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Auto expert dubs Tesla Cybertruck as Elon Musk’s boldest, greatest creation yet
The Tesla Cybertruck’s design has been teased by Elon Musk long before it was unveiled, yet the vehicle still dropped jaws when it rolled out on stage during its unveiling event. The Cybertruck has notably polarized the car community, but if a veteran auto expert is any indication, the vehicle may very well be one of Elon Musk’s boldest, greatest creations yet.
In an extensive discussion on his YouTube channel and an accompanying blog post, auto expert Jack Rickard covered several aspects of the Tesla Cybertruck, from its design to the underlying disruption that it would likely trigger in America’s pickup market. Rickard noted that despite its less-than-stellar unveiling, he believes that the Cybertruck may very well be the “most brilliant thing” Elon Musk has ever done, and the “most brilliant design” that Franz von Holfhausen has ever issued.
Rickard argued that with the Cybertruck, Tesla has effectively gone for the pickup market’s jugular by releasing a vehicle that is competitive in cost but exceeding its rivals in terms of toughness and durability, power, spaciousness, and off-road capability. With this particular combination in mind, Rickard noted that he believes the Cybertruck would be “astonishingly successful.”
Pickup trucks, apart from vehicles that are used for work, are also vehicles that invoke toughness. This is evident in the way each of the Big Three in the US promotes their flagship pickups: the F-150, Silverado, and Ram are tough vehicles that can tow and take punishment, but Rickard notes that over the years, these trucks have reached a point where it has become difficult to take them through punishing conditions. “Since some of the larger more tricked out trucks can run $60-$80k, you don’t want to be squeamish about taking it offroad. But the gentle brush of a few branches and that stunning paint job turns to a scratched up mess,” Rickard wrote.
This is where the Cybertruck excels in. With its stainless steel exoskeleton, Tesla has pretty much hit the ball out of the park. The Cybertruck is unpainted and domineering, and it can literally take a sledgehammer without missing a beat. Its thin lights are even designed in such a way that it would be very difficult to break them. Much of this has to do with its origami-like XY design, which Rickard notes have been floated around for a long time but never attempted by mainstream manufacturers due to its challenges. “I predict that the shock of that design will be replaced by the genius of it,” the auto expert remarked.
The Cybertruck also excels in power and towing, two key features that are important for real pickup truck buyers. The tug-of-war demo between the Cybertruck and a screaming Ford F-150 spoke volumes: electric motors are more than capable of besting the internal combustion engine. Apart from this, the Cybertruck also has a cavernous interior, which pickup truck buyers would likely love. Six seats, ample legroom at the rear, and arguably the most massive center console in the market are things that the pickup market would not ignore.
Yet, perhaps the one thing that was largely ignored even in the Cybertruck’s unveiling was its off-road capability, which Rickard states are key to the pickup market. This is because when it comes to pickups, a vehicle must have ample off-road capability, even if it never goes beyond the road in its lifetime. In this regard, Rickard notes that Tesla seems to have knocked the ball out of the park once more. The auto veteran noted that the all-electric pickup reminds him of the Hummer H1, a true rough-and-tough vehicle before its line was toned down with the H2 and H3.
“This thing’s a Hummer. A Ford F-150, the tricked out 4×4 Supercrew cab, has 9.6” of ground clearance. This has 16” – that’s like a Hummer. I think the Hummer H1 was 16. So it makes a big difference in off-roading And underneath that, I’m told it’s all armored, it’s all covered, you can’t get at the motors, you can’t get at the batteries, it’s a skidplate. So specifically, on the things that define a pickup truck, and I’m surprised Elon Musk even knew what those were, but he’s got it, and that’s this offroad capability, and this kind of tough, durable, manly kind of gig,” Rickard remarked.
Overall, the Cybertruck may very well remain a polarizing vehicle for years to come, and some may never really grow to like its origami-style XY look. Despite this, Rickard believes that the vehicle hits all the right notes when it comes to price and features that are essential to the pickup buyer. In conclusion, the auto expert noted that some time from now, Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holfhausen would probably be inducted into the design hall of fame for actually pulling off an XY design. As for CEO Elon Musk, this may be his most brilliant vehicle yet.
“He hit all the right notes, on here is a truck you can take a sledgehammer to, and you can beat this truck all you want and it doesn’t even show damage. And it has an off-road capability in case you ever roll it up onto the front lawn of your house,” Rickard noted.
Investor's Corner
Elon Musk drops a Thanksgiving hint about Starship’s biggest test yet
Elon Musk says Starship Flight 15 will try to catch the ship itself, a first.
Elon Musk says SpaceX’s next Starship flight will try something nobody has done before, by catching the ship itself. Speaking to roughly 2,000 people at the X Takeover event at Giga Texas on Saturday, Musk said Flight 15 is about four to six weeks away and “probably launches a little bit before Thanksgiving, is my guess.”
That is a slip from earlier reporting, which had pointed to a launch as early as October 19. Musk explained why the date keeps moving. “We’re making a bunch of improvements to the rocket between every flight,” he said, adding that there are often hundreds, sometimes thousands, of small changes. This time the list is short, “but some of them take a fair bit of work and we’ve got to go inside the tank to make some of these changes.”
“We’re going to try to catch the ship, which is a super big deal,” Musk said. “If we do so, that’ll be the first time that there’s been full recovery of an orbital class rocket.” SpaceX has already caught the Super Heavy booster with the tower’s mechanical arms, and has talked about catching the ship since late 2025, but the upper stage has never been caught.
Musk also laid out what comes after. “The next big milestone would be to refly both the booster and the ship,” he said, describing a Flight 16 where “all parts of an orbital rocket are reflown.”
The reason SpaceX wants this comes down to cost and cadence. Every Starship ship so far has ended its flight in the ocean, and SpaceX expects most of those water landings to end in fireballs. A ship that returns to Starbase intact can be inspected and flown again. SpaceX’s IPO filing, says Starship V3 is designed to deliver 100 metric tons to orbit in a fully reusable configuration, that SpaceX aims to cut the cost to reach orbit by 99% or more versus the historical average, and that tower catches should allow “multiple launches per day.”
The payoff goes beyond cheaper launches. The next generation Starlink V3 satellites are too large for Falcon 9 and can only fly on Starship, which can carry up to 60 per flight. Flight 14 on September 28 deployed the first 26 of them after Starship reached orbit despite an early engine shutdown, as Teslarati reported. Musk blamed engine computer software, and said the heat shield “was extremely robust,” which he claimed in August had solved Starship’s biggest challenge.
NASA’s Moon plans depend on the same capability. NASA’s inspector general has described a lander mission that needs a propellant depot in low Earth orbit and more than 10 tanker flights, with SpaceX targeting one tanker launch every six days. That schedule only works if ships and boosters come back fast and fly again. Also, ship to ship propellant transfer has not been attempted yet.
One interesting hurdle yet to be explored is bringing the ship back to the launch site, with reentry over land, which will undoubtedly come with a lot of aviation safety reviews.
Lifestyle
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla engineer confirms Cybercab update letting riders pull up rear and repeater cameras on demand.
Tesla is working on a Cybercab update that would let passengers pull up the vehicle’s rear and side cameras on demand, and the request came straight from a rider.
The exchange played out on X late Friday. Cybercab rider Dan Burkland shared photos of the two-seater’s cabin screen after an evening ride, praised the UI team’s work, and left one request: let riders open the rear and repeater cameras whenever they want, “especially for peace of mind.” Tesla UI software engineer Evan (@CarCoder) answered with two words: “In development.”
The Tesla UI team absolutely crushed it with the infotainment software. Nicely done @CarCoder!
One feature request: Allow folks to pull up the rear & repeater cameras on demand. This would be great especially for peace of mind. https://t.co/mNAOSLx6pE
— Dan Burkland (@DBurkland) October 10, 2026
The idea fits a pattern Teslarati has tracked since public rides began. Days after paid Cybercab service opened in Austin, Tesla sent riders a survey that asked them to rate the touchscreen, the app and the cabin, and to pick the features they wanted most. We reported on that survey in September, and a camera view is the kind of small software change Tesla can push quickly if riders keep asking.
It also speaks to something unique about the vehicle. With no steering wheel, no pedals and no driver, passengers have no mirror to check and no way to see behind them. The hardware is clearly built for camera awareness, from the repeater cameras to the rear camera. Letting a passenger look through those same cameras would give a nervous first time rider a way to confirm what is around the car.
The timing matters because the fleet is growing fast. Tesla’s Robotaxi account said on Saturday that more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, an eightfold increase in 30 days, and Tesla AI chief Ashok Elluswamy named Dallas as the next city. More cars and more cities mean more people riding in a driverless vehicle for the first time, which is exactly when small trust features carry weight.
For now, the feature is confirmed only as in development. If Tesla follows its usual pattern with Cybercab software, riders could see it appear in a point release without any announcement, and Teslarati will watch for it.
News
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
Tesla confirms its first official Cybercab fleet number as Austin scales fast and Dallas looms.
Tesla says more than 300 Cybercabs are now serving Austin, the first time the company has put an official number on its active Cybercab fleet. The figure came from the Robotaxi account on X on Saturday, which wrote that one month after launch the service had “scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days.”
Ashok Elluswamy, Tesla’s head of AI software, quoted the post with a line that carried the bigger news. “Two years since the 10/10 Cybercab WeRobot event, the cabs are everywhere in Austin now. Dallas soon,” he wrote. It is the first time Tesla has named the next city for public Cybercab rides.
One month after launch, we’ve scaled to 300+ Cybercabs serving Austin – an 8x increase in 30 days https://t.co/EagJy2JAsm
— Robotaxi (@robotaxi) October 10, 2026
Tesla opened Cybercab rides to the public in Austin on September 4, as Teslarati reported, a day after an invite only launch event. The ramp since then has been steep. Our September 28 report had the fleet at well over 100 units after availability jumped from 58 to 125 in a single week. On Thursday, Tesla added 150 Cybercabs to the Texas automated vehicle registry, lifting its registered count to 319 from 169. The first seven appeared on the registry on August 31.
RobotaxiTracker, a community site that counts vehicles from sightings and state records, listed 275 vehicles in unsupervised service in Austin on Saturday, 105 of them Cybercabs, which is well below Tesla’s figure. Tracker counts can lag official numbers, though Sawyer Merritt noted that Cybercab wait times in Austin stayed short on Saturday evening even with more than 2,000 fans in town for X Takeover.
Regulators are watching the rollout. NHTSA opened an audit query into Tesla’s certification that the Cybercab meets federal safety standards, and sworn answers are due October 30. Tesla reports third quarter earnings on October 21, which gives the company a natural venue to define its fleet numbers and put a date on Dallas.
Elon Musk drops a Thanksgiving hint about Starship’s biggest test yet
Tesla’s mirrorless Cybercab will give riders a visibility upgrade
Tesla’s Cybercab fleet jumped 8x in a month, with Dallas up next
The Pentagon taps Elon Musk to design the battlefield of the future
Tesla Roadster’s new patent preps white-knuckle speeds, keeping it grounded
