My CyberTruck Questions + Constructive Criticism

 

My CyberTruck Questions

And Improvement Ideas Lists

Hi Everybody!

I still have many unanswered questions about CyberTruck so I decided to created this formal FAQ, which I will updated as soon as I am able to answer them. For the record, I went to my local Tesla showroom today and spoke with the manger and asked him all 15 questions and he didn't know the answer to one question, and I seemed to know more than he did. This is a source of great frustration for me, and kind of a buzzkill, but that is the price we pay if we are interested in being at the cutting edge of the cutting edge:

I ordered a CyberTruck within the first 5 minutes of Tesla opening up for pre-orders and I received an invitation today for one of the my two orders.

Question 1: From what I can tell the $7,500 tax credit only applies to the Dual Motor motor as the IRS limit is $80K. Tesla.com states the limit of $80K “includes all optional equipment attached to the vehicle at time of purchase.” So I assume this means the Foundation Series "LIMITED EDITION" Dual Motor does NOT qualify for the $7,500. Is this correct?

Question 2: My understanding is beginning on January 1, 2024, the $7,500 rebate will be automatically applied at the time of purchase, but before then it is not. Does anybody know the answer to this question? [Yes. The rebate is applied at time of purchase after January 1st, 2024]

Question 3: If you don’t order your CyberTruck within a certain timeframe will Tesla remove your ability to order, or do you keep your place in line indefinitely?

Question 4: I know a lot of people really like the “white decor” interior panels, but my preference would be to have the interior be all black. I heard Tesla plans to offer an all black interior, and I wonder if anybody has heard when Tesla plans to offer this option?

Question 5: Speaking of the FOUNDATION SERIES, Tesla refers to this as a “LIMITED EDITION”, but what does this mean? I think I heard somebody say the first 1,000 CyberTrucks will we part of this, but has anybody heard anything more on this subject?

Question 6: Is Tesla still incorporating the $50K penalty if you sell your CyberTruck in the first year? If so is this limited to Founders Series, Foundation Series, or all CyberTrucks sold within the first year?

Question 7: How does the Powershare Home Backup Mobile connector work, and how much will it cost if purchased separately? How much is it by itself? and what else is required to make it work? I heard it requires a Tesla Powerwall battery pack. Is this true, and if so does anybody know how much the total cost will be to implement this option?

Question 8: Does anybody know how long the charging cable that comes with the CyberTruck is? [Apparently Tesla's no longer come standard with the portable charging cable, but the Foundation Series CyberTruck does include one that is 20 feet long.]

Question 9: Does the CyberTruck SoftClose like a Model X door, meaning if you bring it within 2 inches of closing will it grab the door and close it? [Yes. I have confirmed that the CyberTruck doors auto-open, and if you close the door to within a few inches, it will grab the door and auto-close it.]

Question 10: I purchased a Model S just over a year ago, and I bought the FSD. I am thinking about trading-in my Model S, but if I do so will Tesla give me a pro-rated trade-in value, or allow me to transfer it to the CyberTruck? I realize this is likely a sticky issue, but in all fairness, it would be a total turn-off if I would be out $15K. Tesla.com/tradein [I went to Tesla.com/tradein and put in the information and it offered me around $25K less than they offer to sell me the exact same vehicle for, without FSD!?!?!?!?!?!. This obviously does not make me happy, but it is what it is. The Tesla manager pointed out that if you trade in your car in our state, the amount of the trade-in is deducted from the sales tax amount, since you already paid it. For example, if you got a trade-in of $55k, on an $80K purchase you would not pay sales tax on the first $55k].

Question 11: When will Tesla offer CyberTruck test drives? As much faith as I have in Tesla, it feels really strange being asked to spend $100K on a vehicle you can’t test drive?

Question 12: When will Tesla allow potential customers to sit in the car in the showroom and play with it?

Question 13: What is the 0-60MPH time for the Tri-Motor model WITHOUT Rollout, Cheetah stance, and launch mode? I think it's deceptive and unfair for Tesla to publish the Tri-Motor 0-60MPH WITH Rollout at 2.6 seconds, but for the Dual Motor they say 4.1 WITHOUT Rollout. They should publish BOTH WITHOUT ROLLOUT!!!!

Question 14: Does adding the lightbar on top of the CyberTruck affect the range, and if so by how much? Also, does anybody know how much it will cost?

Question 15: Will CyberTruck come standard with Autopilot, or will you have to pay for it?  Also, will CyberTruck offer Enhanced Autopilot, and if so how much will it cost? I think I saw something that said “Enhanced Autopilot would be $6,000 and include Navigate of Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, Summon and Smart Summon.” Tesla.com says that Full Self-Driving is $12,000 for a Model X and:

Your car will be able to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention and will continuously improve

* All functionality of Basic Autopilot and Enhanced Autopilot

* Autosteer on city streets

* Traffic Light and Stop Sign Control

Can anybody confirm or elaborate on this?

Question 16: How much will the Bigger 35” tires cost when you can order everything Ala carte?

Question 17: What is the current Tesla Interest rate for CyberTruck for people who have excellent credit? [Around 6%] 

Question 18: Do the side rearview mirrors auto-collapse when the car locks itself using the self-locking when walk away feature? [Yes. Which is great because that way you have an easy visual indication to let you know all the doors are locked on the CyberTruck. I also discovered the side rearview mirrors are heated, so if you can condensation on your mirrors it will melt away.] On a side note, I really think the side mirrors would have looked great if Tesla had built-in turning signals into the side mirrors like Rivian did.

Question 19: Are the CyberTruck's front seats seatbelt tensioners adjustable so you can move them up and down so they don't jab your neck? [From what I have seen, they appear to be! Unlike the Model S, which is fixed and drives me nuts sometimes as it often times just hits me the wrong way, which is uncomfortable.

Question 20: Why cant the CyberTrucks RGB LED ambient light strip in the vehicle change colors over time like the Mercedes EQS does? The CyberTruck allows you to select ONE color manually at a time, so you can have it glow in red, or blue or pink or green, but you can't have it automatically change colors, and or cycle/chase through colors like the new Mercedes EQS can, where it's almost doing a multimedia light show in the car, which is pretty cool. Hopefully Tesla will be able to enhance this functionality in the future thought a software update.

My CyberTruck Improvement Ideas 

I am a designer, and a Tesla fanatic, and I decided to put together this list of things I think should be improved on the CyberTruck:

Idea 1: Tesla should offer an option that would allow customer to have rear screens on the back of each front seat. Basically, like being able to attach an iPad. The current setup with the single screen on center is TERRIBLE for many reasons. If people in the back seat want to watch video content, they have to sit in an extremely awkward position with their neck cranked over and downward, which is an ergonomic nightmare.

Idea 2: The front camera has a washer, but for some bizarre reason the rear camera does not, so if it gets too dirty, you can't see out of it. This is a blunders mistake, and Tesla should add a washer to the rear camera. A lack of rear washer is so stupid as the cameras are supposed to be like human eyes, but human eyes are constantly being cleaned and washed automatically with lubricant called water. In my opinion all 6 cameras on the CyberTruck should AUTOMATICALLY and regularly wash and clean themselves, like a cat. Don't forget, if the camera view gets obstructed FSD won't work, which make no sense.

Tesla needs to better understand the CyberTruck is a Luxury car, and with trying to save a few bucks here and there with things like the windshield wipers being controlled by the front camera, or failing to put a washer on all cameras is ridiculous. It’s like Tesla ran the ball down to the 2 yard line and stopped!?!! In my option this is completely nonsensical.

Idea 3: The power open/close frunk is awesome and long overdue. That being said, Tesla should add the feature like Mercedes offers where if you wave your foot under the front bumper it will open the frunk. This way if you are carrying groceries or anything that require both hands, you won't have to put it down on the ground, but could easily open the frunk by waiving your foot. Tesla, could even build in a feature where if you press the front license plate area, while standing in front of the car, it would open the frunk.

Idea 4: The steering wheel in the current Model S and X was horrible as the horn was activated by pressing a tiny button, and the turning signals were turned into haptic buttons on the steering wheel. 

The CyberTruck fixed these features by making it so if you press on the airbag area in the center of the steering wheel, it will not honk the horn, and they also made all the buttons on the steering wheel physically buttons that actually move when pressed. That being said, the Yoke on the Model S and X was made using a stitchless method. I think they used glue, but when they replaced the Yoke with a steering wheel they put the stitching in the WRONG place. Specifically they moved the sticking backwards to make the steering wheel look cleaner, but not your fingers constantly touch the stitching which is really Uncomfortable. I hope this was fixed with the CyberTruck steering wheel. 

Idea 5: ELON: Fix the Fucking automatic windshield wipers so they work??? It never ceases to amaze me that my Tesla can drive across town AUTOMATICALLY on its own, door-to-door, but the stupid windshield wipers when placed in AUTOMATIC do everything backward. In other words, it's common that it will be pouring rain and the automatic windshield wipers don't activate at all, or move very slowly. Then when the windshield is dry, and there is no rain, they go full speed ahead. 

The broken/defectively designed automatic Tesla windshield wipers consistently doing the exact opposite of what they are supposed to do would be the equivalent of an automatic (autonomous) car that regularly drives into traffic on red lights, and stops for no reason on green lights. 

The Tesla windshield wiper fiasco began when Elon was reviewing features on the Model 3, trying to figure out how to remove unnecessary parts. Elon reasoned that if a Tesla could drive by using the cameras, the front camera on the windshield should be able to see and gauge how much rain is falling on the windshield and adjust the windshield wipers accordingly, but it failed miserably and does not work.

Ironically, my P85D Tesla I purchased almost a decade ago had a rain sensor on the windshield wiper and the automatic windshield wipers worked perfectly, but on the Model 3, Model Y and Model S, the automatic windshield wiper works about as effectively as a severely drunken person. Hopefully Tesla finally fixed this with the CyberTruck. If not, Tesla, you need to either stop what you are doing and fix this problem or offer a retrofit that goes back to the old fashioned method that worked perfectly.

So how is it possible that Tesla could go all these years without noticing or fixing this issue? I think it's because they are so focused on FSD, that they put little or not resources into solving the windshield wiper performance issue. Also, I think that most Tesla engineers live in climates like in California where it doesn't rain much, so the are not aware of how bad the windshield wiper automatic performance really is.

Idea 6: I am certain I am preaching to the choir when I say that in two way the CyberTruck was launched as a minimum viable product in the sense the maximum range is only 340 miles, and that is if you drive the dual motor model with all season tires at 55MPH on the freeway. In the real world this vehicle has a true range of around only 250 miles which is way too low. My understanding is Tesla is aware of this fact as the performance of the 4680 has fallen short of where Tesla was hoping to be at this point in history. Also, the initial pricing for the "FOUNDATION" series is a turn off and seems like a cash grab. I understand why Tesla did this, but I don't think it's very cool...

Idea 7: Since the CyberTruck is a complete fingerprint magnet, I think it would behoove Tesla to offer a clear PPF option, so it would be like a new generation stainless steel refrigerator that does not show fingerprints. I think ideally, CyberTrucks should come standard with the clear-coat finish like a modern appliance does, but if it would be too labor intensive to include, they could offer it as an option.

Idea 8: Why doesn't Tesla modify the CyberTruck to the front daytime running light-bar can act as a turning signal indicator? In other words, when you turn from left to right, the LEDs could Chase across the front driving light bar to indicated high direction you are turning, which would look super cool.