Cybertruck's wheelbase is 25% longer than the Model Y, but thanks to Steer-by-wire and Rear-wheel steering it launched with a turning circle only 9% larger. After Elon drove one of the first trucks, he said - The steering is great. But I think we can make it more magical. The team took that to heart and worked to squeeze all the capability possible from the hardware. Within a few weeks of the start of production, an over the air update went out that decreased the turning circle by nearly 2 feet. "The steering feels magical" is still one of my favorite comments to hear from people who try Cybertruck for the first time.

The Cybertruck body is a mix of aluminum and steel, the latter needs protection from the elements. So we send the body through an electrocoating bath, which deposits a protective layer a few microns thick. The original coating developed was a wonderful shade of green, which turned brown if it was baked a little too long... We developed a black E-coat which overall improved any gap read through by adding shadow, plus it makes the bodies going down the line look a lot more like their inspiration, the F117A

Cybertruck doors are notoriously tough - and they make a really nice "woody" thud when closed. But when the window was open we instead got a "tinny" rattle. The glass was rattling in it's sliding channel. This was solved for the fleet over the air by rolling the window up slightly when the door opens so the seals stabilized the glass. As a bonus it makes a little Cybertruck profile. You can still force the window to stay down, just press the window switch a second time once the door is open

Humans come in many different sizes and we placed the rear window switch in a location to try to balance reach of both the window switch and door handle. A review of fleet data showed unintended window opening (brief open/close) typically due to someone leaning forward, elbow hitting the switch. Realizing we didn't get it perfect the first time, the team improved this by moving the window switch forward by about 50mm and that seems to have done the trick

The aero covers and the All-terrain tires were designed together to have some really cool sidewall features. The covers that shipped on day 1 had a rubber flap that would rub on the tire and leave a mark. It was not a structural concern since the tire sidewall feature had extra rubber exactly in this spot. We made a change anyway to both the tire and the cover to avoid rubbing

Named my grok bot after the sentient AI, Jane, in speaker for the dead. I look forward to when I can sub-vocalize like Ender to communicate with Jane, but would honestly even be happy with verbal communication back and forth like we have for the Grok app. Right now it seems I can dictate, but the app needs to start and stop recording, then process and reply which it does in text only. it's clunky. Let's take the excellent conversation flow capability from Grok and bring it to Grok bot

People seem interested to hear about the details, and the team made a lot of little changes along the way These are changes that are already in production, some announced, some just silently improved behind the scenes I'll keep posting one a day for the next week or so - enjoy

In-house 4680 cells got better, several times actually. And the firmware controls improved as well - both enabled faster Supercharging. Hitting 500kW peak and more importantly shrinking the 10% to 80% charge times by several minutes. Not to mention every efficiency improvement I've mentioned also effectively increased charging speed when measured as what matters on a road trip: miles recovered per minute

Motor noise is cool to hear, but when driving down the highway most people want silence The Motor and NVH team kept on it and made a major reduction in structure-borne noise through a bushing diameter and dynamic stiffness change that reduced motor prominence by up to 12 dB

Firmware has been constantly evolving as well - even today, we are shipping a new feature for Cybertruck to collaborate with powerwall 3 to extend the energy available to your home when the grid is not. A first of its kind, ambitious feature to seemlessly integrate two different energy sources into one cohesive grid through the same wall connector used for charging. This presented a few different microgrid stability challenges and in particular ensuring robust communication and coordination to react to load changes in real time took some effort, but the energy team and vehicle team worked hand in hand to get it to out to the customer fleet

How about improved efficiency that even existing owners can benefit from? An underappreciated part of any vehicle - the only reason you can start, stop, and turn - Tires There is a lot that goes into the design and construction of a tire and optimizing efficiency vs capability. Tesla's fantastic tire team was able to find a way to get even better rolling resistance from the 20" All-season. Which means when you buy your next set, your truck will become even more efficient. Put simply, tires continuously deform as they roll down the road. That flex causes internal friction in the rubber and turns mechanical energy to heat, wasting power that could have gone into moving the vehicle. Reduce the waste heat, and you have more energy for useful work. The 'T1' designation is the latest and greatest so keep an eye out when you need to replace your tires.

interesting analysis - Many revisions are inconsiquential to the customer; a rib that reduces a sink mark or fixing a clip that breaks in service. But plenty of changes are more significant. It's a peek behind the engineering curtain that proves my point "production is not the finish line." The view behind the curtain is really only possible due to Tesla's transparency on direct part ordering and repair procedures which exist publicly, for free, to make it approachable to repair your own vehicle

I took my wife and son camping with me at @CyberOdysseyUSA this past weekend. It was an amazing time. I’m so grateful for the Tesla community and events like these. Cybertruck owners are the most kind and loving people. Thanks for the memories my cyber fam!

The side repeater camera was updated - the version on the left is the newer part which uses passive geometry to create airflow disturbance that better keep water off the lens while driving. No cost penalty, just pure vision improvement.

I was surprised by how interested people were to find out we made a relatively benign change to the Cybertruck aero shield, a part of the car most people never even see. So I'll share some more details. Here are two photos, the left is one of the latest trucks off the production line and the right is one of the first 1. The obvious change from Aluminum to a new black material - many assumed it's Carbon fiber due to the color and pattern. It's actually a self-reinforcing polypropylene. The PP is stretched into fibers and then laminated into the form. It turned out to be more durable, lighter and cheaper than the aluminum when manufactured this way 2. The material change also enabled geometry improvements around the bolts and edges as well as minor form changes. These couldn't be easily done in stamped Aluminum but all benefited aerodynamic drag The end result was a part that is better for aerodynamics, and better for impact resistance while reducing cost and mass. This is a part no customer sees or really even thinks about, but we made it better anyway

Reviewing the latest Cybertrucks at GFTX, looking at all the changes we've made Some improve function, others cost, reliability, serviceability, manufacturability The finish line isn't getting to production. A product is a living thing, constantly evolving and improving