Cybertruck BIW body-in-white frames with front/rear castings 🤩 [7/11/23]

[QuanTim]

Not that I should be talking but…

Does it count as a summation if it’s TLDR?

I read your "novel" too, also very good

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[ED_SFO]

Looks are though they are saving cost by making the side frames out of stamped steel. No wonder the first frame spy shots showed the frame painted white. Looks like they're making great progress.

 

[Crissa]

Why not the exoskeleton?

It's just the safety capsule. Not sure it really even qualifies as a body in white, with as little that's on it.

This is the part of the exoskeleton that interfaces with the wheels, motors, doors and windows. It needs to be made from stiff, thicker pieces.

-Crissa

 

[charliemagpie]

I'm guessing Tesla has used state of the art AI and some of the world's best engineers, lead by arguably the world's best engineer, to come up with the Cybertruck.

Good luck trying to get even close.

Seriously, it is a generation ahead, and will by sheer force do the same to the truck industry as what the Model Y did to the Corolla.

 

[Crissa]

I don’t see the exoskeleton design. The BIW appears to be very traditional.

So aside from the safety cage, what parts are traditional?

How did you imagine the exoskeleton would interface with the drive train and the doors?

I never get an answer to that from the 'it's not an exoskeleton' crowd.

-Crissa

PS... Do we know the magic dock roll-out was stopped? Because they continued to add stations in New York this year, where they were required to get the state and federal funding.

 

[Throwcomputer]

Will y'all stop it with the "exoskeleton" references?!? They're meaningless!!! Every car without a cross braced roll cage can be called "exoskeleton". Anything that Tesla produces can be argued to fit the loose definition of exoskeleton. There is no legal definition of the term in relation to automobiles that can be referenced to declare that a unibody, or stamped metal and castings covered with non-structural metal, or even body on frame construction is inconsistent with Elon's comment. So long as it doesn't have bones on the inside covered with tendons, ligaments, muscle and skin, exoskeleton fits. ?

Confirmed.

 

[Greshnab]

It's getting good around here. Almost everyday we're getting photos and leaks. Can't wait to see them rolling down the ramp at GFTX! They won't be able to hide them, lol.

I am looking forward to seeing that also.. HOWEVER, i suspect they have a staging area they can store a ton of em in.. and leave em under cover till they WANT us to see them.

be KEWL if they did that .. then left the blinds up and told JOE so he can get a night time shop with a to o CT's sitting there in staging.

 

[FarAway]

One of the continuing and more expensive costs of CT ownership will be insurance. A major factor in the cost of collision insurance will be how expensive it is to repair the CT after a wreck.

Curious about what others think. I am wondering how difficult (or easy) body work will be on a CT after an accident. It seems like there will be lots of bending and twisting forces that could carry through the entire "sub frame" indo/exoskeleton. Body shops will need lots of new techniques, tools and jigs. Any body repairs, at my initial estimate, look to be significantly more difficult and therefore much more expensive than traditionally designed vehicles.

 

[Baldey]

I don’t see the exoskeleton design. The BIW appears to be very traditional.

As many others who quoted this have said, this does not look traditional. Looks pretty weak, as it should. The exoskeleton was never meant to provide most of the structure, but it was meant to contribute to it. It was meant to enable what is essentially a monocoque design to compete in hauling capability.

3mm steel is rigid, can't get around that fact. It is also heavy, so it needs to contribute to structure in a positive way instead of just hanging like dead weight as traditional body panels would do. Or it defeats the point. How much the exoskeleton contributes we will not know until specs/tear-downs are out, for which i can not wait!

 

[charliemagpie]

One of the continuing and more expensive costs of CT ownership will be insurance. A major factor in the cost of collision insurance will be how expensive it is to repair the CT after a wreck.

Curious about what others think. I am wondering how difficult (or easy) body work will be on a CT after an accident. It seems like there will be lots of bending and twisting forces that could carry through the entire "sub frame" indo/exoskeleton. Body shops will need lots of new techniques, tools and jigs. Any body repairs, at my initial estimate, look to be significantly more difficult and therefore much more expensive than traditionally designed vehicles.

IF casting is the bottleneck, I guess sacrificing a front end for a repair job we have sold 1 less potential new Cybertruck.

Replacing either end could end up expensive.

If we have surplus castings, no paint, no putty, no sanding, no painting..no engine repair(maybe).. 2 day job plus parts.

 

[Mini2nut]

I’m guessing that Tesla will use structural adhesives to attach the rear SS quarter panels to the aluminum Giga casting.

 

[E-raticProphet]

One of the continuing and more expensive costs of CT ownership will be insurance. A major factor in the cost of collision insurance will be how expensive it is to repair the CT after a wreck.

Curious about what others think. I am wondering how difficult (or easy) body work will be on a CT after an accident. It seems like there will be lots of bending and twisting forces that could carry through the entire "sub frame" indo/exoskeleton. Body shops will need lots of new techniques, tools and jigs. Any body repairs, at my initial estimate, look to be significantly more difficult and therefore much more expensive than traditionally designed vehicles.

Tesla owns an insurance business, they will make a product that can be repaired. If you manage to crack the frame the truck will be totaled like anything else. Otherwise the parts Tesla puts together to make the CyberTruck can be replaced to fix the CyberTruck. There are Tesla engineers with the primary responsibility of focusing on figuring how out it’ll be fixed and creating instructions for Tesla and 3rd party body shops.

 

[CyberGus]

Any body repairs, at my initial estimate, look to be significantly more difficult and therefore much more expensive than traditionally designed vehicles.

This describes all Teslas.

 

[PilotPete]

For the Pro-Exo and Anti-Exo crowd.

The term “Exoskeleton” doesn’t apply to inanimate objects, it applies to animals. So Elon, in a moment of marketing prowess, adapted the term to apply to the CT design and construction. As it has never applied to a truck before, it means WHATEVER the original author meant it to mean. You can debate what it should mean in your eyes until the cows come home to roost, but it means whatever the originator meant it to mean. Had he trademarked it (if he didn’t, I haven’t looked) then it would legally mean whatever he wanted it to mean.

So we can argue about crustaceans and tendons and how the insides of a CT would taste with drawn butter all day long. The fact is, the term, as applied to a CT, is that it is a construction and design philosophy that is different from the traditional “frame and ladder” design of a pickup truck.

 

[HaulingAss]

One of the continuing and more expensive costs of CT ownership will be insurance. A major factor in the cost of collision insurance will be how expensive it is to repair the CT after a wreck.

Curious about what others think. I am wondering how difficult (or easy) body work will be on a CT after an accident. It seems like there will be lots of bending and twisting forces that could carry through the entire "sub frame" indo/exoskeleton. Body shops will need lots of new techniques, tools and jigs. Any body repairs, at my initial estimate, look to be significantly more difficult and therefore much more expensive than traditionally designed vehicles.

Modern vehicles are totaled if they roll-over or are impacted at typical crash speeds of 30 mph and above. Cybertruck will survive fender-benders in a similar manner to any other vehicle because the rails on the front and rear castings are designed to be replaceable.

What really pushes up insurance rates are injuries and the rate of accidents. Because the Cyberturck will be more maneuverable and much harder to roll than a typical truck, and have far more effective accident-avoidance technologies, the accident rate will be much lower. And the superior strength and lack of roll-overs will greatly reduce injuries and deaths which is what can push insurance claims up to the policy limits. The cost of the vehicle is peanuts compared to that.

It looks to me that the cost to insure the Cybertruck will be less, not more. Keeping people safe and out of hospitals is priceless when it comes to insurance rates. Look at those castings forming the bed wings. Once they are wrapped in 3mm thick, cold-rolled stainless steel, they will act like a roll-cage in severe accidents where the truck does actually get flipped on it's roof. How many legacy trucks have roll-cages integrated into the cab to protect the human lives? If third party insurers quote a high price, check out Tesla Insurance, that's exactly why they decided to go into the insurance business, to keep legacy insurers honest.

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