Last Thursday, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) unveiled Cybertruck, an electric pickup truck. The presentation was intended to demonstrate the durability of cybertruck, even to show that the truck is bulletproof. Unfortunately, things didn't go as planned.
"Doesn't look like anything else!" Musk said as the vehicle came out on stage at the presentation, located at a Tesla facility in Hawthorne, California. The visual quality is quite unique compared to other vehicles.
According to Tesla, Cybertruck has a "nearly impenetrable exoskeleton." It's even made of the same "ultra-hard" stainless steel alloy used on SpaceX's Starship rocket, according to Market Watch.
As part of the demonstration, the door was struck with a sledgehammer, which seemingly caused no damage. Later, a steel ball was thrown at the window. That unfortunately left a large crack in the window. The ball was thrown again, against the back window, to the same effect.
Musk explained to the presentation audience, "We threw wrenches, we threw everything even literally the kitchen sink at the glass and it didn't break. For some weird reason, it broke now ... I don't know why. We will fix it in post."
Later, Musk tweeted more of an explanation to his followers. "Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn't bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door. Next time ..."
Despite cybertruck's underwhelming debut, Musk claimed that Tesla had orders. At first he claimed 146,000 orders, then later he said that number was up to 200,000. However, CNBC pointed out that Musk may have been conflating "orders" with "preorders." Still, even preorders can be encouraging and could indicate Tesla may not be entirely suffering despite Cybertruck's clumsy reveal.
Cybertruck offers autopilot, can go from 0-60 MPH in "as little as 2.9 seconds," and the single motor RWD model is going for less than $40,000 to start.