Tesla Cybertruck may have a rust problem

https://www.carsdirect.com/automotive-news/green-technology/tesla-cybertruck-may-have-a-rust-problem

by thunderbong • 2 years ago

63 69 2 years ago

pompino• 2 years ago

You can also passivate, powdercoat, etc. Not that you should need to do this after dropping that kinda cash on a car (refuse to call it a truck :P)

somat• 2 years ago

It really is a terrible truck.

And on that subject I was thinking on pickup truck beds today. None of them are really very good. A good bed would be made out of solid steel and be full of tie down points. That is, the way work trucks are made. As is stands they are made of car body steel and have almost no tie down points, and never one where you need it.

As a postscript I have been watching the edison motors channel(they are developing an electric semi truck). and my first thought was "there is no way these guys are going to be able to make it in the industry, They make way too much sense" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=an6e2Lh9u58

kube-system2• 2 years ago

A good bed would be made out of solid steel and be full of tie down points. That is, the way work trucks are made.

There's a lot of different truck beds with different styles and materials for different purposes. Sheet metal truck beds are the most popular work truck bed by volume, but there are very serious industrial users that choose aluminum.

e.g. https://cmtruckbeds.com/truck-beds/

orwin• 2 years ago

Disagree on the 'made of solid steel', my father is a woodworker/painter/decorator, aluminum is enough, he doesn't move gravel or stone.

Fully gree with full of tie down points. Even in car trunks, you need more tie down points. Let me insure my stuff won't fly if I take a sharp turn, please!

m4632• 2 years ago

tie down points

I've always thought the same thing. Maybe none of the CEOs ever take home groceries in their car. Or haul a motorcycle, bicycle or plates of food over to a potluck.

Why don't trucks and cars have modular storage? multi-use storage?

Why do we have to quickly drive home from the grocery store to put stuff in the fridge or freezer? We should have a cooler in the back of the vehicle for groceries so it doesn't become a race, and groceries don't have to be the last stop.

and milk jugs, eggs, bread. Car manufacturers provide enough storage so that all of them end up thrown about the trunk on the drive home. Why not reconfigurable storage that holds them in place?

They're too busy figuring out how to add some subscription entertainment system. Or optimize away physical controls into the touchscreen.

Actually, why can't we have some sort of storage that lifts your groceries out of the car and wheels them into your kitchen?

throwup238• 2 years ago

Finally, concrete evidence that the rewrite it in Rust fad has gone way too far!

It’s about time we put object oriented oxidation to rest.

yobert• 2 years ago

Seems like if they went with a different language, the truck would Go better.

FredPret• 2 years ago

Should have gone for good old Steel Bank CL

signaru• 2 years ago

I just want a truck that can deliver cargo and packages in crates.

Reason0773• 2 years ago

This “rust” is cosmetic tarnishing, not structural corrosion. Over time I imagine it will develop into a beautiful patina. Every CyberTruck will look unique.

If you really want to keep it looking shiny and pristine, you can always get a clear protective wrap.

XorNot• 2 years ago

Or they could've clear-coated it from the start, because the vehicle wasn't advertised as "will develop a patina" it was advertised as "stainless steel that's why we're not painting it".

defrost2• 2 years ago

That's right kids, It's A Feature, Not A Bug!

( and if it goes wrong it's your fault for not fixing it yourself )

a_gnostic• 2 years ago

Baloney.

Try it.

maximinus_thrax• 2 years ago

Over time I imagine it will develop into a beautiful patina. Every CyberTruck will look unique.

This is sarcasm, right?

TimTheTinker• 2 years ago

I think it's only partly sarcasm.

Everyone knows anything made of copper won't stay reddish if left outside for any length of time. It's just expected it will develop a green patina.

Maybe that's the sort of expectation these Tesla truck owners need to embrace - and the sooner the better. Every metal left outside will slowly oxidize.

abledon• 2 years ago

the Cybertrucks near Starbase are gonna look wild after a year or so of the sea-salt air eating away at them

icehawk• 2 years ago

Is that even a thing available?

spindle2• 2 years ago

Yes, but it costs something like $5,000, and you have to think of it in time.

Symbiote2• 2 years ago

It's the thing they use to completely cover a car in a Red Bull advert or similar.

More common is covering buses and trains. For trains in some countries probably the majority of vehicles are wrapped: https://www.aurabrands.com/what-we-do/on-track/rail-livery-b...

JohnBooty5• 2 years ago

If you see a really expensive vehicle (rare sports cars, etc) I think it's the norm.

Big financial hit if you screw up the paint job on a Ferrari or something like that. Either you're going to pay through the nose for paint repairs or you're going to take a huge hit on the resale value of your $250K vehicle.

So a $5000 (or whatever they cost) clear wrap quickly becomes the smart financial choice on your investment.

booi• 2 years ago

lol what. Without a clear coat or some protective coating, all metal will corrode over time and 100x faster near the ocean. Even marine-grade 316 stainless steel. Steel patina is basically just corrosion.

kube-system2• 2 years ago

Not that it is the case here (it almost certainly isn't), but not all corrosion is 'bad'. Some steels are designed to form a protective layer of corrosion and then stop corroding.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_steel

If Tesla really wanted to stick to the cyberpunk theme, they should have chosen COR-TEN :)

dzhiurgis2• 2 years ago

Marine stainless generally doesn't corrode if it remains dry. Otherwise boats would be near impossible.

phone86753093• 2 years ago

Ah, yes, they're just driving/washing it wrong

iwontberude• 2 years ago

This has been the way I've seen it. It's a true testament to the ruggedness and off-road dedication.

Ctyra• 2 years ago

Why capital 'R' in rust here? I thought somehow they were using Rust in their software, and ran into some problems with it.

Reason0773• 2 years ago

Exactly right. And Tesla engineers known as May and Havé are believed to be responsible for the bugs.

rconti• 2 years ago

It's almost as if there's a pattern to which letters in the headline are capitalized...

ftorres16• 2 years ago

Title case can be confusing sometimes.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case

jodrellblank• 2 years ago

As seen in one of the answers on "What is the worst gotcha in C# or .NET?" at https://stackoverflow.com/a/2542285 (among many other interesting answers over 3 pages)

madaxe_again• 2 years ago

I don’t understand why people want their truck to look pristine.

Mine is all of seven years old, and is more dents and scratches than it is intact bodywork - because it’s a truck, and it gets used for truck stuff.

If you don’t use it for truck stuff, and want a shiny object, for god’s sake, don’t buy a truck.

jaarse2• 2 years ago

I think there is a very good chance that exactly zero Cybertrucks are used as actual work trucks.

hindsightbias• 2 years ago

The majority of trucks sold are status symbols. I’ve never seen a muddy Raptor.

JohnBooty5• 2 years ago

I'm not exactly defending it but a lot of people buy trucks because they occasionally "legitimately" need one.

I remember my parents used to buy station wagons. 51 weeks out of the year, we did not need a station wagon. But one week out of the year... we did need it, for family vacations.

JohnBooty5• 2 years ago

Car rust is a little bit more than a cosmetic issue. Eventually it destroys things.

jaarse2• 2 years ago

You have to admire the marketing when they can convince their fans that not clear coating a vehicle is a feature not a bug.

It wouldn’t even look different or cost all that much. The only downside is you would be able to leave it parked outside.

What will Tesla think of next?

tivert• 2 years ago

You have to admire the marketing when they can convince their fans that not clear coating a vehicle is a feature not a bug.

It's not rust, it's an attractive patina!

phone86753093• 2 years ago

You're washing it wrong

moepstar• 2 years ago

Meta:

What is it with Tesla that each little thing is being blown epically out of proportion by news outlets, press, TV, etc.?

I mean, i get it - bad news are good news, bring clicks etc.

But with Tesla?

- Cybertruck? Rust, tyre problems - "recalls" which are OTA software updates - waste disposal in CA - ...

Elon is of course no saint, a controversial figure - in fact, i think he's pretty much a clown and at this point in time, he's doing Tesla a disservice by still being "in charge".

But that's not the point with the recent (?) reporting, i feel this seems to be bigger and across much of the media i observe - as if every troll factory in the world has a contract to bash on Tesla...

Recently, it's gotten so bad, i had to use RSS-Bridge with the filter plugin to filter each headline that contains "Tesla" - right now only sparing HN from this treatment - not sure if i'm keeping that up for much longer :(

ShamelessC• 2 years ago

Seems obvious to me. Tesla has an absurd valuation. Their CEO is the richest person alive (or was at one point) and has a cult-like status amongst many online fans. This person has historically used his loudspeaker to lie, pump, dump, you name it. Finally, Tesla as a company is premised on subverting an existing industry with very established players - it’s entertaining news when that doesn’t go according to plan.

Probably similar reasons why the press jumped all over every Apple mistake when Jobs was around.

jjguy• 2 years ago

All this, but there is also some negative PR getting funded, presumably by the incumbent car manufacturers threatened by Tesla.

Remember that NYT article came out in 2018 that painted such a terrible picture of Elon (1)? A year later it showed up on my Facebook feed as a paid advertisement. Who pays to promote a year-old news article?

grecy• 2 years ago

One of the richest men in the world has a billion dollar short position on Tesla.

A lot of people stand to lose a tremendous amount of money if the stock price doesn’t come way down

serial_dev• 2 years ago

Huh, interesting.

It would be hilarious* if these cars really had a serious rust problem, and all the hipsters with their 60-100k cars will explain how rust is completely normal on a 3 years old car. Or that it is "cosmetic tarnishing".

* hilarious in the abstract, if it happened to you and you take a financial hit, I'm sorry

As one reddit comment mentioned, if people start wrapping this car, but the "wrapping" company is not doing a perfect job, moisture and dirt under the wrap can wreck the car without owners noticing it for a long time.

However, I'm not sure if the issue is really widespread, I'd imagine we had more photos if it were. I guess we will see.

qwerpy• 2 years ago

I haven't decided if I'm going to wrap my Cybertruck, lean into the Mad Max rust aesthetic, or lovingly wipe it clean every week like my neighbor and his pristine Shelby. Most likely, option 3 until I get bored, followed by option 2 until the wife gets embarrassed, then option 1.

Ah yes, I'm well aware of the financial hit. I'm buying a new car after all!

Terr_• 2 years ago

Or that it is "cosmetic tarnishing".

I'll give it a pass if it turns out it was made with weathering steel. :p

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weathering_steel

D13Fd2• 2 years ago

That would be an incredible mess. If it's not pre-weathered, weathering steel leaves rust stains everywhere during the weathering process. You would have thousands of people suing Tesla for the damage to their driveways and garages.

I don't think it's weathering steel :-)

Volundr• 2 years ago

cosmetic tarnishing

We call that patina.

xnx• 2 years ago

Post-apocalyptic nano-hydro-scarring

agumonkey• 2 years ago

it's 80s retrofuturism, 1880s

phone86753093• 2 years ago

if it happened to you and you take a financial hit, I'm sorry

I'm not. The people who bought the Cybertruck either knew or should have known that there'd be issue like this given the well documented Tesla QA issues and the fact that this is a completely new product so they're the beta testers.

ThrowawayTestr• 2 years ago

You don't know what a hipster is.

Symbiote2• 2 years ago

Posts on the source (forum) linked in the article suggest this is dust from railway tracks that lands on the cars and rusts.

It needs to be carefully removed, but is common on new cars transported by rail.

r0ckarong• 2 years ago

Disrupting the "cars that can stay outside" industry from the ground up.

i_am_a_peasant• 2 years ago

Initially I expected it was about software running on the cybertruck, was disappointed, and amused.

dzhiurgis2• 2 years ago

What on earth is this article

If things like rain, car washes, bugs, and pine tar need to be cleaned off immediately and regularly, road salt, rocks, and debris from off-roading will surely wreak havoc on the truck’s body.

Clean off car washes?

Has no one driven Cybertruck in salt or off-road yet?

stainless steel body doesn’t have a clear coat, so there’s nothing to protect the body from dents, dings, scratches,

Clear coat protects from dents and dings?

How is this article written worse than a bot.

iamthemonster• 2 years ago

In industry we don't use bare uncoated stainless steel in marine environments at elevated operating temperatures due to chloride stress corrosion cracking risk. I do wonder what metallurgists think of this bare 301 stainless steel from a CSCC point of view.

Tesla Cybertruck may have a rust problem

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