Tesla finally unveiled its highly
anticipated all electric pickup truck
and people have opinions.
Talking about that truck again
that crazy looking moon truck.
The design of this
is pretty spectacular.
I have never heard a truck owner say,
"you know, I just love cyberpunk and
what I'd love to buy is my next
truck to look like something from Blade
Runner.". It seems a little
incomplete for production purposes because
there are no side mirrors and the
wheels and tires do not look production
ready. I've got more
questions than answers.
From the unusual design to a failed
demonstration that led to a shattered
window, there's a lot of
hype surrounding this vehicle.
Prospective buyers can reserve a truck
by putting down a $100 fully
refundable deposit.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has hinted at
the pre-order numbers on Twitter, saying
there were 250,000 Cybertrucks put on
hold as of November 2019.
So we spoke with six people who
decided to pre-order the vehicle about
what made them take the plunge.
One of the most controversial things
about the car was its futuristic
design.
(Chuckles) It is
definitely different.
And that's actually the one reason why
I like it, because it's so
radically different from anything else
that it obviously grabs people's
attention right away.
That's not what I was
expecting him to look like.
Honestly, I was put back,
in a good way.
It took me aback. I was like.
Well, you know, that's
a little out there.
But it was really cool.
Like, you know, once
you looked at it.
That was probably one of the most
interesting things about the reaction in
the crowd is it was kind of
immediately like 50/50, like half the people
were like, oh, my gosh, I love it.
And half the people were just like taking
it back and being like, what is
that? Not everybody, even in
the fan crowd loved it.
Well, at first, I mean,
obviously, the design like this.
The angles are a little different.
I think that was the first thing a
lot of people were thrown off by: the
look of the vehicle. I think that has a
lot to do with like why there's so
much negativity around it because there's
nothing else out there right
now, that looks like that.
I mean, looks like a spaceship and it's
built out of some of the materials
he says is used in his same rocket.
I mean, especially if it's going to come
out in four years, like I don't
know what cars are gonna look like.
A lot has changed in
four years as it is.
So it's possible that people will be
more accepting of it down the road.
But I think that's why it looks
like a spaceship, basically, that you
would shoot into space because
he shoots rockets into space.
Everyone had a different reason
for wanting the Cybertruck.
Hannah Straight plans to build a truck
camper to live and travel in.
I think it's there's a good
potential for a more basic bill.
Maybe it won't be extremely decked out, but
I really think - I mean, he
already has the type of camera design
out there and he's pushing camper
living, off roading.
He knows how many people out
there want to live like that.
So I don't see why there's not a
very good potential that I could put a
truck camper shell on the
back of the truck.
She's not the only one with
ambitious plans for the truck.
Damen and Katie to me plan to
use the truck as an everyday vehicle,
freeing up their Model 3
for another lofty goal.
You can have the car drive yourself to
work, and when you're at work and
the car is fully charged, they can go
pick people up like a Tesla network
type of a service.
They could drive people from point A
to point B, make twenty dollars and
you'd collect 70 percent of that.
Maybe Tesla would collect 30 percent.
And it doesn't have to
have bathroom breaks or anything.
All you have to do is just recharge
and you could just drive all day and
all night while you're sleeping.
So you really use the vehicle.
You may use like one
hundred thousand miles a year.
But since the cars are designed for
a three or four, five hundred thousand
miles, I think it's a good
way to make extra money.
David Forrest is a Marine Corps
veteran who struggles with PTSD.
He hopes the Cybertruck will
help him manage his symptoms.
For PTSD I'm just on one part of the
spectrum, right? And for me, a
lot of that is for post-traumatic
stress is just being able to
go through a certain action.
So for me, it would be driving.
And it's not that, you know, we
have some people have fears of that
there's bombs on the side
of roads or anything else.
Sometimes it's just the fear
of what the possibility is.
And there's not great
drivers out there.
There's people that
don't pay attention.
Sometimes when you're out, when you're
very hyper -vigilant about one
thing, you don't realize that you just
you're all those other things come
up, you know, your stresses,
your anxiety, your mood.
And with the Cybertruck with the A.I.
being able to take over at times, you
know, that's an asset that I could
see that would help me.
I'm in traffic. It's
just too overwhelming.
OK, well, take me home.
Michael Hodges served overseas with both
the Navy and as a private
contractor. He started a GoFundMe campaign
to help donate Cybertrucks to
veterans and wounded warriors.
It definitely would help in terms of
putting you back in that reference in
mind that, OK, I'm in a
protected vehicle, therefore I can
relax more so than any
other type of vehicle.
Because you know that, hey, if something
were to happen, you know, I'm
going to be much more protective, which
puts you back into the same
reference of mine. The Cybertruck is
competing against some pretty popular
cars. Both Ford and GM are planning
to release electric versions of their
best-selling pickups.
So what made the people we spoke
with choose a Tesla over competitors?
Some obvious patterns emerged.
They all thought highly of Elon Musk.
I think Elon Musk is
Nikola Tesla, Thomas Edison, Michael
Faraday all in one.
He's a very polarizing figure.
Either love him or hate him.
Basically, I mean, I haven't seen too
many people who are kind of
in-between. He generally always puts out where
he says he's going to do.
It may take much longer than they
want, but it generally always happens.
In that case, that is why I'm a fan,
because he does what he says and he
says what he does.
I read the Ashlee Vance's book
about Elon and this was
a number of years ago now.
But it was actually after reading the book
about him that I was like, OK,
I need to go and check out Tesla,
because this guy really sounds like he's
really trying to do innovative stuff,
that he's really intelligent guy, a
genius even.
And I need to go check out the car.
So I was actually reading his book that
led me to check out the car.
And it was like, OK, this is
by far the coolest product I've ever
experienced. I've been following what
he's been doing ever since.
Elon Musk is one of those people that
is not afraid to think outside of
the box and push boundaries.
And a lot of crazy innovations that
exist now started from people that
other people thought were crazy.
And if we hadn't pushed the boundaries
and thought outside of the box, we
probably wouldn't have
changed at all.
So I think it's cool that he's
pushing forward, even though he's gotten a
lot of push back.
So I would like to support that.
And he's been successful in what
he's come out with so far.
Another pattern: Tesla
runs on recommendations.
How this typically goes is it's
a referral from a friend.
You met somebody.
You knew somebody. They took you
out for a ride in theirs.
They even let you drive theirs.
Because myself, I know a lot
of other Tesla owners do that.
And that's usually how
the experience goes.
I don't think this is a
car. People are buying without experiencing.
I'd have to go
off personal recommendations.
And so far, everyone I
know loves driving them.
They're fun to drive.
But we have a family friend
who got the first roadster.
So we saw that. And
that got us into Tesla.
For the Tesla naysayers, what I'd
suggest is sit in the car.
Drive it. Once I drove
it, I was convinced.
I evem. all I did was drive it really
quick in a parking lot and I knew I
wanted it. That's all you need.
You need butts in seats.
And the car sells itself.
A more public example that happen in
the past week is Cramer, who's been
very critical and open of Tesla.
Finally ended up driving one because
his wife wanted to buy one.
And his comments and his talk and
even his price target on Tesla has
completely changed.
I can't tell whether your newfound love
for Tesla's price is sardonic or
honest.
No, it's wife.
It's wife.
Wife and kids. The wife and
kids have warn me down.
You know, we were in the Model X
this weekend and she just said, OK,
enough with the balance sheet.
The people we talked with also spoke
highly of Tesla's tech and the
Cybertruck specific specs.
When I first heard of electric,
it was like, what is that?
Why would I want that?
The only thing I had in my mind
about what electric was was a Prius,
right? Which is always the car in the
left lane on the freeway, slowing me
down. It wasn't
a positive perception.
But then when I experience the product, it
was like, oh my gosh, this is
so next level that it's not even
fair to call this thing a car.
The reason I say that is because when
you say the term car, what comes to
mind to people does not match what
the Tesla delivers, especially when you
add the autonomy piece in it or
the partial autonomy piece with autopilot.
It's such a completely different experience that
what comes up to my when
you say the word car isn't
a fair description of a Tesla.
One of the biggest things that Tesla offers,
and I think it makes it hard
for most Tesla owners to ever seriously
consider making the jump right now
is auto pilot. I think the
Mach-E is a very compelling car.
The fact that it has to rely
on other supercharging networks and not its
own and Tesla supercharging network is
very vast, especially in states
like California. So that's one
of the downsides of Mach-E.
But let's assume that that will
ultimately be negated by Electrify America
and some of the other systems. Auto
pilot is the big thing that these
other automakers are lacking.
And auto pilot is actually what brought me
to the Tesla brand in the first
place. So until somebody has
something comparable or better than
autopilot, I'm not going
anywhere from Tesla.
And you know for sure what
Tesla, you're always getting over their
updates. They're always working to get
new software in your vehicles.
So you know that with Tesla, you
know what you're getting into when Tesla
versus with Ford you don't really know
much about, are they gonna be doing
over the air type stuff yet?
Tesla's goal is to accelerate the
advent of sustainable energy and
transportation, and I think they're going
to build more battery pack
systems to store energy,
more solar panels.
The whole goal is to be different
because of everything was still the
same, everyone still be driving ICE
vehicles and not be transitioning to
electric and sustainable
energy sources.
Tesla set some benchmarks and the other
companies are working to to meet
those benchmarks. And that's great for not
only us, but hopefully for our
environment, hopefully we treat that to where
we can be able to, you know,
reduce the usage and take
care of things better.
It's really cool to be a part of,
you know, history and seeing all this
stuff. You know, as a kid, you see
all this on TV and you're like, oh,
that will never happen
in my lifetime.
But seeing it actually
happen is really great.
It's gonna be exciting to find out
how the world ultimately responds to
the Cybertruck once this
product starts shipping.
And I'm really interested to see this
play out because the Cybertruck is
one of those designs that
you see at car shows.
One of those futuristic vehicles
that never gets made.
You know, we always get that like, oh,
these are the cars of the future
but the cars of the
future never actually show up.
We got one of those
cars of the future here.
So I'm excited to see how the
world responds, because if this catches on,
this whole cyberpunk thing could end up
becoming a modern element of 2020
and 2025 designs.
So I'm really just excited
to see where this goes.
