In 1981, the automotive world was taken by storm by the introduction of the DeLorean. Best known today as the iconic time machine in Back To The Future, the DeLorean was unlike anything consumers had ever seen before. With gullwing doors and a brushed stainless steel body—not to mention a design unlike any other at the time—it made a serious statement. In reality, it was all-show and no go, with a gutless engine and abysmal quality. DeLorean eventually closed its doors and ended production in 1983, and soon, founder John DeLorean, was found guilty of criminal activity while attempting to fund his struggling car company.
But what does any of this have to do with Tesla’s Cybertruck? Well, to start, whether you love it or hate it, it’s hard to deny that it looks futuristic. The Cybertruck shares the DeLorean’s brushed stainless steel body panels, and Elon Musk even boasted that it is bulletproof, despite evidence to prove the opposite. With respectable range but a lack of cargo capacity, its utility as a ‘truck’ is questionable at best. Like the DeLorean, the Cybertruck is riddled with quality issues, as is most of Tesla’s lineup. Some owners have claimed that the stainless-steel body already started corroding mere weeks after purchase.
The Cybertruck has become a uniquely polarizing product. If a car is more than just a means of transportation, an owner makes a statement about themselves by choosing a specific car. Even a shallow dive on the internet reveals two extreme parties: those who view the Cybertruck as Elon Musk’s vision for the future and those who view it as an example of Musk’s ideology finally going too far. Some extreme haters even go so far as to brand the truck as a physical manifestation of the “Tesla-dude mentality,” a hyper-masculine cultural ideology—one whose manifestation looks more like a dumpster than it does a car.
I will keep my own opinion to myself, but one thing is for sure: the Cybertruck certainly makes some sort of statement. Have we actually gone Back To The Future and, if so, is this the future we really want?