During Thursday's Cybertruck Delivery Event at Tesla's factory in Austin, Texas, the electric vehicle maker's CEO, Elon Musk, and lead designer Franz von Holzhausen seemingly replicated the infamous 2019 Cybertruck window smash incident. But all was not as it appeared.
As part of the November 2019 event, von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at the window to demonstrate the strength of the Cybertruck's "armor glass". Instead of simply bouncing off the glass, it created a large, tentacled crater in the driver's side window for the world to see.
Musk later took to Twitter, now X, to explain that von Holzhausen had smacked the truck with a sledgehammer to prove the body's durability prior to throwing the ball at it, and this caused the base of the glass to crack, leading to its failure during the ball throw.
"Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn't bounce off, Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door. Next time ...," Musk wrote.
During Thursday's event, where he proclaimed that the Cybertuck is a "better truck than a truck" and a "better sports car than a sports car", and bragged that the truck is incapable of rolling over because its center of gravity is so low, Musk invited von Holzhausen onto the stage to try the ball toss again.
Eagle-eyed observers were quick to note that the ball Tesla's lead designer was throwing appeared to be rubber-based, a baseball, and not a metal ball like in the original folly. After bouncing off the glass, it bounced around on stage with properties similar to how a traditional rubber-centered ball would. The window appeared unscathed.
A baseball is traditionally centered by rubber or cork, then wrapped with yarn until it gets to its full size, before being covered by horsehide, cowhide, or a synthetic leather.
Most vehicles on the market today have windows capable of surviving the soft toss of a baseball into them.
This stunt and videos that played behind Musk as he was on stage were meant to showcase the Cybertruck's toughness. "It's not just some grandstanding showpiece like me," Musk told the assembled crowd.
Cybertruck's credentials are impressive. It can move from zero to 60 mph (miles per hour) in 2.6 seconds, while towing a Porsche 911, outpacing a 911.
Musk also bragged about the bullet resistant properties (often referred to as being "bulletproof") of the steel sides of the Cybertruck after playing a video of it being subjected to Tommy and hand gun shots.
"In movies you sometimes see the hero or heroine hiding behind the car door while being shot with bullets," Musk said. "That doesn't actually work unless you're driving a Cybertruck. So, if Al Capone showed up with a Tommy gun and emptied the entire magazine into the car door, you would still be alive."
No other electric truck on the market today boasts bullet resistant properties.
Al Capone, a notorious American gangster, died in 1947.
Uncommon Knowledge
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
About the writer
Eileen Falkenberg-Hull leads the Autos team at Newsweek. She has written extensively about the auto industry for U.S. News & ... Read more
