Cybertruck: Elon Musk explains why the windows broke

Despite the hiccups in its presentation, the Tesla Cybertruck registers an impressive number of pre-orders. In parallel, on Twitter, Elon Musk explains why his unbreakable windows managed to break.


These windows were allegedly unbreakable and yet they broke. On Friday, November 22, Tesla, the car company of Elon Musk, presented its first all-electric pickup. Besides its design that was criticized enough on social networks over the weekend, the Cybertruck was especially not helped by the demonstration of resistance of its windows. Its chief designer, Franz von Holzhausen, indeed broke the two windows of the left side, driver and passenger, by throwing a metal ball. The windows of the Cybertruck are believed to be bulletproof even from a point-blank range. As proof, Elon Musk shared on Twitter a video taken during a successful test, in the laboratory, before the presentation. The same man throws the same there: except that here, the pétanque ball bounces off the glass without a hitch.

How then to explain that, during the presentation, the windows were broken so easily? According to Elon Musk, the fault lies with the front show. Just before the disastrous glass episode, the chief designer wanted to expose the strength of the doors. Using a long hammer, he hit the driver's side door. According to the Tesla boss, the shock must then have reverberated inside the door - and probably spread to the adjacent door - and shattered the glass forming the base of the driver's window. It was therefore already weakened when the metal ball struck it. "We should have thrown the metal ball at the glass before hitting the door with the hammer," said Elon Musk on Twitter before concluding: "next time."

Since then, Elon Musk has been replying to questions and comments on tweets. He notably promised a black painted version of the Cybertruck, mentioned the construction of a scale model and indicated that he planned to install solar panels on the roof to continuously recharge the electric battery. Pending its commercialization in 2021, the Cybertruck is already benefiting from more than 200,000 pre-orders.