Musk’s Cyberbeast Has a Weight Problem
There are emerging concerns about what heavier electric vehicles, especially the trucks Americans like, will mean for road safety.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk at the Cybertruck launch in November.
Photographer: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Among the Tesla Cybertruck’s unusual selling points, such as stopping various projectiles, is this one:
That was Elon Musk talking tough at the launch of Tesla Inc.’s latest model. While any autos executive will talk up safety specs, framing a crash as a contest to be won or lost isn’t the typical patter. But it does acknowledge a basic truth about accidents. “Elon Musk knows physics well,” says Raul Arbelaez, a vice president in the vehicle research center at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a nonprofit focused on reducing vehicle-related injury and damage. “Bigger, heavier vehicles will always win, generally speaking.”