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

[cybguy]

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.

Unless you have a Raptor or Tremor, no one pretends the F-150 is a off-road vehicle.

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[cybguy]

Here is what they slammed into to crack the glass

This was a complete joke. Besides some driving on the beach and some loose sand this was on dirt roads. I'm the first to admit my off-road needs are fairly limited. However it is beyond what is shown in this video.
These tech bros seem to have never driven in the desert. In both the Sonoran and Mojave desert those wild squash (not watermelons) are quite common. In the Chihuahuan desert another variety of wild squash is also common.
Not surprising they didn't recognize the need not to slam into this little rut.

 

[cybguy]

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

So why didn't Tesla bother to get a driver familiar with driving on dirt roads?

 

[HaulingAss]

Unless you have a Raptor or Tremor, no one pretends the F-150 is a off-road vehicle.

A lot of F-150's have made that very trip down baja! And not all of them were Raptors or Tremors. In fact, I'm surprised you put the Tremor in the same category as the Raptor. It's not.

 

[HaulingAss]

Unless you have a Raptor or Tremor, no one pretends the F-150 is a off-road vehicle.

And you probably deny that Cybertruck is an off-road vehicle too. Maybe your 2024 Subaru Forester qualifies in your mind. I don't care.

I made the comparison because the F-150 is the truck that Tesla used as a yardstick since it's the best-selling truck in America. It has nothing to do with whether you consider it "off-road" or not.

 

[HaulingAss]

So why didn't Tesla bother to get a driver familiar with driving on dirt roads?

Your comments make it sound like you've never off-roaded in your life.

Tesla used this Baja trip as one of their proving grounds for Cybertruck, it wasn't meant to be a vacation for their engineers. They were supossed to push the limit and see what happened. When driving that fast, for so many miles, it's not surprising they made a mistake. This is actually a good thing for finding problems and addressing them.

One of my early concerns when early reports highlighted how smooth the ride was on rough roads was that the smooth, composed ride could lead to a false sense of complacency with drivers that could bite back with serious consequences once that complacency set in. Fortunately, the only damage was a cracked windshield, but it could have been a lot worse. This is valuable data for Tesla.

Remember peeps, even though the Cybertruck is amazing at speed on dirt roads, you need to keep an eagle eye for things that are hazardous at speed and be ready to slow down on moment's notice whenever you see something that COULD be a problem. In practice, you will not be able to judge whether you actually needed to slow down until you get closer which just means, more often than not, you will have slowed down for something the truck could have handled fine. But that's how you do it, you slow down instead of assuming the truck can handle it. Even with perfect eyesight there will be optical illusions that make the hazardous look non-threatening and non-threatening things hazardous. Always slow down until you are certain you are judging the sights before you correctly. In this case the ditch was deeper/steeper than it appeared, and it overwhelmed the ability of the available damping and suspension travel to absorb the bump.

One thing that makes such situations hard to judge is that it matters if the suspension is compressing or extending just before the impact and that is almost always very difficult to judge. In this case, it was already half-way compressed when it impacted so the suspension bottomed hard.

 

[Crissa]

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.

Clearly you have never driven where corporate insurance applied.

Or in the desert.

Anyone who looks down on others using safety gear is not someone to get advice from.

-Crissa

 

[Saygmo]

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?

Looked pretty big to me, they were surprised the airbags didn’t go off so that’s an extremely harsh impact!

 

[JManMozee]

Is off road/ Baja mode for AWD & Cyberbeast

 

[cybguy]

Your comments make it sound like you've never off-roaded in your life.

Tesla used this Baja trip as one of their proving grounds for Cybertruck, it wasn't meant to be a vacation for their engineers. They were supossed to push the limit and see what happened. When driving that fast, for so many miles, it's not surprising they made a mistake. This is actually a good thing for finding problems and addressing them.

One of my early concerns when early reports highlighted how smooth the ride was on rough roads was that the smooth, composed ride could lead to a false sense of complacency with drivers that could bite back with serious consequences once that complacency set in. Fortunately, the only damage was a cracked windshield, but it could have been a lot worse. This is valuable data for Tesla.

Remember peeps, even though the Cybertruck is amazing at speed on dirt roads, you need to keep an eagle eye for things that are hazardous at speed and be ready to slow down on moment's notice whenever you see something that COULD be a problem. In practice, you will not be able to judge whether you actually needed to slow down until you get closer which just means, more often than not, you will have slowed down for something the truck could have handled fine. But that's how you do it, you slow down instead of assuming the truck can handle it. Even with perfect eyesight there will be optical illusions that make the hazardous look non-threatening and non-threatening things hazardous. Always slow down until you are certain you are judging the sights before you correctly. In this case the ditch was deeper/steeper than it appeared, and it overwhelmed the ability of the available damping and suspension travel to absorb the bump.

One thing that makes such situations hard to judge is that it matters if the suspension is compressing or extending just before the impact and that is almost always very difficult to judge. In this case, it was already half-way compressed when it impacted so the suspension bottomed hard.

Give me a break. These roads look very similar to where I taught my 10 year old son to drive. He was already about 5'4' and my wife agreed that he should be taught to drive out of remote areas in the Mojave desert in case something happened to me. We routinely went 40 minutes from pavement in the Mohave. Up in Wyoming it wasn't unusually to be a 90 minute drive from pavement.. My 10 year old with me a copilot quickly became a more competent driver than these fools.
The first line of safe driving isn't to send 2 totally unexperienced people (with helmets and googles) onto moderately rough dirt roads for the first time.
How many seconds did that driver have to lay off the accelerator before he hit that rut? Just amazing given how clearly the camera showed what was up ahead. By age 11 without any input from me there was no chance my son would have driven this poorly under similar circumstances.

 

[cybguy]

Clearly you have never driven where corporate insurance applied.

Or in the desert.

Anyone who looks down on others using safety gear is not someone to get advice from.

-Crissa

So it's safe to send 2 clueless individuals out on to mild to moderately rough dirt roads for the first time? This wasn't a race my friend. Go look at the video and see just how many seconds they had to back off the accelerator before they smacked into that rut.

 

[Sarge588]

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?

$1,900

 

[pricedm]

So lots of comments from the engineer. But nothing on when Diff locks will be available? Something that is standard on day 1 of all other EV pickups….

Nope. Head over to the Rivian forums, lots of complaining (rightfully so) about lack of off-road performance, specifically climbing rocky "roads" in the Quad motor R1s. Concensus: Rivian needs to implement locking differentials, both per-axle basis and locking center differential. All can be done via software.

 

[cardad]

Here is what they slammed into to crack the glass

Wow that is nothing … depends on the speed I suppose but I wouldn’t expect windshields to crack on something like that even if you bottomed out the travel. I basically drive my Jeeps and Broncos over stuff like that all the time like it’s nbd.

 

[cardad]

So lots of comments from the engineer. But nothing on when Diff locks will be available? Something that is standard on day 1 of all other EV pickups….

Neither Rivian nor Ford Lightning have diff locks. Not sure what you’re referring to here. CT has the hardware already. It just needs a software update to allow you to enable it. They’re probably still tweaking the software aspects.

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