Electric Vehicles (Cars, Planes, and Ships)

In fairness, the vision of urban warfare that many prospective Cybertruck buyers imagine is mainly street crime using small-caliber handguns, and the Cybertruck's exoskeleton should prevent serious injury from those, assuming that occupants duck any fire aimed at the windows. The vehicle is invariably going to lend itself to the "right-wing, anti-government, doomsday-prepper" stereotype, assuming such people would ever consider an EV to begin with, but the "gubmint" typically uses more powerful weapons.

EVs do have certain inherent advantages when it comes to personal defense. There was a story that hit social media a few months ago — I'd have to dig it up since it's just a memory at the moment — about a Tesla driver in a non-Western country surviving a gang-style ambush because the attackers tried to shoot out the engine and gas tank, not realizing that the vehicle didn't have either. The driver was severely wounded but managed to get away.

I'm not saying we should rely on such things, of course. Once EV penetration is high enough, would-be assailants will adapt, but it's still harder to hit the motors and battery than it would be to hit an engine or fuel tank. Cybertruck merely takes that a step farther.

I say this only slightly tongue-in-cheek: I can't wait for the first time cops have to chase down a fleeing suspect who's using a Cybertruck. Gonna be an interesting story for the national news.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 12th 2024 at 1:35:35 PM

IMO, if someone actually bought a Cybertruck expecting it to be a good defense against urban conflict or whatever, they're dumb as hell. Because it looks armored and it's expensive so it means the occupant has money.

It'd be the top priority target.

That's kind of the great balancing act, non? You don't want to look like an easy target, but you also don't want to look like a lucrative target.

Then again, who would steal a Cybertruck? Not because the car is bad, but because there so few of them, and the parts are mostly useless outside of their very specific configuration. So who would buy a stolen Cybertruck?

Worth noting that the test made sure to not hit the same point multiple times with the 9MM, and from their examination concluded multiple shots to the same point would penetrate.

If you're fleeing gang violence, as Cybertruck owners might imagine themselves doing, it's not likely that attackers would be applying precision aim. Similarly with street cops. Cybertruck won't help you get away from riot cops or soldiers, but anyone imagining themselves doing that is well beyond the scope of this conversation.

Even militarized vehicles will yield to repeated, point-blank fire. This isn't a tank, nor should anyone expect it to be.

Cybertruck is meant to resist break-ins, carjackings, random urban shootings, domestic violence, etc., and it's probably the best bet a civilian will have without stepping up to professionally built, armored vehicles that cost ten times as much (or more).

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 12th 2024 at 2:18:16 PM

I assume it'd be less about stealing the car and more about getting at the person driving it.

Edited by DrunkenNordmann on Mar 12th 2024 at 7:27:26 PM

Yeah, a person with a Cybertruck 100% has money.

to be fair it's probably gonna be plastic

Stealing a Tesla is a bad deal in general because they actively communicate with the company's network using cellular data and are therefore trivial to track. The owner can even remotely "disable" the vehicle by restricting its speed and acceleration. I don't remember if the cars have a specific "theft mode", but switching them to valet mode would do the trick.

There have been stories about Tesla owners having their cars stolen and sending the GPS coordinates to the police. Yes, there are aftermarket systems for this sort of thing, like LoJack, but every Tesla has it built in and you can't turn it off without destroying or disabling the vehicle.

Even if the thieves disable the cellular and WiFi connections, the first time a stolen Tesla plugs into a Supercharger it'll reveal its location.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 12th 2024 at 2:41:53 PM

I guess you could take a 5$ wrench to their knees to get them to give you their Bitcoin wallet.

Edited by Kayeka on Mar 12th 2024 at 7:31:57 PM

This is getting a little off-topic.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 12th 2024 at 2:34:55 PM

Tesla reports that power has been restored to its factory in Germany and production has resumed after the terrorist incident last week.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 13th 2024 at 10:56:05 AM

Terrorism seems a big word. Unless you're particularly scared of the dark, I suppose. Sabotage or vandalism, sure, but not terrorism.

Terrorism includes destruction of civil infrastructure for political goals. It doesn't matter what those goals are. We're much too soft on that term.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 13th 2024 at 11:38:16 AM

Well, if that is true, we're going to need another word, because I'm not going to equivocate whatever this is with the mass murder that term usually implies.

Yeah, "Terrorists attacked Tesla factory" could be technically accurate but you're basically writing clickbait tabloid headlines at that point. Nobody is going to read that and come away thinking "they damaged some power infrastructure".

Terrorism is defined as "the unlawful use of violence and intimidation, especially against civilians, in the pursuit of political aims." A more complete description, via the FBI website, is:

Destroying a power pylon, with a political motive to "protect the environment", with the goal of intimidating or coercing the stoppage of production of electric vehicles, is terrorism by all of those criteria.

There is literally no definition of terrorism in any dictionary or manual that requires causing direct harm to civilians.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 13th 2024 at 1:37:22 PM

Yeah the problem is that people think terrorism has to involve murder or violence against people, the attacks on ULEZ cameras in London were also acts of terrorism.

Seeing more and more examples of the Cybertruck being damaged in accidents. Here is a video on Twitter that was found on reddit of a CT that lost both front wheels. I have no idea the context of what caused it, some speculated it was the same Cybertruck that crashed into a low wall at the Beverly Hills Hotel sign.

Weren't we supposed to get the independent crash reports by now?

I don't know how long it usually takes those reports to come out. In any event, damage to the vehicle isn't what they're testing. It's how well the vehicle protects its occupants. There are also tests for pedestrian safety, automatic emergency braking, rollover risk, and many other things.

It's assumed that a vehicle will be damaged in a crash. That may matter for insurance adjusters (and owners) but not for safety ratings.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 20th 2024 at 5:24:17 AM

Oh, look. The Cybertruck's frunk does have an auto-stop feature for objects obstructing it. Who'da thought?

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 28th 2024 at 3:13:30 PM

That's not the spot we were talking about before. Of course it has a sensor if something obstructs the main closing thing.

The problem was that it seemed like the sensors weren't looking at the space behind the hinge at the top properly. You know, a spot where someone might put their hand if they weren't paying attention.

Edited by Zendervai on Mar 28th 2024 at 3:35:23 PM

The sensors aren't "looking at" anything. Every such system that I know of works by detecting electrical resistance in the motors. This requires a certain amount of force to be exerted. It's possible that some use optical sensors, but I've never heard of any that guard the area you're talking about.

The power liftgate on my wife's Subaru takes a not insubstantial amount of resistance to reverse itself. I haven't tried sticking something in the top to see if that would be enough to trigger it. Maybe I'll do that and record the results.

Ford Authority: Ford F-150 Lightning Plant Cuts Workforce Amid Weak Demand

Citing weak demand for the F-150 Lightning, Ford will cut its staff at the Rouge Electric Vehicle Center in Michigan by two thirds starting next week. About half of the workers will be reassigned to another plant and half will be allowed to choose reassignment or an early retirement option.

Ford Authority recently reported that Lightnings have been piling up at dealers, and Ford has had to stop shipments of model year 2024 Lightnings to address quality issues.

I'll be interested to see how Cybertruck ranks in the EV pickup market by the end of 2024.

Edited by Fighteer on Mar 28th 2024 at 3:42:47 PM

So Ford dealers are going to remove the Market Adjustment (i.e. Because Fuck You, That's Why) markup on all the 150s and Mach-Es that the market doesn't want at the current grossly inflated prices, right?

Right?

I'm using "looking" in the colloquial sense of "perceiving", you don't need to be this picky.