Back before people knew all that much about it, back when Elon Musk was the guy who made Tesla and SpaceX and this super smart guy (as opposed to being the guy who bought them and then fucked up the engineering), I knew some people who were excited about it. It was supposed to be a working truck but electric, bring all the better-than-other-cars stuff that the Roadster and Model S had, it was supposed to have solar panels and electrical outlets and super-strong construction so you could use it to survive the zombie apocalypse.
I think that was before the inflection point, back when the genuine success Tesla had had made Musk’s personal brand of bullshit believable. I remember when people started getting a good look at all the concept and actual prototypes, that made it look like a dumpster without the storage space, was when the shine came off the rose. But I definitely do remember people who were excited about it back in the beginning.
I also remember seeing articles about how the design was meant to be very simple because it was going to be cost effective, and that they were experimenting with a manufacturing technique that would work better on Mars
Yea nope.
Instead now Slate Auto seems to be going for the cost effective minimalistic truck
I like the Slate. Maybe a touch longer in the hood than I’d like. But nice none the less.
Hyundai is finally starting to win me over, I’ve so long overlooked them from their old reputation, but they’ve been putting out some good cars for a bit now.
Yeah. In retrospect, it’s easy to pick out what stuff is just Elon Musk making up bullshit because it would be awesome. And, with the cybertruck, he finally got to inject that into the engineering process as a dominant factor as he’d been trying to do for so long with the cars. And look at the result…
Back before people knew all that much about it, back when Elon Musk was the guy who made Tesla and SpaceX and this super smart guy (as opposed to being the guy who bought them and then fucked up the engineering), I knew some people who were excited about it. It was supposed to be a working truck but electric, bring all the better-than-other-cars stuff that the Roadster and Model S had, it was supposed to have solar panels and electrical outlets and super-strong construction so you could use it to survive the zombie apocalypse.
I think that was before the inflection point, back when the genuine success Tesla had had made Musk’s personal brand of bullshit believable. I remember when people started getting a good look at all the concept and actual prototypes, that made it look like a dumpster without the storage space, was when the shine came off the rose. But I definitely do remember people who were excited about it back in the beginning.
I also remember seeing articles about how the design was meant to be very simple because it was going to be cost effective, and that they were experimenting with a manufacturing technique that would work better on Mars
Yea nope.
Instead now Slate Auto seems to be going for the cost effective minimalistic truck
https://techcrunch.com/2025/05/12/slate-auto-crosses-100000-refundable-reservations-in-two-weeks/
While Hyundai has put out some actual retro futuristic models
https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/brand-journal/heritage/heritage-series-grandeur
https://thearsenale.com/blogs/magazine/hyundai-n-vision-74-retro-futuristic-supercar-to-turn-a-reality
https://www.hyundai.com/worldwide/en/brand-journal/heritage/heritage-series-pony
I like the Slate. Maybe a touch longer in the hood than I’d like. But nice none the less.
Hyundai is finally starting to win me over, I’ve so long overlooked them from their old reputation, but they’ve been putting out some good cars for a bit now.
Yeah. In retrospect, it’s easy to pick out what stuff is just Elon Musk making up bullshit because it would be awesome. And, with the cybertruck, he finally got to inject that into the engineering process as a dominant factor as he’d been trying to do for so long with the cars. And look at the result…