Finally, the Cybertruck is upon us. After years of talks and teasers, Tesla is finally rolling out its much-anticipated, highly critiqued electric truck. But even if the Cybertruck may be seeing the light of day soon, that doesn’t mean the critics are done talking—it looks like they’re just getting started.
See, there’s a recent report by Reuters that surfaced earlier this month about how experts are starting to raise safety concerns about the Cybertruck’s design. The “stiff stainless-steel exoskeleton” could hurt the more vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists and even cause more-than-usual damage to other vehicles in the event of an accident.
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From the outside looking in—without a background in automotive design whatsoever—the concerns do seem sensible. The Cybertruck is, after all, a very sharp-looking truck with lots of angles and edges on its exterior. Never mind that it’s built out hard and heavy stainless steel.
Reuters shared that experts spoke to them saying the crash-test data was needed to “reach firm conclusions about the safety.”
“The big problem there is if they really make the skin of the vehicle very stiff by using thick stainless steel, then when people hit their heads on it, it's going to cause more damage to them,” said former Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) president Adrian Lund.
All that being said, Tesla CEO Elon Musk remained confident that the Cybertruck will be “much safer per mile than other trucks, for both occupants and pedestrians.”
It remains to be seen how safe (or not) the Cybertruck actually will be. We need to see more extensive tests if that’s what it takes to put all doubts to rest. It’s safety we’re talking about, after all.
