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Tesla’s Cybertruck will set the trend for future pickup designs, like it or not
Just over 24 hours following Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s grand unveiling of Tesla’s all-electric, rough-and-tough Cybertruck, a shift in perception has begun and automakers in America’s largest market should lookout. What was widely regarded as a “love it or hate it” type of vehicle with a polarizing design that’s characterized by an unpainted steel Exoskeleton is now seeing its narrative shift towards “I must have this thing”, from “oh no, never.”
It is true that the moment the Tesla Cybertruck entered the stage was a big “WTF” moment for practically everyone in attendance at the unveiling and those watching the event online. But this moment may actually end up playing in Tesla’s favor, as the electric car maker has taken a bold step towards a future where pickup trucks are expected to not look like every other truck in the market. This puts pressure on veteran carmakers such as Ford and even upstarts such as Rivian to eventually come up with vehicles that abandon the traditional pickup truck template.
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- (Credit: @rrosenbl/Twitter)
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- Tesla Cybertruck self-presenting door handles (Photo: Teslarati)
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- Tesla Cybertruck on stage at unveiling event in Los Angeles. Nov. 21, 2019 (Photo: Teslarati)
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- Tesla Cybertruck futuristic aero wheel makes debut in Los Angeles unveiling event on Nov. 21, 2019 (Photo: Teslarati)
Tesla’s Cybertruck is not for everyone; Musk has made that clear. But considering its aggressive pricing and trademark Tesla performance, the Cybertruck will likely be attractive for enough people that it will end up finding a pretty healthy consumer base, even among those who are traditionally averse to pickup trucks. And this, of course, results in demand for the Cybertruck. After all, it’s pretty silly to assume that a fleet operator or business or police department will shun a tough vehicle that can tow more than the average diesel truck, accelerate like a sports car, and cost very little to “fuel up” just because it looks unconventional.
For these potential customers, the appearance of a vehicle may very well be secondary. What matters is if the truck works, if it will last long, and if its operating costs make business sense. The Cybertruck meets these requirements perfectly, and it does so in a way that is unashamedly electric. As such, detractors of the Cybertruck’s controversial design are best advised to be prepared, since more and more vehicles like it will likely show up on the road in the next few years, or at least within the coming decade.
New designs and concepts, after all, have a tendency to be mocked when they are first introduced. Many may not remember, but the first-generation iPhone was mocked for lacking a physical keyboard. Apple’s Airpods also looked ridiculous when they were first introduced. Even the notches on bezel-less smartphones were criticized mercilessly. Yet today, all these things are the norm. That’s just what happens when something controversial is adopted by enough consumers. Eventually, what was once unsightly or ridiculous becomes accepted.
🖤🖤🖤 Syd Mead 🖤🖤🖤 https://t.co/8nbD5LrAQJ— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 23, 2019
Futurists, if any, appear to be embracing the Tesla Cybertuck, at least for its unapologetically sci-fi design. Legendary Blade Runner Art Director Syd Mead, for one, has praised the vehicle, stating that the Cybertruck “has completely changed the vocabulary of the personal truck market design.” The award-winning art director also called the vehicle “stylistically breathtaking,” further stating that it has exceeded his overall expectations. CEO Elon Musk has definitely appreciated these remarks, considering that Tesla did model the Cybertruck after the vehicles in the Blade Runner franchise.
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One of Syd Mead’s most famous quotes is that science fiction is “reality ahead of schedule.” With regards to his vehicle design and creations, this definitely appears to be the case, with the Cybertruck becoming a real vehicle that’s available for consumers today. Mead’s comments are, if any, validation that Tesla and Elon Musk are really onto something with the Cybertruck’s design. Half the world may just not be seeing it for now. But if consumers react positively to the vehicle, or if it does get adopted by businesses or police departments or even the army for that matter, then there is little doubt that a few more futuristic pickups would likely be released by other automakers as well — definitely sooner rather than later.
After all, why get a traditional, “boring” pickup truck when you can get a sci-fi monster machine that’s cheaper to run for the same price? That just won’t make much sense now, would it?
Tesla got its largest order for the all-electric Class 8 Semi yet, a 500-unit order from Einride AB, a Swedish trucking company.
Einride made the announcement this morning following its second-quarter earnings call. The company said it plans to use 500 Tesla Semi units on its fleet intelligence platform, called Saga AI. The deployments will serve large companies like Amazon and will extend Einride’s electric freight network across logistics routes in California, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, and Georgia.
🚨 Tesla has received a MASSIVE order from Swedish freight company Einride AB, which placed an order for 500 Tesla Semi trucks
Tesla’s biggest order for the Semi yet! pic.twitter.com/PrtLp5yzvh
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) August 18, 2026
The deployment is being carried out in several phases over the next two years as Tesla ramps production of the Semi at its dedicated production facility in Sparks, Nevada. Einride will receive its first Semi units in September.
Saga AI
Saga AI is Einride’s dedicated fleet intelligence platform. It enables scaled adoption of electric trucks for freight use and allows shippers to integrate electric capacity without the operational burden or capital risks of managing a fleet. This helps integrate cost-efficient logistics and makes budgeting and forecasting much more accurate.
Tesla Semi’s Adoption
The Tesla Semi is now gathering large-scale clients past those who have helped the company operate a Pilot Program to gain initial information and feedback from real-world drivers.
Perhaps the biggest and most notable is that of Frito-Lay and PepsiCo., who have worked with Tesla for the past several years to dial in the finer details of the truck, including its efficiency and operation-related components.
Tesla Semi gets strange-but-understandable comparison from Jay Leno
There has been tremendous progress in that time, and it even catalyzed Tesla to make some design changes, which were unveiled earlier this year.
But Einride CEO Roozbeh Charli says his company’s partnership with Tesla will continue to push those things forward:
“This deployment is yet another proof point that we can execute at the scale our customers demand. Working closely with Tesla to bring next-generation Semis into active operations quickly and at scale is a testament to the strength of that partnership, and how quickly this technology is maturing from promise to daily operations.”
Additionally, Dan Priestley, the Director of the Semi Program at Tesla, said the partnership is ideal due to Einride’s focus on sustainable transport:
“Einride is at the forefront of sustainable freight, and we are thrilled to deepen our relationship with them through this order of 500 Semis. EV heavy trucks provide lower costs per mile from fuel savings, reduced maintenance, and better uptime over diesel trucks. These savings increase further through operational efficiency when deploying EV trucks at scale, and we are excited that Einride recognizes this and look forward to supporting their deployments.”
Elon Musk
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
Elon Musk says X now exposes government censorship, but India’s secrecy laws complicate that promise.
Elon Musk’s promise to make government censorship requests on X “clearly visible” is running into a wall in India, where the law forbids the very disclosure Musk is promising.
On August 15, Musk responded to an update from X’s open-source algorithm team by writing “Any censorship required by governments is now clearly visible.” The claim referred to a change X pushed two days earlier to its public xai-org/x-algorithm repository, which now includes a controversial filter written directly into the code. The filter suppresses posts from 665 accounts flagged by Brazil’s Superior Electoral Court from appearing in the For You feed of any viewer located in Brazil, unless the viewer already follows the account. The election tied to the filter is scheduled for October 4.
India’s government wasn’t as impressed, and responded on Monday that “X will have to follow the law of the land,” in response to Musk’s transparency push covered by the Times of India. The problem is structural rather than political. India issues content blocking orders under Section 69A of its IT Act, and Rule 16 of the accompanying 2009 Blocking Rules requires those orders to stay confidential. Publishing an India equivalent of the Brazil filter, naming specific accounts and citing specific government orders, would itself violate Indian law. Government use of Section 69A has grown from roughly 6,000 orders a year between 2018 and 2023 to about 24,300 in 2025, according to a Tech Times report.
The contrast puts Musk’s transparency pledge in an odd spot. It works largely as advertised in Brazil, where electoral law requires disclosure and X can point to specific account IDs and a specific court order in public code. It cannot work the same way in India, where the law requires the opposite. X users in India will keep seeing content disappear from search and their feeds without any public accounting of why, even as X tells the rest of the world that its censorship compliance is now inspectable.
This isn’t the first time X’s fights with a national government have shaped how the platform operates. Brazil’s Supreme Court ordered X to suspend the accounts of sitting lawmakers and journalists in 2024, a standoff that cost X its Brazilian revenue for months and froze Starlink’s local accounts before the investigation into Musk and X was closed in March with no evidence of wrongdoing found. X also sued California over a state law requiring moderation disclosures, arguing the mandate itself violated the First Amendment.
Whether India’s government pursues anything beyond a public statement remains to be seen. For now, the mismatch between what X can legally publish and what different governments legally allow it to publish is the real story behind Musk’s seven word claim.
Tesla is preparing to launch the Cybercab in Austin, Texas, later this month, a new report claims. Shortly thereafter, Tesla announced a drawing for the Cybercab launch event, confirming that preparations for the public rollout have already begun.
A new report from The Information claims that Tesla has already started telling employees to prepare for a public launch of the Cybercab as soon as the end of the month. The vehicle will launch publicly to riders in Austin initially.
The two-seater has no pedals or steering wheel, and will rely completely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to operate.
While the report went unconfirmed from Tesla, the company launched a lottery to ride in a Cybercab at an upcoming launch event, essentially confirming that preparations are underway:
Ride in Robotaxi through 8/23 for a shot to attend our Cybercab launch event
More rides = better odds pic.twitter.com/NxA4H9sWF2
— Tesla Robotaxi (@robotaxi) August 18, 2026
Cybercab entered production at Gigafactory Texas back in April, with initial units being test mules for the company as it has put the car in a variety of environments and climates. Tesla has sent Cybercab to many states, including Texas, California, Nevada, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, Washington, Florida, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania.
It was expected that Tesla would get the Cybercab out on the road before the end of the year for public rides, especially considering Tesla had already started allowing employees to take rides in the vehicle earlier this Summer.
Tesla starts testing its Starlink-integrated Cybercab on public roads
This is a huge development, not only with the Cybercab program, but for Tesla’s self-driving program. Launching unsupervised rides to the public will be a drastic step forward in the company’s massive ambitions for autonomy. It is a long time coming, too. Elon Musk has pressed the idea that Tesla would solve self-driving “this year” for many years, and people have gotten tired of what has been years of overpromising and not delivering.
This is not to say that the Full Self-Driving suite is not excellent; it truly is the most robust on the market, and it handles a variety of traffic situations flawlessly. It definitely has its faults, but generally, it is fantastic.
Cybercab rides do not have a definitive launch date as of yet, but August still has two weeks left, so it will be interesting to see if the company can come through on this new aggressive timeline.
Tesla Semi gets its largest order yet
India tells Elon Musk’s X to “Follow the Law” in latest censorship update
