"Heretical" (since I am part of $TSLAQ Twitter) Tweet Thread to Commence below (1/12):

Some "positive" thoughts associated with the Cybertruck, which I need to expunge from my neural net into a Twitter thread

2/12

There are aspects of the Cybertruck design that are intriguing to me on a technical/business basis.

The design aesthetic still seems horrific and I don't have the expertise needed to vet the cost of the 301 stainless steel (SS) shell/body panels.

3/12

The 301 SS cost is 1 aspect of it that I am actually intrigued to explore further (or perhaps @evdefender or @phoennix10 or @CoverDrive12 or one of many other TSLAQ experts/semi-experts already have some insights), though my number of tabs-to-be-read has grown by 20+ today

4/12

The alleged/claimed synergy between the Starship's use of 301 SS and the Cybertruck's usage is something that seems plausible without exploring it deeply at all. This synergy is classic Musk as a claim, as it utilizes his multiple shells to rotate around as part of the game

5/12

Whether there are any issues with sharing resources between SpaceX and Tesla in regards to working with or developing an expertise w/ 301 SS is an interesting question, which reminds me of December 17th and 18th of 2018 cc: @evdefender & @realrobcopeland & @thielfellowship

6/12

Using nothing but flat panels should simplify the production of body panels immensely. They may be able to simply roll out huge sheets & figure out an optimized stamping pattern to best eliminate waste from that part. This aspect of the design actually almost makes me smile

7/12

Also, with the stainless steel and no painting, that eliminates one of the bottlenecks that has most plagued Tesla, which @Tweetermeyer has covered excellently. The air permit violations aspect of Tesla has been grossly undercovered by everyone else, unless I am mistaken.

8/12

So, the combination of what appear to be purely flat and unpainted body panels looks like it *could* eliminate one of the things that Tesla has been immensely poor at:

Body Work

9/12

The tales of multi-thousand dollar repairs for simple little dents in Tesla vehicles is something that seems utterly absurd on the surface, but may actually be somewhat legitimate due to the base design of the S, X, or 3 with the way the high voltage wiring is arranged.

10/12

This Cybertruck design could actually eliminate many of those complications.

Ignoring the claims that the panels are somehow superstrong (which was nicely debunked in this thread from @SheepleAnalytic ), https://twitter.com/SheepleAnalytic/status/1197936530049961984?s=20

11/12

Ignoring those claims, panels would still sometimes theoretically need to be replaced (theoretically because the whole truck is still so theoretical).

Flat and unpainted panels should be far easier to replace.

12/12

I have not explored the theoretical battery and motor configurations of the 3 variants, but those raise some other interesting questions. I am sure some other folks will dive into those aspects this weekend. https://twitter.com/tslaqpodcast/status/1197892478449442816?s=20

13/12 Random Personal Post-Script:

If my father & grandfather had done multi-thousand dollar body work repair jobs rather than my primary recollection being of a full car re-paint costing ~$400 circa early-1990's, my upbringing may have been a bit different

Yeah, inflation etc