If you could request three factory add-ons, what would they be?

[Cybertruck Hawaii]

I don't think I'd ever get my spouse out of the truck then. With 120v for her amp, she could drink coke, tea, and play her guitar all night long without bothering anyone.

-Crissa

What goes in has to come out in two hours human waste. A portable toilet will be in order.

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[Cybertruck Hawaii]

A welded in basket for my watermelon so that it doesn’t roll around in the bed of the pickup truck as I make the turns.

 

[Crissa]

You need to explain what you mean by this.
I have a PM motor on my desk at work. With nothing connected to its power cables I can spin the shaft easily by hand. I'm not saying you're wrong. Just asking for clarification on what you mean.

It has more rolling resistance than a disengaged physical clutch. But it's still less than when it's energized.

And no some EVs do send power to the motor to emulate the creep in an automatic transmission. I think that's stupid, since it wastes power, reduces stopping distance in an emergency, and causes accidents like that which killed actor Anton Yelchin.

If that human with cruise control is me, I will beat the cruise control by never activating it. Because there are dips in the road and breezes are not always steady. A mindless machine that varies the throttle setting to hold an exact speed is not as efficient as a human that allows the subtle effects of a gust of wind or ...

Dude, no. You are not saving gas, you're making up just-so stories for yourself. Learn how to use cruise control, when to activate it, when to deactivate it, when to modulate its control with the up/down functions between hills.

Refusing to learn how to use tools doesn't make you more efficient. It's just dumb.

-Crissa

 

[larryboy31]

A QR Code sticker that people can scan so that I won’t have to keep on repeating myself about my newly purchased Cybertruck experience. I just know that it’s going to turn heads in public.

When I thought I was going to get an Elio I suggested that the company give owners a batch of small cards that had answers to common questions, a web address and phone #. My Elio never happened but I was not discouraged. I made the same suggestion to Aptera and Tesla. I like to shoot the bull as well as anyone, but I could see a situation where I had groceries (think ice cream) in the vehicle and a real nice friendly person wanted to ask a million questions. I could give him/her a card and make my escape without being rude. I realize that Elon does not have to advertise now but he may well need to in the future. If each CT left the factory with 25 of these cards in the glove compartment it would be darn cheap advertising even if only 10% were ever handed out.

 

[John K]

New vehicles come with LED headlights and it’s against the law for me to modify my 22 year old van with LED headlights in Hawaii. That’s forces me to trade in my clunker for a new Cybertruck.

Perfectly valid justification for the purchase. Stupid law but as great as a reason as any for purchase.

 

[John K]

When I thought I was going to get an Elio I suggested that the company give owners a batch of small cards that had answers to common questions, a web address and phone #. My Elio never happened but I was not discouraged. I made the same suggestion to Aptera and Tesla. I like to shoot the bull as well as anyone, but I could see a situation where I had groceries (think ice cream) in the vehicle and a real nice friendly person wanted to ask a million questions. I could give him/her a card and make my escape without being rude. I realize that Elon does not have to advertise now but he may well need to in the future. If each CT left the factory with 25 of these cards in the glove compartment it would be darn cheap advertising even if only 10% were ever handed out.

Phone trigger boom box, “You have 30 seconds to step away from the Cybertruck before being electrocuted.”

Give a helpless shrug the feature cannot be turn off, get in and drive away.

 

[Bill906]

I mean the magnets do not spin freely, without resistance. When the motor is turning, it is either in regen braking or it is being actively powered. There is no coasting freely.

Yes, a PM motor can spin freely. If you spin a PM motor it produces a voltage across the leads. If that voltage has a path for current to flow the amount of current will dictate the resistance. If the motor on my desk has its three leads not touching anything, the shaft spins freely. If I short them all together, the shaft can only be turned very slowly.

It has more rolling resistance than a disengaged physical clutch. But it's still less than when it's energized.

I would guess the rolling resistance of a coasting electric motor woudn't be any more than the rolling resistance of an automatic transmission in an ICE car when the driver takes his foot off the accelerator pedal.

 

[Crissa]

I would guess the rolling resistance of a coasting electric motor woudn't be any more than the rolling resistance of an automatic transmission in an ICE car when the driver takes his foot off the accelerator pedal.

Really depends on the automatic. Most leave an amount of creep in, some stay in the highest gear, some have even less (like the fluid-drive).

What you really want to avoid is that amount of regen that's too low to charge your traction battery but higher than your minimum coast.

Internal resistance, circuit capacitance, etc; On my Zero that's a curve from about 0-25; with 15 getting reasonable regen but anything below that might as well scrub with real brakes. Efficiency isn't just about least energy, there are curves and other drivers on the road, too.

And of course you want to avoid having to put speed back on that you just regen'd off, which is why throttle holds and cruise control are always better than without. Of course, regen is preferable to actual brakes! But coasting is better than regen.

-Crissa

 

[HaulingAss]

Dude, no. You are not saving gas, you're making up just-so stories for yourself. Learn how to use cruise control, when to activate it, when to deactivate it, when to modulate its control with the up/down functions between hills.

Refusing to learn how to use tools doesn't make you more efficient. It's just dumb.

-Crissa

Duuude....please think before calling me that. I do not live in California. LOL!

Seriously though, I hypermile for fun, it's like a contest, saving energy is just a side-effect, not the driving force. Which is a good thing because the savings I can extract by driving manually (vs. cruise control) are really inconsequentially small. Yes, I know how to use cruise control and when it costs me the least hit to my efficiency (which is NOT descending grades) but lately I tend to only use it when I want to relax and focus on other things.

What is dumb is criticizing me for not knowing how to use cruise control without knowing anything about my use of cruise control. I have learned the subtle differences between the cruise controls of numerous cars including the Model 3. Some cars cruise control is less inefficient than others. Fun fact: I can drive considerably more efficiently manually than Autopilot can. That means I have about 30 miles more range if I drive manually. The advantage narrows when comparing manual driving to the Model 3 cruise control (but it's still there).

Yes, I know, common "wisdom" is to use cruise control to save energy. And it can help most people save quite a bit of energy. It does this primarily in two ways (listed in order of importance):

1) Preventing "speed creep". Most drivers have a natural tendency to let the speed creep up. It must be related to "get there itis". Cruise control prevents this 100%.

2) Maintaining a steady speed rather than surging/coasting. Cruise control is better at this than most drivers in most conditions.

However, a skilled driver who is driving for maximum efficiency should not have speed creep and can outperform cruise control because all highways have breezes and slight variations in grade that cause the cruise control to take small, almost insignificant action. Cruise controls have become more refined over the years, but even modern ones are not perfect. Cruise control is never used in EPA tests and is not reflected in the MPG figures so manufacturers have little reason to spend a lot of resources to get that last little bit of efficiency out of them. Under the simplest conditions they do quite well and it's difficult to beat them (matching them is not hard) but it only takes some light and variable breezes or subtle changes in grade to uncover their little weaknesses.

 

[HaulingAss]

Yes, a PM motor can spin freely. If you spin a PM motor it produces a voltage across the leads. If that voltage has a path for current to flow the amount of current will dictate the resistance. If the motor on my desk has its three leads not touching anything, the shaft spins freely. If I short them all together, the shaft can only be turned very slowly.

There are literally hundreds of different motor designs with permanent magnets and their characteristics vary hugely.

 

[Crissa]

You need to use a cruise control not made by one of the big three US manufacturers for the US market. I know Chevy's sucks... Never let it shift, for instance, or it'll throttle up just as you get to the peak of a hill.

But that's not true of anything Japanese or European, where these devices are measured.

And you admitted yourself that it works to hold the throttle in the right situations.

That's the difference between with and without. With is better than without.

And no, there's no 'light breeze'. You're not a bird. You can't see the wind or react to it as fast as modern computerized throttle control. You can't measure the distance between you and traffic in microseconds. This isn't ten, twenty years ago.

-Crissa

 

[Ogre]

A QR Code sticker that people can scan so that I won’t have to keep on repeating myself about my newly purchased Cybertruck experience. I just know that it’s going to turn heads in public.

I just planned on pulling up and using the megaphone to tell people about all the features every time I stop.

 

[Crissa]

I get cornered about my Zero all the time. I'm like almost every cyclist and pedestrians' friend. And motorists seem very binary on whether they hate my quick bike that filters through and outpaces them... Or if they love that it's not noisy and they can talk at me.

-Crissa

 

[Challeco]

1) Fold flat front seats for sleeping
2) Refrigerated frunk
3) Recessed roof mounts, so when I camp I can screw in eye-bolts to attach tarps to create a shady area or string lights or…anything

I love the Refrigerated Frunk idea! As for the roof mounts, I would just like to have a couple of magnetic steel rails under the stainless skin. This way magnet based clamps/tie downs could be used in specified areas for such ideas without the break in the skin.
As for fold flat front seats, add in fold flat rear seats and a pass through to the vault.

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