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Most of the Jalopnik staff has been cautious to endorse Tesla and especially critical of the outlandish stuff Elon says. Justin writes a lot about trucks and car design so you can see why he’d be especially slow to appreciate the CT. Honestly that article doesn’t seem very biased - he’s just...

Or if storage is an issue you could at least have another track with the option to roll the single cover fore or aft. This would be useful when camping (when the solar would be most useful) since most campers will require that the vault cover be retracted.

I agree, he talks more like a Musk parrot than a market analyst. I can easily imagine the words “different technology orbit” coming directly from Elon. Maybe he was really impressed by the exoskeleton tech? I’m hoping it means the CT will be using next gen batteries, or some other revelation we...

Looks interesting, but seems like mostly vaporware for now. I can’t find any pricing info on their very poor website. I can find very strange pr descriptions though...

Sounds like the CT will provide security peace of mind for you and your gear. That can be worth a lot if you are in a dangerous area. However I don’t know that this is gonna save you any money, at least as a means to the end goal of building a tiny house. $5-10K will get you a decent used...

Main problem with Rivian is price. But other than that I really like it. If the 400mi Rivian was competitive on price per mile range (about $60K) I would strongly consider it over a CT. My main reasons are size (I don’t need a 6.5’ bed) and the quad motor setup (not only for tank turn party...

I think we are talking about 2 different things. Backing up with a trailer attached is easy enough once you figure out turn right to go left. Backing up to a trailer (to align the ball hitch) is different and often you need a spotter to tell you when to stop. I’m hoping Tesla has multiple...

Actually it can be very useful off-road. Many Jeep trails are very tight with brush or rocks or cliffs on the sides and no shoulder. I have personally gotten to spots where I couldn’t continue (rough trail, or tree fallen across) and needed to reverse a half mile to find a spot for a 6-point...

I’m hoping the CT has some way to vector torque at each axle. Something like the e-twinster system from GKN that has two independent clutch packs per axle. If it had that front and rear, they could implement the “two powered wheel” tank turn that you describe on either the dual or tri-motor.

I’d like that too, but I wonder if Tesla will figure out that they can monetize range. Tie the battery to the trim level and not offer independent battery upgrade, so more people pay $20K extra for the third motor that they don’t want. Similar to the way Apple has monetized storage on the...

Actually reading about Land Rover Terrain Response it sounds like they have a locking front and rear differential that can be adjusted intelligently. They have also added a “twinster” system on the Evoque that is also used on my Focus RS to provide torque vectoring to each rear wheel. It is more...

... the pattern is that those unibody vehicles all have triangle shaped supports connecting the cab to the bed. Sounds like you’ll be happier with a F150 EV when that comes out, and that is fine. Just don’t expect the shape of the CT to change much.

“Plenty of trucks” (in fact nearly all) are not unibody. In fact if you look closely, the bed is not connected to the cab at all. They are both bolted to a heavy steel ladder frame. Then they move independently of each other as the frame flexes. Tesla could have done that but it would have...

Rivian has a motor for each wheel which seems ideal for off-road traction. CT gives us the option of 1-3 motor so there will always be a motor powering 2 wheels. Any idea how this is managed? Other Teslas have an open diff, which I think has an e-diff function of braking the slipping wheel to...

You would not only sacrifice range you would also sacrifice strength. This is a unibody vehicle (no frame underneath like a normal truck) which means the strength/rigidity comes from the shape. Triangles are strong, L-shapes are not. This is the same reason the 1st gen Honda Ridgeline had “sail...

Thanks. And is that with the Tesla garage charger?

Yes, I brought up the back-in superchargers in another thread. Elon has said that they will be adding more pull-through superchargers, but unless they build huge gas-stations full that isn’t a great answer IMO. Most people towing will have large batteries and need over an hour to charge. If you...

Whether it will have next gen batteries is an important question. Seems like 2-3 years may be when Tesla is ready to sell their improved Li-ion “pouch” battery, and other manufacturers may rolling out solid state batteries. I’d hate to spend $70K on a huge 200kw-h battery only to have them...

Laser wiper sounds cool but I wonder if it’s ready for prime-time. They also patented an electromagnetic single wiper to slide back and forth: https://www.google.com/amp/s/cleantechnica.com/2019/09/30/new-tesla-patent-an-electromagnetic-windshield-wiper-system/amp/

...and also be better off-road. Of course wheelbase has trade-offs but I’m not too worried about it. Currently it is 5in longer than the comparable F150 so it could afford to lose a little.