Cybertruck engineer: things we learned with Cybertruck in Baja and will bring via OTA

Wes Morrill, chief engineer of the Cybertruck, had this to say after the Baja testing video was released (see below)

Curious about the windshield cracking after hitting the ditch. Not worried, but I wonder about how big of a ditch they hit as they did stop to inspect the rest of the truck for damage.

Im no inginiiir,
They found cracks along the bottom of the windshield. Could it be the front end wacked into the ditch face? Excess vibration or did the body warp ever so slightly but enough to crack the bottom of the windshield?.

Maybe offset the bottom of the windshield and also add a dampener to avoid future recurrence.

Just the force of slamming into the ground could've cracked the windshield without the body deflecting. And honestly, it doesn't take much of a ditch, just enough to do a full compact of the suspension by their speed.

But we did see them focus on that part in crash tests after the graffiti RCs were made.

-Crissa

there was that low speed collision earlier with another vehicle posted that the base of the windshield also cracked too.

Here is what they slammed into to crack the glass

It wasn't too much of a drop in the road. This is disturbing for the off-roading aspect.
How much does a new windshield cost?

TruckDaddy said:

It wasn't too much of a drop in the road. This is disturbing for the off-roading aspect.
How much does a new windshield cost?

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So, both CTs appeared to reach the destination, so no critical single point fsilures... Good Job CTekkies!

Administrator said:

In hardpack and light rocks we saw ~500wh/mi and when drifting in deep sand upwards of ~5000wh/mi."

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I'd like to see consumption on a trek accross the Simpson, with some nice fluffy bulldust. It's goin to be painful to find a charger every hour.

You might have less air to push along, but you're going to be doing a lot more digging with those wheels in sand.

I’m guessing the hood is causing this glass shatter during impact.. the glass is quite flexible, so body twist should not cause shatter in general..

Shatter at the leading edge of the glass however…

maybe they need to update their driving dynamics model to account for such load cases and deflections locally..

CyberT said:

Here is what they slammed into to crack the glass

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Impacting that in my F-150 loaded for such a trip, at that high of speed, would have bent the frame and collapsed the front suspension. The rear suspension would probably have survived, but may have caused me to lose control and leave the roadway (depending upon how perpendicular the ditch was to the direction of travel). That is the nature of leaf springs and solid axles.

This was a major error on the part of the driver who probably became too complacent after long hours on fast roads. Still, I bet Tesla adjusted the damping curves to reduce the liklihood of this happening. They also would also have inspected the damage closely to determine if the glass in that area could be mounted in such a way that it was less susceptible to breakage under hard impacts. A small dimensional change in the structure around the glass could potentially have big benefits in terms of handling larger impacts without damage.

I was out on a muddy road today and I can say the tires are not good for slick mud. I never looked into it before but I wasn't able to set up offroad, did you have a software patch for that?
There were times when I was on a level surface and the wheels would not turn because of no traction.

TruckDaddy said:

It wasn't too much of a drop in the road. This is disturbing for the off-roading aspect.

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Not really. The more speed you have, the more likely it is you're going to overwhelm the shocks and ground out.

Especially things you cross perpendicular.

-Crissa

anyone know if the truck has bumpstops or maybe not a thing on Air Susp?? Maybe replace with a nice set of hydraulic / more progressive ones? I know it's not a raptor / TRX but should be able to take a hit (within limits) without damage.

CyberT said:

Here is what they slammed into to crack the glass

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99% yahoo driver error but still not a good look for the Cybertruck.
The driver wearing a helmet and googles to drive dirt roads was a big tip off he was totally clueless.