The stainless steel body of Tesla's Cybertruck is reportedly leading to issues with gaps in between the panels

The Cybertruck's steel is made in "coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper,"

All steel is shipped from the steel mill in coils just like that.

Other manufacturers of all manner of stainless products seem to have figured out a solution to the problem.

Other manufacturers of all manner of stainless products seem to have figured out a solution to the problem.
Two design choices together probably make the problem multiplicatively worse:
Flat panels are not anywhere as stiff as curved panels.
Mechanical parameters of the stainless alloy they're using (eg it might retain the coiled shape more than some other plain steel alloys).
I can't get over the flatness... those panels surely rattle too? Or do they void-fill the doors and body with something?
- Flat panels are not anywhere as stiff as curved panels
  Same for windows. So much for "thermonuclear explosion-proof glass", Elon.
  Also, the shape has horrible aerodynamics. If it had a combustion engine, they couldn't sell it in large parts of the world due to fuel efficiency.
- Point 2 in particular is huge. Depending on the exact alloy steel can vary wildly in characteristics. One alloy might bend almost as easily as aluminum, while another might be nearly as hard as tungsten. Adding to that proper heat treatment and the difference in the mechanical characteristics of the finished product can be absolutely massive.
- Don't older cars have mostly flat panels? So it should be possible, right?
Seems like tesla has an answer too:
sell the poorly made trucks to rubes while you crank out more as cheaply as possible.
Company doing stuff they have no expertise with. Neither have i, but i don't promise silly products.

You mean the thing everyone said was going to happen actually happened. Lmao

LMAO X2

Not a Tesla fan but this article is garbage. Basically all sheet metal comes on coils "that resemble toilet paper" including the metal that other manufacturers use.

It definitely seems like an irrelevant point. All car sheet steel arrives in rolls.
I'd be more concerned about how it is formed into panels, how resistant it is to corrosion, what tolerances parts have, how easy is it to replace parts, whether there are visible production flaws due to it being naked steel, and if construction techniques or material thickness makes it more dangerous to occupants or pedestrians in collisions.
I certainly won't be surprised if pictures start appearing in a year or two of cybertrucks that have been completely fucked by salt water corrosion, or heat warppage or other issues caused by their design.
- I certainly won't be surprised if pictures of that don't start appearing in a year or two because the things still haven't been delivered
  (I know, I know, they're supposed to be delivering the first ones in two days, but I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if that somehow falls through)
When they make plywood it comes wrapped up super tight in a tree
- Has anyone complimented your genius today?
yeah. panel gaps aren't a sheet metal issue, it's been a Tesla issue since forever.
"Water? Like out the toilet?"
- *terlet
- Please only wash your Cyber Truck with Brawndo™
Yeah, but other manufacturers don't try to origami sheet metal into a car.
- That's almost exactly what they do...
The missing point is it's a property of stainless steel that it remembers being a coil and can unflatten itself weeks later if the manufacturer doesn't know how to work around that.
- I've worked with stainless steel (specifically 304, 430 and 401) for 15 years and the steel shouldn't have a memory after being run through a de-coiling machine that is configured properly. Excessive heat in a focused area would definitely cause it to warp but this can usually be overcome by adding geometry to stiffen the parts. It seems like the team at Tesla is missing a step somewhere.

Well at least Elon can pretend that all the panels were within 10 microns of gap when they left the factory, and it totally warped 2 cm (20000 microns) on the way to the customers.

So wait. You're telling me that materials can expand and contract due to many conditions such as shifts in temperature? Ya don't say (that was directed at Elon, not you).
Sure, he could say that. It's still his/Tesla's fault. Shipping the product is part of the process, and they'd still be responsible for that (or should be at least. Who knows in this dystopia).
He'd probably just say that it arrived in perfect shape, the customer just fucked it up and are lying. Or something like that.
- Seems like the answer here is "You're an idiot if you buy Tesla products".
  Essy lesson to learn, imo.
- Good old fashioned blame the customer. He's so good at it his fanbois will do it for him.

What a surprise! The other well known stainless steel car, the Delorean DMC-12, is FAMOUS for being a huge pain in the ass to work on. Dents and dings are tremendous problems, and stainless steel is super heavy.

Not to mention all of the manual labour it took to make all the panels to fit properly. No 2 delorean were the same
Depending on the grade, the weight difference between stainless steel and carbon steel of the same thickness is not much of any at all.
- Don't most cars use aluminum as well as carbon steel in their frames, to save on weight?

Well, it wouldn't be a Tesla if it didn't.

10 micron!
- I think we all just misheard him and he actually said it had macron precision, not micron

Panel gaps are just a ubiquitous feature of a Tesla. This isn't a surprise, and the apologists will say it's no big deal.

I am not a car guy. Would gaps allow water to come in and causes issues as well as act like asail increasing air resistance?
- Probably not in this case. Most vehicle doors are designed to channel any water that enters the gap. But, Tesla may not be aware of this practice and rely only on the seals.
- Don't ask questions, just hail Elon our overlord who can do no wrong!
- It would slightly increase wind resistance. Every car has weather stripping, making water not a concern even for comparatively very large gaps.
You should see the videos of model Y owners (a model they've had many iterations on) roll down their window during rain to get a drive through order and the water pours into the open window directly onto the, you guessed it, button console used to open/close the window and DOOR. I'm sure that won't eventually cause problems. With OPENING THE DOOR.
And it's not just falling rain, it literally channels rain from the glass roof directly into any open window. It's hilarious.

Tesla's quality control just reflects Elons concern for all his biological children.

This isn't even the first time this has happened to a Tesla, at this point this particular problem is just expected.

Every single thing you've ever had that had sheet metal in it came from "coils that resemble giant rolls of toilet paper". But it's the WSJ, I just assume the writer has never met anyone who works for a living.

4x8 sheets are pretty popular, too.

Flat panels suck for resistance to bending, the compound curves and folds pressed into most car panels give them more rigidity

Watch what happens when people eventually discover what completely flat panels of sheet metal do in heavy wind.

There is literally a reason why no other auto manufacturer uses flat body panels on cars.

Just so I know, what does happen?
- they get real flappy
- Metal does not like to compress at all. But when you make it really thin it will be floppy like a spring you might find in a pen or wind up toy. However you can make it stiff again by making it curved so the sheet has structure/mass going on all directions. Infact believe it or not cars during the 1960/70s had quite a bit of curves dispute being a brick. And that's because they didn't want the panels to dent easily. So when a car has flat faces like the Cyber truck. Those panels don't even have subtle curves to give them structure and they are soo suspectable to dents that a simple brease does the job of denting them.
- I assume the flat panels have an aerodynamic effect like the underbody of race cars. They ultimately create forces sucking the surface into a direction. And since on the sides it will be never stable it will flap around all the time. You can see that the most with the vertical fin stabilizer of Formula 1 cars. https://old.reddit.com/r/F1Technical/comments/nd2ayw/alpine_flexible_rearwing/
  Here is a lot of wobbling and while the vertical changes are intended, the horizontal ones surely aren't and they tried to make it as stiff as possible. Certainly nothing a production car would achieve.
  Correct me if I am wrong, as I didn't study this particular area.

I love how this is a joke that just went too far. Elon presented a stupid design, just for attention, as with everything he does. And now they are seriously taking about releasing the ugliest car since the Fiat Multipla.

Fiat Multipla
Damn that's a goofy lookin car. Looks almost like the car that Homer Simpson designed.
- I had to look it up. I was not expecting your joke to be literal. It does look like Homer's car! Just without the second dome.
Should have just been left as a quirky concept car. Obviously divisive design but I think it looks best under specific lighting conditions.

Oh no! You have to respect the “Spaltmaß”! * cries in German *

I mean in the end it is a sign of sloppy craftsmanship. The gaps themselves might not be so bad, but they reflect an alarming lack of quality control, that could very well affect more critical systems.
If I can't trust you to make a good looking turd, how can I trust you to make an actual quality product?

2 million idiots clambering over themselves to preorder this brainfart of a vehicle.

Yeah it looks like what a toddler would draw if you told them to draw a truck.

Just leaving a "Aber die Spaltmaße" comment here.

The regular Tesla cars have inconsistent panel gaps already, I feel this is a production issue, not a material issue.

I am just glad the man is distracted, keeps him away from spacex

I truly applaud the attempt to radically innovate, from stainless steel to eliminate car rust (how much of it truly is stainless, mechanically speaking?), to major aesthetical design overhaul (even though it does not appeal to me at all). With so much innovation, delays ought to be expected

That being said, everything else is just atrocious. Production issues are blamed on unexpected delays because of innovation and vice versa. It just screams project mismanagement. This thing should't have been revealed at all. Also, why the fuck does this have bullet proof glass? A truck for the apocalypse? Are they trying to sell an APC? Who asked for any of that?

I wouldn't call any part of this innovative
- Idk, it's kinda innovative to see musk finding new ways to shoot himself in the foot
The glass isn't bullet proof, although it's toughened. The body panels are supposed to be bullet proof (obviously only up to a certain point, as nothing is ever bullet proof against everything).
I think the bullet proof nature of the panels is more of a happy accident with the stainless being used just being very tough to begin with.
The oligarchs are preparing for the apocalypse they're bringing about themselves. This is the car they'll be driving through the rubble.
- I would pick a Toyota pickup run the mother on syngas from wood. Civilization is over but I can still get air conditioning and drive.

Should have taken a closer look at DMC...

At least the Delorean actually looked cool and had some style
- Looked? Thing still is awesome looking!

Worked for a car manufacturer doing statistical analysis on gap & flushness all over the exterior... And the door gaps are a bitch to get right. Probably the most difficult ones over the whole car. All the manufacturers struggle with this to a degree. This is also the one place where part quality is probably most critical.

The other gaps are usually handled by designing the angles in a beneficial way etc. When they show up in a bigger way it's almost always bad design.

Replacing car doors with ones from a junkyard is always fun too.

All steel coils resemble giant rolls of toilet paper no?

All toilet papers resemble miniatures of steel coils as well
Ah but how do we get the clicks if we don't sensationalize everything?

What a shock 🙄

This is the best summary I could come up with:

The Cybertruck's stainless steel body has been difficult to work with, especially when it comes to the vehicle's fit and finish, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.

In October, Tesla set a delivery event for the first Cybertrucks for November 30 after two years of delays — and there's signs the truck will have a smaller release than initially expected.

Meanwhile, Musk has warned that it will be difficult to scale production due to the vehicle's unusual design and said the company aims to produce about a quarter million Cybertrucks per year by 2025.

"When you've got a product with a lot of new technology or any brand new vehicle program, especially one that is as different and advanced as the Cybertruck, you will have problems proportionate to how many new things you're trying to solve at scale," Musk said during Tesla's earnings call last month.

Yet despite the enthusiasm, some Tesla fans have already taken to criticizing the design, including the vehicle's enormous windshield wiper and images of its finger-print smudged doors, as well as misaligned panels.

Auto expert Sandy Munro previously told Insider it's unfair to judge the vehicle based off of images of early Cybertruck prototypes.

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that the truck is not designed or built right has been obvious from the getgo. Similar issues are found in all Tesla products, i'm not sure why we're pretending otherwise

electric ground vehicles are not going to save the world

No, the world is screwed, but if I could not have to breathe all the exhaust I'd be all for that.

anti-T articles almost as many pro-T. pics or it didn't happen. did see some showroom, not rc, that are pretty defect free. get ready. delivery day in 2, 1...