Tesla Cybertruck’s Sci-Fi Fairytale Is Dashed With A ‘Smudgy’ Exterior
Illustration 173017654 © Mariusz Burcz | Dreamstime.com
Elon Musk’s dreams of building a pickup truck straight out of cyberpunk worlds with the Cybertruck have had a hard-hitting clash with reality.
It was previously reported that the Tesla CEO had grown “bored” of the existing truck designs and wanted to create something “edgy,” akin to the vehicles and objects in sci-fi films and video games.
Among the decisions to bring this futuristic monster to life was to give it a stainless steel shell, which would not only provide the Cybertruck with a mesmerizing matte sheen but also give rise to a uniquely angular silhouette.
Speaking on a Tesla fan podcast in January, the company’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen shared that stainless steel’s robust nature meant drivers could “basically buff” the truck’s surface if they found a scratch, without damaging the vehicle.
Alas, stainless steel is also a notorious magnet for fingerprints and other blemishes, automatically making the Cybertruck a rather high-maintenance pickup. As it seems, even folks at Tesla haven’t been able to keep its batch of Cybertrucks as pristine-looking as the stuff of sci-fi stories. New images show fingerprints and stains dotted all across the reflective shells of the trucks.
Someone was asking me about fingerprints and smudges on Cybertruck. Here you go.
— Mike - CyberOwners.com (@TeslaTruckClub) August 18, 2023
You’ll have to either learn to live with this, or wrap it immediately 😄 pic.twitter.com/RKdXvCUM9c
The sci-fi look is great, but it also risks appearing apocalyptic.
The frustrations with using stainless steel don’t stop there. Musk, having test-driven the newly-produced Cybertrucks, purportedly told Tesla employees that any numerical inconsistencies in the design would be evident with the material and stick out like “a sore thumb.”
Responding to a photo of an already discolored Cybertruck, one X (formerly Twitter) user notes: “This thing will look like a nasty kitchen sink in a week.”
The Cybertruck is going to be as big of a pain to keep clean as a stainless steel refrigerator door. https://t.co/4bxxeU74Ux
— Pooyan Khorsandi (@VancityPooyan) August 31, 2023
As vlogger Mike Hoffman points out, Cybertruck owners will either have to “learn to live with” the nature of stainless steel, “or wrap [the truck] immediately.”
Cybertruck wraps may actually be on the horizon alongside the official launch of the long-awaited pickups. Recently, the trucks were seen out in the wild disguised as rivaling pickups using vinyl accessories.
