The Tesla Cybertruck has been the focus of a lot of controversy. The unusual-looking truck has been as attention-grabbing as it has been polarizing. So divisive was it, that engineers within the company reportedly tried to come up with their own design.
In an anecdote from Walter Isaacson’s upcoming book “Elon Musk,” in which he spent three years embedded with the CEO, he writes that Tesla’s chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, admitted that few of the company’s employees apart from Musk were happy with the design.
“A majority of the people in this studio hated it,” the designer said in an excerpt seen by Insider. “They were like, ‘You can’t be serious.’ They didn’t want to have anything to do with it. It was just too weird.”
More: See The Early Designs Of The Tesla Cybertruck That Didn’t Make The Cut
Upon seeing a mock-up of the Cybertruck on Display at SpaceX’s showroom in Los Angeles, California in 2019, a group of engineers were so dismayed that they tried to surreptitiously design their own.
It remains unclear what became of the design (unless any of the people who worked on it want to send us some images anonymously…), but Tesla’s executives had different responses to the apprehensiveness of its employees.
“Von Holzhausen, who is as gentle as Musk is brusque, spent time listening carefully to their concerns. ‘If you don’t have buy-in from the people around you, it’s hard to get things done,’ he says,” Isaacson wrote.
On the other hand, Musk was “less patient” and did not care about the issues brought by his employees. “I don’t do focus groups,” he said. Rather than adjust the design, he demanded that the company produce a drivable concept version for a demo, which “forced the team to come together, work twenty-four-seven,” Von Holzhausen told Isaacson. After they met the target, Musk took Grimes on a date to Nobu in the prototype.
From the beginning, the CEO pushed hard for the angular, retro-futuristic design, demanding that the design team not to resist him on it. Ultimately, the look may work, as a recent study suggests that, in order for the Cybertruck to succeed, it will have to attract new customers who aren’t normally into pickups. However, the stainless steel body has led to fears of smudging and safety risks.
