On the Fremont plant test track, a freshly built Tesla Cybertruck was spotted being put through its paces. The Driven reported that the Cybertruck was filmed by a drone on the test track and has been viewed about 400,000 times since it was posted on YouTube by “Chile Al100.”
The video provides numerous opportunities to view the Cybertruck from various perspectives, including the first appearance of the Cybertruck with side mirrors. Although virtual mirrors employing cameras were originally planned for the Cybertruck, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen this concept on prototypes give way to more traditional side mirrors to meet with car design requirements.
The enormous, wing-like wiper is just another oddity on an already odd car — and, at worst, a very costly design mistake that may give future owners some real headaches. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, appears to be acutely aware of the problem.
In response to a user who pointed out the “comically big windshield wiper,” he revealed in a Friday tweet, “The wiper is what worries me the most.”
“There is no simple solution,” he added. “A deployable wiper that stows in the front trunk would be great, but it would be difficult to implement.”
Despite having planned to replace them with cameras and internally mounted screens, Musk and his team had to resort to adding side-view mirrors.
According to Yahoo News, Tesla has filed patents for a laser system that could blast trash off of a windshield or camera cover, as well as wipers that operate on electromagnetic rails rather than standard recirculating motors, but neither of these features are visible on the vehicle.
The truck now features traditional rearview mirrors, which Musk claims are necessary by legislation but are removable, implying that it will also have a side-view camera system.
Between its headlights are three amber marker lights that indicate its final size. Trucks with a width of more than 80 inches, such as heavy-duty pickups and the high-performance Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram 1500 TRX, must have the lights. The GMC Hummer EV pickup, which will be available in a heavy-duty form, is also large enough to require the lighting.
