Page 10 - Motor Trend (February 2020)

NEWS I OPINION I GOSSIP I STUFF

Edward Loh

@Lohdown

You Cannot Unsee the Cybertruck

ack in September, I took a small team
from MotorTrend to see the Tesla
Cybertruck, in the very early stages
of its conceptual design. Tesla told
Bus we were the first outsiders, and
the only media outlet, to see the vehicle,
period. By the time you read this, Tesla’s
game-changing truck will already have
broken the internet, set Twitter ablaze,
and sent fanboys and short-sellers around
the world into paroxysms of shock, disgust,
outrage, and possibly lust.
Our team has covered the story better than
any other outlet, as you will find at motor-
trend.com/cybertruck, so it’s fun for me to
disclose how some of us reacted to seeing it
for the first time. Christian Seabaugh, Kim
Reynolds, Mark Williams, Sean Holman, and
I met the design team on a warm afternoon
Our team’s expressions ran the gamut from awe to restrained bemusement to utter
at Tesla’s design studio in Hawthorne, Cali-
overwhelm to outright joy when they got an early look at Telsa’s upcoming Cybertruck.
fornia, with Elon Musk and chief designer
Franz von Holzhausen, who walked us through the truck’s origin “1970s wedge sports car/concept—Lamborghini Countach,
story. We’ll tell that story someday, but for now, much of it is off the Mercedes C111, Dome Zero. I’m getting Aliens APC vibes. Dang,
record. When we emerged, blinking in the light of day, and walked that’s a lot of right angles.”—Alex Nishimoto, news editor
back to the parking lot, everyone was quiet, immersed in thought. “WTF!!! A diamond? Are they trying to mimic an F-117 with the
We had truck-pooled together, five us stuffed into a Ram 1500, and diamond and triangles? Someone’s horrible sketching project?”—
it was still absolutely silent as we pulled out of Tesla’s parking lot, Stefan Ogbac, associate editor
amidst the Model 3, S, and X vehicles plugged into Superchargers. “The Cybertruck looks like, if in 1985, Saturn had unveiled an
It remained quiet until we pulled out onto a busy street and saw iteration of the Disney Monorail designed for the apocalypse.”—Ben
regular cars and trucks. I recall saying, “Can you imagine how crazy Keeshin, video producer
it will look when that truck is on the road with regular cars?” And “Did Vector make a truck? It almost looks like an SUV, and I bet
with that, a few unburdened themselves: that’s no accident. I’m impressed by how far Tesla was willing to go
“As a traditional truck person, I feel like every preconceived away from their existing design language. That takes guts.”—Zach
notion I’ve held about trucks has been shattered. I feel violated. Gale, senior production editor
I need a shower, a cigarette, and a nap, in no particular “What is that? Origami? Could it be a military vehicle?
order. When I walked in, I was shocked. That’s Where’s the bed? Wait, is that really a truck?”—
not it, right? It can’t be. It’s too brutal, too Miguel Cortina, MotorTrend en Español
radical, too assertive.”—Sean Holman, MTG “I immediately thought of DeLorean, in a good
Truck/Off Road group content director way. I wonder about visibility. How will you see
“The only thing missing in the space was anything remotely out of it?”—Kelly Lin, associate editor
looking like what I would consider a Tesla pickup truck … nothing “Are these really the images!? Wow. That’s brave.”—Alan Muir,
else but the stealth-military-styled pyramid video-game concept creative director
in the center of the floor.”—Mark Williams, truck expert “The internet will be triggered.”—Carol Ngo, social media editor
“This is a huge gamble—a high-risk and massively polarizing “It’s Minecraft meets Mad Max meets R2-D2. Terrifying yet also
design. The Hollywood-future-shock category is where the Tesla ... oddly cute.”—Claire Crowley, copy editor
truck is residing.”—Kim Reynolds, testing director “Someone please remind me which ’70s sci-fi movie used this
Just prior to the reveal in November, we shape for its planetary rovers. Dark Star?
received our first photos of the truck, which Alien? Silent Running? Elon and Franz
I shared with the broader MotorTrend staff are channeling the past in creating the
during our regular staff meeting. For the future.”—Mark Rechtin, executive editor
sake of privacy, I did not put the images So what do you think of the Cyber-
on the large wall-mounted monitors in our truck? Love it? Hate it? Both? Will you
meeting room, but had the team huddle buy it? Comment on our social media
around photographer Brian Vance’s laptop posts or shoot me your thoughts on
and jot down their very first impressions: Twitter @edloh. Q
Weeks later, the countenances around
10 MOTORTREND.COM FEBRUARY 2020 our editorial offices were much the same.