I remember seeing the reveal for this bizzarely marketed abomination live with my college buddies. Never laughed harder during a product reveal. Musk bragging the windows were bullet proof before promptly breaking a window while demonstrating was comedy GOLD.
This is a good example for bad design. Apart from the odd shape (this is debateable - perhaps some people like the design) the choice of the exterior material is not to be considered a good one, concidering the vehicle's exposure to the elements (dead bugs, tree sap, salt, dust, dirt, etc.) is nothing out of the ordinary. These are normal things an ordinary vehicle is exposed to.
Maybe Tesla could sell accessories like some kind of panel covers to protect the body of the car, in a similar way phone covers are being sold to protect phones. Which in itself is also the result of bad design: not only a phone cover hides the original design of the phone, the necessity to use a cover on a phone shows that the phone probalby is not built strong enough to withstand daily usage, like falling on the ground or being carried in a pocket.
They could have just painted all exposed parts in clear coat and kept the raw look while protecting the metal from the elements. But that would probably require an actual car design expert to be a part of the process.
A cover would probably be worse. It'd trap moisture and other things against the metal and it'd probably make the issue even worse. It needs an enamel coating or something, but that'd make far too much sense. Alternatively, since it's bare metal, you could remove any rust that occurs pretty easily, but it wouldn't look as smooth anymore. They could also possibly cheaply manufacture and sell replacement parts, since it should be (assuming they didn't do things too dumb, which is a stretch) fairly easy to fabricate.
I think the phone cover thing is because the original iPhone wasn't built very well. Maybe they're still bad, I don't know never owned one.
I've been using rawdog phones for over a decade, dropped them many times and no real issues other than a chip in a the plastic of one of cheaper ones I've had.
The evolution path of the cellular/smart phone didn't always need a protective cover. That was a result of smaller easily handheld devices and more fragile components, as well as a convenient add-on product. Remember the earlier Nokia-types and their belt clip-ons for this same dropping problem? Plus they were still a bit heavy for slipping into a pocket.
The reason why the comparison doesn't work is that there is a century or more of experience and research for cars and similar surfaces exposes to the elements, Tesla/Musk just decided to be different despite the glaring evidence it was a bad idea.
Idk, every Delorian I've seen still looks great! Granted, there's probably a lot of survivor bias there. But if you take care of it, stainless steel lasts forever.
I agree with you - they do look great indeed. Regarding survivor bias: those cars you see around probably are maintained well. With a sufficient level of maintenance, even a Yugo can be kept in pristine condition (given the supply of spare parts in this particular example).
When it comes to Tesla in general, many people complain about insufficient panel alignment, although it its barely noticeable. But given the pice range (this is a upper class car) one needs to pay to afford such a car this issue shouldn't be present. On the other hand: when I look at my car (Mitsubishi Mirage) closely, the panel alignment ist't done well either. But considering the price range that car has been sold, I can live with that.
To help prevent corrosion:
Wash the vehicle regularly to prevent corrosion of the body and suspension components. Also, wash the vehicle promptly after driving on any of the following surfaces.
. roads that have been salted to prevent them from freezing in winter
. mud, sand, or gravel
. coastal roads
Now let's write a headline to match.
Subaru: You'll have to wash dirt off your Crosstrek ASAP to Avoid Corrosion.
Do not wait until Cybertruck is due for a complete wash. If necessary, use denatured alcohol to remove tar spots and stubborn grease stains, then immediately wash the area
with water and a mild, non-detergent soap to remove the alcohol.
Looks like Subarus are also defective. More excerpts from my owners manual:
Salt, chemicals, insects, tar, soot, tree sap, and bird droppings should be washed off by using a light detergent, as required. If you use a light detergent, make certain that it is a neutral detergent. Do not use strong soap or chemical detergents. All cleaning agents should be promptly flushed from the surface and not allowed to dry there. Rinse the vehicle thoroughly with plenty of lukewarm water. Wipe the remaining water off with a chamois or soft cloth. Wear rubber gloves and use a hand brush when washing down underbody, inner fenders and suspension to effec- tively remove mud and dirt off.
What kind of a shitty automaker would require such care after just some tar or bird droppings!
These things are going to be real cool sitting around all rusty in the apocalypse. Maybe some of them will be kept alive with some charge hacking shenanigans.
I think it would only be electric vehicles would be functional in a post apocalyptic scenario.
I don't think people appreciate the complexity of oil refineries and oil supply chains. A lot of the oil industry is happening somewhere else and people don't think very much about how fragile it is despite the large number of economic problems caused by even minor disruptions in that industry.
And gas goes bad after about a year. So...
It's far simpler to to set up a wind turbine to charge an electric car than it is to rebuild all of that oil industry infrastructure.
Preppers should really have electric cars and wind turbines and solar power. But those types tend to be just paranoid and don't really think straight.
It brings me great joy to see all the smug douche bags who bought one sight-unseen being shown a bit more of the picture describing how how gullible and foolish they were with each passing day.
DeLoreans, early-production models in particular, suffered from poor build quality as well as mechanical issues.
This quote ist taken from the English Wikipeda Article. In the German Wikipeda Article quality issues are described more detailed: many issues involved the gull-wing doors, which had a complicated opening mechanism that often jammed. Also one could injure their hand by closing the door, as it was too heavy. The German Wikipeda Article also mentioned, that, due to the choice of material for the body work, a proper alignment of the stainless steel panels was not to be expected.
Edit: to reference to the original question: I haven't found any statements regarding to the pollution of the stainless steel body, but I can imagine that this car had the same issues the Cyber Truck is having.
Imma blow your mind, but all cars have this same problem. Literally any car that doesn't have ppf film on it should have bird poop and bugs cleaned off ASAP. It will discolor your paint, make it chip easier, or at worst make it completely fall off in that spot. Especially if you live in an area where birds have access to berries and stuff that can make their poop even more acidic.
While I think the cybertruck is stupid, you may not realize how much the SUVs, minivans, and trucks you likely see regularly on the road cost.
The low-end cybertruck model is often equivalent (or less than) some models of jeep Grand Cherokee, dodge charger, Chrysler Pacifica, chevy traverse, ford super duty, etc.
A lot of cars are crazy expensive. I know people that have cars that cost 70-80K, which is more than their yearly salary. It's insane.
Which isn't any different from existing trucks, really. You can treat a truck like shit in the south or even PNW and it'll last decades longer than a well-cared-for truck in the northeast or midwest.
Definitely, the salted areas are always tougher for cars, while living in PA I expected only 6-8 years from a car before it started falling apart. But it's usually under carriage rust and not visible until it's got so bad it's through the panels. The exposed metal seems likely these will start showing corrosion in just a few seasons, guess we'll see