The term ‘polarizing‘ isn’t strong enough to describe reactions to the Cybertruck. People hate it! It’s considered so ugly that people liken it to a dumpster. And truck guys laugh at its inability to do truck things, like drive off road. I’ve been just as critical as many, even mocking the vehicle at the Auto Show last year.
But yesterday I stopped next to one at the drug store. Looking at the futuristic, brutalist, stainless-steel polygon parked next to my old truck… it changed my mind. It isn’t beautiful, and it isn’t a truck. It’s a vision of retro-futurism right out of 1980s movies. And in this age where every crossover looks the same, its interesting to see an attempt to be different.
Sci-fi movies of the 1980s like ‘Blade Runner‘ and ‘Robocop‘ show dystopian visions of the future sometimes with really cool cars! Nothing says ‘car of tomorrow’ more than a movie car that flies. But the most realistic future-mobiles are the vehicles that brake conventional design language.
Watch an old sci-fi movie from the 1950s and cars of the year 2000 have fins and jet engines. This reflects the space-age design language of that era… not the future.
Maybe the intent of the Cybertruck’s styling is to break from the established 100-year-old design. American pickup truck are always 3 boxes (nose, cab, bed) and the Cybertruck has no boxes, no separate cabin; a complete re-think of the truck as seen through the lens of 1980s retro-futurist movies.
I always thought my GMC was kind of cool. A cross between Marty McFly’s old ’86 Toyota pickup truck from ‘Back to the Future‘ and a monster truck. But the big black Sierra looks like a dinosaur next to the Cybertruck. It is something completely unique.
good on you for being open-minded, chris. the cybertruck cannot be separated from its destructor creator in my mind. but i’m glad to read appreciation from one who is critically thinking like you!
I’ve always hated the brand because the cars DO NOT deserve the attention and adoration. Plus that guy is a dope.
.
But just seeing my truck next to the Cybertruck made it so clear that it is an attempt to push design language forward. And I respect that much more than ‘traditional’ design.
.
A couple years ago my son pointed out that all the cool, futuristic car designs are always on the electric models companies make. Look at the Hyundai gasoline cars, the compare it to their Ioniq5, which looks much different (and better).
.
I was fully on board with the Tesla-bashing, but seeing the vehicle in person changed my perspective.
it looks to me like the visibility would be terrible. and i’m with your other commenter who is unable to separate the product from the producer in this case.
The visibility (over the shoulder) must be atrocious. And that electronic bed cover looks like something destined to break (or freeze) when you can least afford it to.
.
I bet that when John DeLorean got caught buying/selling kilos of cocaine to get the cash to prop up his failing car company, it likely tarnished the stainless skin of those Back-To-The-Future-mobiles.
when my son was a new resident of california over 10 years ago, he already had a negative opinion of the tesla guy. maybe because he was in the tech industry and in the area, but i didn’t even know who the guy was at that time.
He is an egomaniac. That’s the bottom line. Imagine buying a social media company with a well established name, and changing the name (what could be stupider than X) just so that it “matches” his other business names.
.
That kind of person as an employer or GOD FORBID a public servant? Good luck to all of us.
.
Seems like your son had the right impression.
he’s a pretty smart kid, that’s for sure. i love being able to learn from my kids — i imagine you share that because you have some pretty smart kiddos as well.
Well… they got mom’s smarts, and my furious temper.
While I applaud customers who are not afraid to embrace the cyber truck revolutionary design, for me, it is impossible not to associate the car with Musk, one of the leaders of the fascist government which took over America. Well, I didn’t like Musk even before I knew he was a nazi.
It might sound a bit contradictory since I am a big fan of the VW Beetle, which was strongly linked with Hitler, but I don’t think I would love VW as much if I was living in Poland in 1938, and that is how I feel living in Canada in 2025.
I hate people that love Tesla almost as much as I hate people who line up at the Apple Store for the latest iPhone. It’s like they’re brainwashed.
.
So my dislike for Tesla (and the owner) really coloured my attitude towards the Cybertruck. I could not see it for what it was; an attempt to re-imagine the American pickup truck. I just knew it was the brainchild of ‘that guy’ so I hated it. Laughed at it. Ridiculed people who bought it.
.
When I saw the vehicle in public, parked next to my monster truck, I finally got it. Not saying it was beautiful like a DMC-12 but it tried to be something new.
.
All that aside, I understand what you’re saying about these Nazi people (from then and now). When I went to the Petersen Automotive Museum in California last year, there were some Mercedes race cars that looked really cool. Totally futuristic. When I looked up images of the car online, I noticed the swastikas on the original vehicle had been painted over before displaying it in the museum. With that history I could never drive a Mercedes Benz, and I understand where you’re going with the Beetle.