We aren’t technology inventors or automakers, but we think there are a couple things entrepreneurs should not do when unveiling these new products:
- Don’t whack it with a sledgehammer
There. That’s it. Don’t hit your new (very expensive) product with a sledgehammer and break it. That might not be a great way to convince savvy business owners to spend a lot of money on you.
If you really want to or think it will help you sell it and show off its durability, don’t. If you really need to and you won’t take no for an answer, make sure you do it the same way you did it before when everything reacted the way you thought it would.
Seems simple, right?
Well, no — not for Tesla, CEO Elon Musk and the designers of the Cybertruck, apparently.
The Blade Runner-inspired electric pickup truck was unveiled at an event last week, where the lead designer Franz von Holzhausen took a sledgehammer and smacked the door to demonstrate the truck’s durability and stainless-steel structural skin.
That part held up just fine, but the armored glass cracked when von Halzhausen chucked metal balls at two of the truck’s windows. The balls were supposed to bounce off the window harmlessly, as demonstrated in previous videos that show no damage befalling the prototype. However, those videos showed what appeared to be a controlled environment in a production facility.
Not a good start for this weird-but-maybe-a-little-cool pickup truck.
On Twitter, Musk said the sledgehammer cracked the base of the glass window, which caused it to shatter when the metal ball was hurled at it from point blank.
Yup. Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn’t bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door. Next time …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 25, 2019
A few things about the unveiling were a bit off. Musk called out Ford by playing a video of the Cybertruck pulling an F-150 in what some said was an unfair fight. Now, there’s an internet beef between the two manufacturers.
Despite the rocky rollout, Must said there have been more than 200,000 preorders for the truck expected to hit production in late 2021.
If you were looking to upgrade your fleet of pickup trucks and save on fuel, wait a bit longer before jumping onto the Cybertruck hype train. Musk & Co. have a few things to work out.
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