Tesla CEO Elon Musk took a break from his busy X posting schedule last week to send Tesla employees an email about how accurate the manufacturing of the upcoming Cybertruck would have to be. Now, photos may help illustrate why he was worried in the first place.
Redditor u/kmraceratx recently posted seven closeup pictures of Tesla Cybertrucks with varyingly misaligned panels. The title of the post reads “one of the richest companies in the world, folks…” while the caption to the photos reads “amazing this is the best they can come up with…”
Posted to r/RealTesla—a Subreddit dedicated to “Tesla discussion for those who haven’t drank the Elon-Ade”—commentors seem to be as disappointed by the photos as the original poster.
“That’ll happen when you suck at making cars and design a car that accentuates such flaws,” wrote u/hoodied. “Imagine having money and spending it on this,” wrote u/prOboomer. Meanwhile, u/Ok-Zookeepergame-698 tried to put a positive spin on things, suggesting that Tesla could use the tagline “every Tesla is unique, yours will be too.”
Read: Internal Tesla Email From Elon Musk Calls For Sub-10 Micron Build Accuracy On Cybertruck
While it is unclear how close to production the vehicles in the photos are, they do highlight some of the design compromises that critics argue are a natural result of a making a stainless steel vehicle. While it provides the Cybertruck with a distinct look, as Musk himself noted, it is “made of bright metal with mostly straight edges, any dimensional variation shows up like a sore thumb.”
In the email that he allegedly sent to Tesla staff, he demanded that the truck be made to “sub 10 micron accuracy.” Although he suggested that if LEGO and soda cans reach those levels, so should Tesla, it’s worth remembering that the automaker has a history of shipping vehicles with production flaws.
Early on, Model 3s were noted for having windows that spontaneously blew, a number of vehicles lost their bumpers when they encountered rain, and more recently, a Model Y owner is alleging that his vehicle left the factory with cracks in the sub frame.
Elon Musk may be feeling the most pressure to have the Cybertruck come out of the factory looking good. The reason it’s made out of stainless steel (which may make it hard for it to pass crash tests in many markets), is because he insisted on making it that way, despite objections from others within the company.
