i drove a friend's cybertruck today. pic for people who think weather in florida always sucks. :D

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...6f0473ac3.jpeg

so first thing, lack of turn signal stalk is indeed, annoying, and while one might 'get used it' it was still a terrible decision by tesla.

my friend has fsd and loves its abilities. unfortunately, we were downtown in fort lauderdale with detours, an arts festival on the main street, lots of traffic and people, and fsd didn't do great. more later. my friend said it's so great for highway driving, which i believe because i already experienced it on my model x test drive.

the truck felt large, floaty, with very quick ratio steering. i think the steering is the best part and the sooner tesla brings it to other models the better.

i still have zero interest in owning one, but it was interesting!

I would like to drive one just to experience the drive-by-wire feel as I have read so much about it and seen videos where people are very impressed by it. I'd also just like to have a sense for overall ride quality, road noise, etc. I have 0 interest in owning one but I am curious how it compares to my MYP and other Tesla models I've ridden in.

so about that drive... :D

the big thing is the 4wheel steering, steering by wire (meaning it's software controlled and variable input/output ratio) and the small 'squircle' wheel. the steering is VERY quick (as has been mentioned by many - you don't even need a full rotation of the wheel to go to lock). i did a u-turn in the width of a tight street... good stuff.

however, it feels very unnatural, but that's not entirely due to the steering itself. this is a tall not particularly wide truck with massive tires and a fairly soft suspension with a surprising amount of body roll. since it's an air suspension this may be able to be improved via software, but it drives a bit like an old lincoln town car with quick steering. :D

i didn't drive it on a highway though, where i suspect it's more composed because the steering inputs would be smaller and drive by wire can make the inputs (wheel movement) result in less dramatic output (steering).

there's not much to say about the interior of the truck except it's incredibly plain. nothing to see here. :p but it is quite roomy :thumbup:
i still don't like the giant center screen only because tesla has no choice but to put tons of information/controls in that one place. can one "get used to" it? yes, but that doesn't mean it's great. and yes i know i'll hear from tesla owners how wonderful it is, but i've now driven several teslas and for me i would prefer the S and X dual screen setup.

my friend got the truck in feb, so he was pretty early. he said there were some panel fitment issues but tesla resolved them with no problems. he did also tell me that early on he encountered some overhead branches which brushed the windshield which the car thought meant it was raining, and the giant single wiper started, and fell off. lol

the A pillars are monumentally huge (thick and long, not good), and the rear view mirror is clearly only in the truck for regulatory compliance (it's completely useless). the screen has the rear view camera's view present which is more useful but of course takes up a chunk of the screen.

my friend likes the stainless steel because he just doesn't care about the exterior, keeping it 'nice', etc. :D

my friend had used the self-parking feature to park the truck in a parking lot, which he says works great and is helpful to park the big truck. i could see it had done a good job.

the full self-driving on the city streets drove the cal pretty close to the parked cars on the right (closer than i would) but that was to make sure it kept in the lane even if there was no traffic coming in the opposite direction. it had me tense with hands near the wheel just in case. :D if you barely touch the wheel and move it the fsd disengages and you must take over the driving.

the one pedal driving is excellent - tesla has nailed this.

more if i think of anything...

Honestly if I was in the market for an EV truck, it would be an R1T. Although I found the infotainment software to be, sluggish. And I'm being kind here :) Cyber Truck is definitely not for me.

As far as having a single screen Tesla has adopted, I have no comments because some people like it, and some don't, simple as that

I get that some people like it...but is it that they like it and DON'T want a screen behind the steering wheel? Or is it that they like the single screen but would welcome the addition of a second screen behind the steering wheel?

Gen 2 is supposed to have a more powerful processor so it should be smoother. I haven't used it so I can't speak to it personally. It is snappier than my old 19 3P which always hiccuped before activating the rear cameras, but the Y loaner we had a few weeks back was much smoother

No, I think they (me :) ) just got used to not having a screen behind the steering wheel. If Tesla put a screen with an speedometer, etc behind the steering wheel, I would be absolutely fine with that as well, although now it would be a waste of resources, and I like that my view is not obstructed at all. When I transition to either the Polestar or our Ioniq, I'm fine that have a dedicated screen behind the steering wheel as well. I hope that makes sense

I am seeing more of these in SoCal and daaaaamn they are fugly.

I think it's more than just having a more powerful processor, but also having optimized software. I've driven a 2018 Model 3 with the Intel Atom, and the screen was extremely smooth. It lacked some features that are in my 2023 MY, but still a smooth experience. As an example, I cut the cable cord back in 2011, and tried so many different streaming boxes. One particular Android box I bought from Amazon was a Chinese built with extremely powerful quad processors, but the software (Android) was not optimized for the hardware, and the stream was always choppy, especially streaming 1080p and above. And it froze constantly. I ended up buying an NVIDIA Shield, which runs a version of Android optimized for their hardware, and never looked back

The 3 things he hates about his CT

1. Headlights - especially when it snows since the the low headlights and ledge gather snow. Lightbar also causes issues because its position lights up snow as it's falling and gives that star wars light speed effect
2. Towing - steel bumper tube -> cast aluminum frame does not give confidence for the weight that he's towing. Cast aluminum has a fatigue limit and will eventually fail unlike steel.
3. Elon's weird tweets + CT as a billboard makes it seem like you're supporting Elon's weird tweets

I don't get the last part

Many in my area have added bumper stickers like this:

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.clu...046592acb8.png

Everyone is entitled to their opinions.

Some people can separate Elon from Tesla and others can't.

I've seen hundreds of CT's by this point, and I've never seen people put stickers on them. People who say they didn't know Elon was a bit "off" are just lying to themselves, I've always known since the Roadster, I mean who's crazy enough to think they are going to build EV's that go mainstream

or grab a falling 20 story high rocket booster with 'chopsticks' or put tens of thousands of satellites into space to give people communication from anywhere, or to get cars to 'mostly' drive themselves or give quadriplegics or blind people new abilities...