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This Cybertruck design flaw could chop off your fingers

Tesla is giving the finger to consumer safety.

This Cybertruck design flaw could chop off your fingers
[Source photo: Kyle Grillot/Bloomberg/Getty Images, Issarawat Tattong/Getty Images]

 

The Cybertruck strikes again, showing once more that Tesla has a huge design and engineering problem. Except, this time, the problem goes way beyond shoddy craftsmanshipimpossible manufacturing specifications, and questionable aesthetics. This is potentially a very serious problem for your physical well-being: It appears that the Musk-o-truck will Jeffrey Dahmer the hell out of your fingers—or any body appendage—that gets too near to its closing “frunk” or doors.

The YouTube’s channel Out of Spec Reviews found this problem a couple months ago when Cybertruck shipped to customers. They tested it with veggies and sausages and, in all their tests, the frunk was an efficient chopping machine. Musk’s polytruck is omnivorous and will chomp on your fingers too, as you can see here.

 

@_tylerblanchard_Tesla Cybertruck vs Hand #cybertruck #tesla♬ original sound – _tylerblanchard_ – _tylerblanchard_

 

The doors, by the way, have exactly the same effect, thanks to the design choice to use sharp stainless-steel sheets that, with the weight and inertia of the door, could easily sever some fingers. Maybe you thought this was a fluke in one of the early models, but no. Other owners are finding this same thing—and have taken to posting videos with the now-standard carrot test.

The reason for this class action suit-in-the-making is that, unlike every other manufacturer out there, Tesla engineers apparently forgot to put pinch sensors on the Cybercrunch’s mechanically operated frontal trunk. Indeed, someone looked into the black rubber padding of the frunk’s lid and found out . . . absolutely nothing.

Instead, Tesla designed its frunk with electrical motors that only stop if they encounter a large, hard object in their path (say, a pair of skis). Many other cars have sensors all around the rubber edge of their trunk, which is why it stops as soon as it “feels” anything resembling a finger on its path.

If you want to see how this should work, you only need to check out the comparison above, showing how different cars’ trunks respond to the carrot test depending on their pinch sensors. (For the record, not every car passes the carrot test. Really, Ford F-150?) Clearly, Tesla screwed up. Again. No wonder its sales are going down the drain.

 

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jesus Diaz founded the new Sploid for Gawker Media after seven years working at Gizmodo, where he helmed the lost-in-a-bar iPhone 4 story. He's a creative director, screenwriter, and producer at The Magic Sauce and a contributing writer at Fast Company. More

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