Toronto, Ontario — Tesla’s attempt at April Fool’s Day humour this year involved a Cybertruck “crash test” video that must have been shot by the crew of “Taken 3”—luckily some automotive safety engineers have taken the time to dissect what can be gleaned from the very goofy teaser.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk must have thought he really pulled one over on fans of the EV brand with the release of this crash test video that features exactly zero crashes.
Cybertruck crash test pic.twitter.com/MIhJbxLXuP
— Tesla (@Tesla) April 1, 2023
It turns out the joke may actually be on Musk, as this frustratingly anticlimactic teaser actually gave the safety experts at Munro & Associates more than enough to work with with just a half-second frame in the video showing off the Cybertruck’s underbody.
Working with just a freeze frame of the truck passing over a floor-mounted camera, Jordan Arocha and Corey Steuben managed to put together a 13-minute long video.
Breaking down the colour coding method used by Tesla in the test, Arocha said “Based on the geometry, these [green parts] look like forged lower control arms. The red is the primary subframe or the cradle. This is carrying the suspension, likely a large portion of the drive unit, the gearbox, and so forth, also making primary connections of those control arms inboard to the vehicle structurally.
“The yellow [parts] are the primary longitudinal rails. That’s part of the body-in-white structure that’s the primary impact structure at the front end of the vehicle. It is also what this subframe is going to mount to, principally.
“At the leading edge here we’ve got these little green pieces. Those are going to be your crush cans. Just looking at them, I’m going to make an assumption that they are likely extruded aluminum.”
The pair continue on, further breaking down what they consider to be the most likely material composition of the Cybertruck’s underbody as well as the distinct points that differ from existing Tesla models, and that technicians ought to take special note of.
Check out Munro & Associates full breakdown of Tesla’s recent Cybertruck test video down below.
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