Elon Musk: Here's Why 'Unbreakable' Windows Shattered

It was all because of that earlier sledgehammer hit, Tesla CEO says
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 25, 2019 9:01 AM CST
Elon Musk: Here's Why 'Unbreakable' Windows Shattered
Tesla CEO Elon Musk looks at the broken window glass as he introduces the Cybertruck at Tesla's design studio on Thursday in Hawthorne, Calif.   (AP Photo/Ringo HW Chiu)

It was the smash seen round the world. Now, Elon Musk is offering new spin on why the "unbreakable" windows on the Cybertruck he unveiled Thursday shattered when metal balls were thrown at it during a live demo. That cringeworthy moment—Musk can be heard saying, "Oh, my f---ing God" right after the first window cracked, per BuzzFeed—led to a tsunami of whispers about the electric vehicle's durability, but the Tesla CEO is insisting it wouldn't have happened but for the order of events onstage. To wit: Musk says chief Tesla designer Franz von Holzhausen should've hit the door of the Cybertruck with a sledgehammer after throwing the metal balls, not before. "Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn't bounce off," Musk posted on Twitter, insinuating all would've been well had the order been reversed. "Next time..."

The Verge notes that explanation is "plausible," though it points out that the second ball von Holzhausen threw smashed a back window, which ostensibly wouldn't have been affected by a sledgehammer hit to the driver's-side front door. Musk also shared a video showing von Holzhausen hurling a metal ball at a Cybertruck before the launch; the ball simply bounced to the ground, the window intact. "Guess we have some improvements to make before production haha," Musk tweeted. Although Tesla's share price dipped after the debacle, causing Musk to lose nearly $770 million out of his own pocket in just one day, he says orders are pouring in for Cybertrucks: As of Sunday night, 200,000 preorders had been received, Musk noted, per the Verge. (More Elon Musk stories.)

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