Cybertruck Drive!

 As some of my regular readers may know, I have had a Tesla Cybertruck on reservation for several years, and have actually received a couple of emails from Tesla inviting me to configure and order a truck. In all likelihood, I won't end up with one for reasons noted below, but had the chance to do a demo drive last week.

Even though I see them quite frequently now, almost daily, I still really like the truck. Many of those that I see are wrapped, black being the most popular but I've seen a rainbow of colors. 

My son Rob and I took one out from the Lawrenceville NJ location. They had several available, all of them the dual motor model that lists for about $80,000. There were also a couple awaiting delivery which, as a stockholder, was nice to see...

The first impression you get from seeing a CT in person is that it's pretty big - certainly as large as a 'regular' full size truck, although the styling masks that a bit. And considering how angular it is, it's actually quite sleek with no exposed edges or anything sticking into the airstream other than the massive windshield wiper. The car is pretty quiet, with the little wind noise coming from with the wiper or the point of the roof above your head... Even at the 'entry' suspension setting, it is a bit of a climb to get into the cab. And once in, the view out the front is definitely a bit.... Odd. The top of the dashboard appears to recede into the distance, meeting the bottom of the flat windshield about half a mile away from you, or so it seems... It's a little disconcerting for sure and it takes a few minutes to acclimate. 

A big difference between this truck and my Model Y is that the steering column stalks are gone. All of the controls operated by them are on the spokes of the steering wheel, except the gear selector, which is on the left side of the display. Moving the controls off of the stalks definitely takes some getting used to. Fortunately, the horn is still in it's normal place.... To change from Park to Drive, you swipe up on the far-left section of the screen. Reverse is a swipe down, while for Park, to press and hold an icon on the screen. It's also equipped with AutoShift, where the car sense the direction to go when starting off, but I didn't try that out.

The rear 'vault cover' (bed cover on other trucks) is pretty cool. It's motorized using a switch on the top of the driver's side of the rear fender (and on the screen as well). It ratchets up and then down into a well behind the rear seats, exposing the 6 foot bed as well as a rear window in the cab (useless when the cover is closed). There is strip lighting along the sides of the bed and plenty of tie downs. There is also a trunk below the bed that is lockable. 

The front truck (frunk) isn't very deep but is the width of the truck, making it useful - I didn't test whether a golf bag would fit, but I guess you have the bed for that. But it's actually the perfect height for seat at a tailgate party....

I mentioned that the rear window is useless when the vault cover is closed (which will be most of the time to aid aerodynamics) - when closed, the rear camera is automatically turned on and appears in a strip above the map section of the screen, making it easy to see and very clear. You can see it in the sixth picture below. Cool feature.

The inside is very roomy - I'd say maybe 8 inches wider than my Model Y. Back seat is very large, and the seat bottom flips up against the seat back to create a lot of interior hauling space. And even with the slope of the rear part of the roof, there is a ton of headroom. 

I mentioned above that I am not going to get a Cybertruck, mostly because it's simply a bigger vehicle than I need, like any full-sized truck would be. I don't think it will fit in my garage and frankly, with the size battery it has (100 kWh-plus) that range should be better (currently rated at around 315 miles). Range isn't a deal breaker for me, as I've posted before, but the vehicle size means that it won't be as efficient as a smaller car and I hate the idea of lugging around a battery that's about 20% larger than my Model Y and getting the same range, if not a little worse. The size of my Model Y is perfect for me.