you say the term car, what comes to
mind to people does not match what the Tesla delivers, especially when you
add the autonomy piece in it or the partial autonomy piece with autopilot.
It's such a completely different experience that what comes up to my when
you say the word car isn't a fair description of a Tesla.
One of the biggest things that Tesla offers, and I think it makes it hard
for most Tesla owners to ever seriously consider making the jump right now
is auto pilot. I think the Mach-E is a very compelling car.
The fact that it has to rely on other supercharging networks and not its
own and Tesla supercharging network is very vast, especially in states
like California. So that's one of the downsides of Mach-E.
But let's assume that that will ultimately be negated by Electrify America
and some of the other systems. Auto pilot is the big thing that these
other automakers are lacking.
And auto pilot is actually what brought me to the Tesla brand in the first
place. So until somebody has something comparable or better than
autopilot, I'm not going anywhere from Tesla.
And you know for sure what Tesla, you're always getting over their
updates. They're always working to get new software in your vehicles.
So you know that with Tesla, you know what you're getting into when Tesla
versus with Ford you don't really know much about, are they gonna be doing
over the air type stuff yet?
Tesla's goal is to accelerate the advent of sustainable energy and
transportation, and I think they're going to build more battery pack
systems to store energy, more solar panels.
The whole goal is to be different because of everything was still the
same, everyone still be driving ICE vehicles and not be transitioning to
electric and sustainable energy sources.
Tesla set some benchmarks and the other companies are working to to meet
those benchmarks. And that's great for not only us, but hopefully for our
environment, hopefully we treat that to where we can be able to, you know,
reduce the usage and take care of things better.
It's really cool to be a part of, you know, history and seeing all this
stuff. You know, as a kid, you see all this on TV and you're like, oh,
that will never happen in my lifetime.
But seeing it actually happen is really great.
It's gonna be exciting to find out how the world ultimately responds to
the Cybertruck once this product starts shipping.
And I'm really interested to see this play out because the Cybertruck is
one of those designs that you see at car shows.
One of those futuristic vehicles that never gets made.
You know, we always get that like, oh, these are the cars of the future
but the cars of the future never actually show up.
We got one of those cars of the future here.
So I'm excited to see how the world responds, because if this catches on,
this whole cyberpunk thing could end up becoming a modern element of 2020
and 2025 designs.
So I'm really just excited to see where this goes.