— Fred Lambert (@FredericLambert) June 3, 2024 You do certainly lose some road feel, but I think it’s worth it for just how responsive the steering is in the Cybertruck. I hope Tesla brings this to other vehicles. The steering combined with the vehicle’s electric powertrain with instant torque makes this 6,000 lbs vehicle feels like a much lighter, smaller vehicle. Then, you combine all that with the rear-wheel steering making the turning radius equivalent to a Model S. On top of all of this, I found the Cybertruck’s cabin to be extremely quiet, which to me is one of the main things that makes a vehicle feel luxurious. It’s not all great with the driving experience though. Some of the previously mentioned design constraints do negatively affect the driving experience, but none more than the rear-view mirror situation. When you have the tonneau cover on, which you want to for aerodynamic reasons, the rear view mirror is useless other than to keep an eye on your kids in the back if you have some. Instead, Tesla uses its rear camera and feeds it to the center display. I don’t get why Tesla is not at least offering a rear-view mirror that doubles as a screen and send the feed there. It’s an exciting technology and this is a $100,000 vehicle. It would be a much better experience than having to look at the screen and taking some screen real estate there. But the biggest downside to driving the Cybertruck right now, at least on the highway, is the lack of Autopilot. Tesla has been delivering these trucks for 6 months now and while they are all sold with Autopilot and Full Self-Driving included, Tesla has yet to adapt its ADAS systems to the truck yet. The automaker says that it is working on it, but it’s not a priority since improvements to the existing system for other vehicles that exist in higher volumes are more impactful. Not a bad point, but you can’t use that excuse for so long when you are selling the features on these new trucks. Cybertruck Range and Charging The vehicle was showing about 318 miles (511 km) of range when full and I felt like I would be able to get something close to that in my travel in fairly good conditions in Washington if I was optimizing for range, but I was having some fun with the truck. That result in getting an average of 429 Wh per mile: That results in closer to 286 miles (460 km) of range Of course, you can expect that range to drop significantly if you use some of the truck’s 11,000 lbs towing capacity. We previously reported on Cybertruck towing range tests. It is a bit disappointing that the Cybertruck’s range announced at the original unveiling is only achievable through an upcoming additional battery pack that will fit in the back of the bed, but at the same time, I think it’s an interesting solution and I’m curious to see how it will be implemented and used by customers. The bigger bummer for me is the Cybertruck’s charging capacity. It does have a peak charge rate of 250 kW like Tesla’s other vehicles, but that charge rate drops much faster than in Tesla’s other vehicles, resulting in fairly long “fast-charging” sessions. In my own experience, you can get 130 miles in just about 10-15 minutes at a Supercharger if you are at a low (<20%) state of charge, but the top 50% charge can take up an hour at Supercharger. Tesla says that it is working on improving that charge curve through a software update. The automaker is talking about as much as a 20% improvement, which is much needed. Electrek’s Take Overall, I have a positive view of the Cybertruck. I love that Tesla was bold enough to finally bring a 48-volt architecture and steer-by-wire to a high-volume vehicle program. In the long term, I think it will prove impactful on the entire industry. I just don’t understand the decision to package it in this way. Like I previously reported, it feels like the Cybertruck is more of a marketing tool than a standalone vehicle program. You could argue that it is better as a tech test bed and marketing tool than anything else. Some people love it and I’m not there to be a party pooper. I’m not one of those who judge for loving the way the truck looks. But I do wonder if Tesla would have had a bigger impact on its mission if it had packaged this technology in a different-looking truck. I’m not saying that it has to look just like all other pickup trucks on the market. It could have still had stainless steel, a rugged look, but in a less dramatic form factor. With all its incredible tech inside and a form factor easier to adopt, Tesla could have more easily gone after the huge pickup truck market, which is badly in need of electrification. That’s its mission, after all. Instead, I now feel like the market is mostly existing Tesla owners who don’t even really need a truck, but they are getting one because Tesla is making this. I am sure some of them do need one, but I feel like there’s a lot of that going on. Top comment by Grant