What a garbage article. Elon sucks, the cyber truck sucks, but an article about tweets is less than worthless. Perhaps the article instead of assuming elon just “didn’t have time to run tesla properly”, should dig a bit deeper and demonstrate that tesla was successful despite elon, not because of elon. Same with Space-X or Star-link.
Now as far as why the cyber truck is getting stuck in snow, tires is the low-effort answer, but maybe look at the weight of the truck versus the contact area. Maybe look at how the traction control system works? How about whether the car is front wheel bias vs rear-wheel biased. Does it make assumptions about which wheels have contact to the ground? Does it have a differential or are all 4 wheels independently controlled? (I don’t know the answer to any of these by the way, but if I were concerned about a vehicle getting stuck in the snow, I’d certainly want an analysis that addresses all of the above.)
Welcome to modern “journalism”, throwing together a few sentences based on twitter and reddit posts, without any research or asking experts.
“Another user said…”
It’s so ridiculously low quality journalism it’s embarrassing
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Well, they advertised it as a truck that does truck things…
And the people with them now, ordered years ago.
It all comes back to range, and the range is horrible. So out of the factory they get “fuel efficient” tires that are great for range and terrible for everything else.
Put on truck tires, let alone winter, and range will nosedive.
Not everyone will drive one in snow, but all of the suckers who bought one know the range.
It also weighs way more than a normal truck. I think.
If it does that would help…
Weighing it down gives traction. Hell, most hillbillies load up their truck beds in the winter because the weight is such a big help, especially in the back.
I think I might have heard something about weight distribution though, like a normal truck has an engine over the front, but Tesla’s weight is in the middle of the axle.
But this is the tires, and probably something about whatever this things equivalent to a transmission is. Like you only need to put your foot on it a little for normal driving. Which means take offs in snow would almost always spin out.
So like the RPMs of the wheels go up to fast? I think that’s the easiest way to say it.
It makes a vehicle seem faster the less you have to push on the gas pedal, it’s a pretty old trick, because most people never floor it, so they don’t notice halfway thru it stops doing anything.
That makes sense
If the traction control is the same as in the model 3, slipping due to pressing the accelerator too hard shouldn’t be a big issue. I can literally floor the accelerator from standstill in the snow and the car barely slips at all and just accelerates slowly until it has better traction (obviously didn’t do that on public roads but on private road). It is has way better traction control than my old car had.
I think shitty tires are a more likely culprit.
Lol I used to keep a bale of straw in the bed all winter to get traction. Apparently I’m a hillbilly.
the fact that you just happen to have a bale of straw handy every winter was a clue…
Lol good point
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I see Jersey schmucks up here with their pavement princess trucks getting stuck in the snow all the time. I see locals in a Corolla or fiesta or other tiny light car make it just fine in deep snow. One of my bosses at the ski mountain used to drive a mini Cooper an hour to work every day.
This is a skill issue.
Also snow tires make a huge difference in the snow
I used to have an old Subaru (Leone, 83).
I could get it anywhere in the snow. It was so easy to drive. It had absolute pizza cutters for tyres.
Once drove up to a ski field without chains on. Was one of only 7 cars to make it to the top (with zero issues) because there was so much snow.
Was a blast to drive.
Skinnier tires are actually better in snow because they can dig down to the ground somewhat and find traction there. Wide tires tend to float on top of the snow because of the larger contract patch (but not enough to stay above it, that requires huge, under-inflated-balloon-like tires like what you’d need on an antarctic expedition)
One of the most satisfying things for me is driving my wife’s little Mirage in the snow. With normal all season tires it does great, with proper snow tires it’s completely unstoppable - that is, until you need to stop.
It turns out that accelrating and stopping a 2,000 pound car on ice and snow is easier than it is with a 4,000 pound vehicle.
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Growing up my mom lived on one of the biggest hills in a town that was basically all hills. She remembers when it snowed they’d watch all kinds of cars and trucks get stuck trying to make it up that hill, and then watch a guy in a little VW beetle go right up the hill like it was nothing, perfectly happy will of that engine weight right over the rear drive wheels.
Years later I’m a new driver borrowing my parents’s cars, a '93 RWD ranger, and a '92 Buick century, and that comparison did a good job of driving home how much difference that weight distribution matters. The ranger had some pretty good grippy tires, but without any weight in the bed, it didn’t take much to make those wheels spin. The buick, on the other hand, handled snow beautifully, it had all the weight of that big boat-like front end over those front drive wheels, never once struggled to find traction, the only limiting factor was that it sat pretty low to the ground so it didn’t take too much snow before that front end was just trying it’s damnedest to plow through snow. If some mad scientist ever thought to lift an old Buick a few inches, I’m pretty confident that 4wd/AWD would become all but obsolete.
skill? sometimes. the fact that those corollas and mini coopers only weigh a fraction of those huge trucks probably has something to do with it, too…
Weight and weight distribution are both important, but a pickup will usually perform better in snow with more weight, like 500 lbs of sand in the bed usually does the trick.
How you apply power to the road surface is also very important. Not enough weight and you will just spin tires. Break too aggressively and you lock up. Pedal to the floor and your tires are spinning. Overcorrect your turns when you start to slide and you’ll never get back straight.
My car is a little older and actually drives better in snow with the traction control off.
Big trucks aren’t necessarily all that heavy. The bed is entirely empty space, remember.
The bed is entirely empty space, remember.
but they have much larger, heavier engines and drivetrains.
a ford f-150 weighs about 4,500 lbs (minimum). a dodge ram weighs about 4,750 lbs (minimum)-- these are without any outrigging which can almost double the weight.
a corolla and a mini weigh about 3,000 lbs. a ford fiesta weighs about 2,750 lbs.
those are pretty big differences (to start) which can get bigger depending on the configuration of the truck.
Huh… That’s interesting. My Nissan Navara (Frontier) weights 4400lbs despite being half the size of an F-150.
And increasingly a smaller and smaller portion of the overall composition of the truck.
It just means even more weight is on the front tires instead of being more evenly distributed.
I think the cybertruck is super heavy, though.
They are heavy but the weight distribution isn’t even and most trucks are 4x4/RWD which is what leads to the issues you’re alluding to. The rear tires can’t propel the vehicle because there’s not enough weight over them in the rear compared to the weight of the front.
I’d feel like such an asshole driving one of these things. If someone gave me one for free, I wouldn’t even want to park it in front of my house.
Sell it for some extra cash.
How is this thing still real?
They set out to make the truck version of the Delorean and succeeded.
How do we know it is? I suspect all photos of the thing are AI-generated deepfakes. 😜
I’ve seen them in the wild, I live in the bay area. They look worse than in the pictures. The brushed steel catches every speck of dirt and oil. It’s like they’re driving a damn crock-pot.
The engineers unironically ask themselves the same question. None of them wanted to do the project
https://futurism.com/the-byte/tesla-engineers-cybertruck-secret-design
I don’t know, it don’t even support to wash it.
All season tires in snow = a terrible time
All seasons with a tiny sidewall = bad news pretty much anywhere but pavement.
Although I do think Tesla needs to work on their traction control system to better mimic having locked differentials after seeing the hill climb video from a few weeks ago. This should be able to be performed via an OTA update though.
Mighty? It was a joke from the start. The only reason for buying it is a novelty for collectors. I don’t think it was ever meant to be driven.
I thought it was sarcasm but then i saw the name of the website
Probably bad tires to be honest. Bad tires for a hideous truck: a loosing recipe.
Too bad the tires are tied to the wheel and can’t just be exchanged
they aren’t tied to the wheel, just the hubcaps. If you want to run it without the hubcaps, you can put whatever tire you want on it.
if only they used something sensible like nuts and bolts to secure them. something which could be easily unscrewed…
They do but the tires are specifically made for Cybertruck and the hubcaps lock in with the tire. If you buy a different set of tires they fit the wheels just fine but the hubcaps no longer do. It just affect aesthetics and probably aerodynamics.
Really?! That is so more shittier than I thought!
And actual human beings purchased those things?
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I remember MKBHD made a comment about the snow possibly being an issue opening the doors as well. Hoping these things were actually tested in super cold conditions
Tesla and tested?
That’s what “launch edition” Teslas are for.
Tesla claims they’ve tested it with 3/4 inches of ice and should work on an inch. I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough either way
Truck built for truck things fails at truck things
Could we assume that if you’re stupid enough to buy that ghastly monstrosity, you’re probably not a very good driver either?
Maybe if it didn’t weigh 3 tons…
Weight is actually a good thing in the snow. Too light of a vehicle and it’s hard to get any traction without something like tracks.
The struggling in the snow is most likely an issue of tires. If someone put some all terrain or ideally snow tires, I’m sure it’d do significantly better.
But it can’t afford to run less efficient tires because it has too much air resistance and the range would suffer. There’s a reason why other Teslas have no flat panels or straight lines.
It’s a 100,000 vehicle with plastic hubcaps.
I don’t disagree with that at all, it’s a dumb vehicle no matter how you slice it and this debacle only furthers the proof. If it needs low rolling resistance, highway tires, then it’s just a street queen for elon fanboys.
Most SUVs and Trucks now are pavement princesses. I respect the hell out of people who buy minivans now.
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Weight alone doesn’t help. It matters where the weight is. On a rear wheel drive vehicle it absolutely does help with traction and handling if you add more weight on the rear axle. People have been hauling sandbags on their truck beds/trunks in the winter for ages for a good reason.
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Who would have guessed that an offroad vehicle designed in socal only works on bare, dry, triassic limestone.
Holy shit that thing is ugly…
Several comments about tires being the issue. I’ve driven through worse with a simple set of all-seasons - is there something special about EV tires that make them perform so poorly in these conditions?
Low rolling resistance tires tend to be not very great in snow. They get that low rolling resistance partly by not having a very sticky compound, and partly by not having a very aggressive tread pattern (among other things, I’m sure). Both of those factors are going to have an impact on traction on anything but dry pavement.
It might also be due to other design choices. I’ve got a 2015 Ford Fusion PHEV, and I had a 2013 Fusion Hybrid before that; they suck so bad in the snow with normal all-season tires that I have to keep a finger on the electric parking brake switch to make sure I can stop if there’s any snow on the ground.
I bet it has traction control which is great in wet conditions, and light snow. Get over 5" of snow and traction control is worthless if you start to get stuck.
So apparently after a quick search, I found that the truck does indeed have traction control, and it’s buried somewhere in a submenu of it’s touch screen controls. So I bet more than likely stuff like this is happening because the controls are not easily found and readily available to turn off when you need it.
Hell on my Jetta it’s on the panel by the emergency brake. Easy to find and turn off.
Hubris?
I’ve driven through worse in a 1980s manual pickup with bald tires. It wasn’t pretty driving, but the truck didn’t get stuck either.
Edit: Not that I’m trying to show bravado or anything. Whole state was closed down in a state of emergency and my retail boss said I had to come in, and in 'mericuh you can’t lose your job! Kudos all go to the bald tire truck. Nobody should ever try this.
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There is not a single good thing about the Cybertruck.