Musk Fanboys Melt Down After Ralph Nader-Founded Car Safety Group Trashes Cybertruck
From the Rolling Stone:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/cybertruck-tesla-elon-musk-car-safety-ralph-nader-1234921888/
Only a select few people who pre-ordered Tesla‘s long-delayed Cybertruck have received one so far — it helps to be Jay Leno, apparently — but fans of the futuristic vehicle have already convinced themselves it’s a flawless product, and another triumph for Elon Musk. And they’re just a tad defensive when someone suggests otherwise.
On Thursday, the Center for Auto Safety took a swipe at the divisive truck in a tweet joking that anyone who drives one is insecure about their “manhood” and was “picked last in gym.” The nonprofit consumer advocacy organization also asserted that the Cybertruck will be “dangerous to everyone else on the road.”
At over 6k lbs no one will ever doubt your manhood again. We get it. You were picked last in gym and now you want revenge. But this isn't the answer. Buying this is why you were picked last. It's desperate and dangerous to everyone else on the road. Stop being picked last. pic.twitter.com/FfsUkz4vbf
— Center for Auto Safety (@Ctr4AutoSafety) December 7, 2023
While the post didn’t specify why the truck could pose a particular hazard, other car safety experts have said that its stiff, stainless-steel panels could contribute to additional damage in collisions with pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles. (At the Cybertruck delivery event last month, Musk told prospective owners, “If you have an argument with another car, you will win.”) The truck is currently not available in the European Union due in part to regulatory issues, and a Tesla vice president has confirmed it’s unlikely to ever be sold in that market.
Yet none of these concerns have afflicted Musk’s army of blue-check loyalists on X (formerly Twitter), who also don’t seem to realize that the Center for Auto Safety, founded in 1970 by activist Ralph Nader, and Consumers Union (now Consumers Report), has been instrumental in the recall of millions of defective vehicles and parts in the past half-century.
This can’t be a real organization,” griped one ill-informed Cybertruck defender. “Safest truck ever produced,” replied another, with zero specifics to back up this claim. (Neither U.S. safety regulators nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have tested it to date.) “Ad hominem is always a true indicator of objectivity and critical thinking,” seethed a third. Some paid accounts accused the nonprofit of corruption or being “funded by Big Auto.” (Tesla itself did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
Read the rest at:
https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/cybertruck-tesla-elon-musk-car-safety-ralph-nader-1234921888/
= new reply since forum marked as read
?itok=EjgRvf-Tdropped in a chevy big block.
Their motto; 'doing the wrong thing right.'
Semi trucks are a completely different class of vehicle and they do, in fact, have their own set of federally mandated safety regulations to offer protection to other vehicles and property. They are subject to more operational constraints than passenger vehicles, and they are required to have certain safety features that don't apply to ordinary passenger vehicles.
One example is that if the trailer becomes inadvertently separated from the tractor during operation (i.e., the 5th wheel connection fails), the brakes on the trailer are required to get applied automatically so that the trailer doesn't run away and wipe out a busload of nuns on the highway. This is usually achieved by a pneumatic connection between the tractor and trailer that holds the brake open against a spring force. When that line breaks in the event of a separation, the pneumatic pressure is relieved allowing the spring to close the brake and stop the trailer.
Another example is that semi's have to meet certain bumper height requirements so that passenger vehicles that hit the trailers in the rear at high speed can't go under the trailer and decapitate persons in the passenger vehicle. This is done by integrating a special lowered rear bumper apparatus, sometimes called a rear impact guard, as shown below:
This is supposed to help prevent, or minimize, this sort of thing:
There is a whole raft of other special safety regs that apply to trucks that don't apply to cars.
I contend that the robust structure of Cyber and other features incumbent to its unusual form factor present enough of a mismatch to other passenger vehicles on the road that it may fall under new sets of safety regulations that Tesla (Musk) would try to fight off.
2. Also, since when are vehicles required to confirm to safety standards before they are ever released for production and sold?
They aren't. But best practice during product development includes working with government regulators as you go along so they can provide early insight into compliance with safety regulations. If you don't allow the government insight, then you may be baking flaws into the design that will require a lot of negative work, redesign or re-tooling of your production line before release to the public. This would cause significant delays and added costs. Musk has a habit of springing final designs and prototypes on the government late, and then peppering the gov't with waiver requests and exceptions while whining that it takes too much money and time to fix them...and then suing the government when he doesn't get his way.
My point here is that on some occasions when the government asked for information so they could keep pace with their regulatory function, Tesla had a habit of brushing them off by saying that the failure scenarios being questioned "weren't credible" (without providing justification or analysis) or that "your rules don't apply because it's a development article" - and the the government would find that the production article looks just like the development article.
3. Are you suggesting that the DOT under Sec Buttigieg is permitting Tesla to violate vehicle safety regulations that will harm consumers?
No. I'm suggesting no such thing. The development of CyberTruck started under Obama and proceeded through Trump's DOT. I'm sure Sec. Buttigieg's DOT will do all it can to keep Tesla compliant. But, Pete's entering the game late, and any safety surprises at this stage might be harder to enforce. Don't underestimate Musk's arrogance, intransigence and resistance to government rules and regulations. If his truck starts generating some tragic statistics he will find ways to overpower the government and get out of liability as well as avoid the implementation of any new safety regulations. Because he's an asshole.
I'm anti-Musk, but I'm not anti-Tesla or anti-tech. CyberTruck - good or bad - will be a bridge to the next important thing in EV tech.
IMO, I think it is a dumb vehicle, but based on that statement, they sure don't act like a serious safety organization.
