Cybertruck display unit queues remind of early iPhone days as mud-covered pickup tips Gigawiper limits

From Texas to Washington, Tesla's Cybertrucks are being delivered to showroom floors in places like service centers and busy malls in the height of the holiday shopping season. This development was forecast in a rumor a while back during the summer. At the time, the tipster claimed that a lot of the ten Cybertrucks that Tesla was making per day at the time were "being put on car carriers to be distributed not to all Tesla stores, but to a few hand-picked based on several factors (geography, demand, and visibility)," which seems to indeed be happening right now.

The first Cybertruck seems to have been delivered at San Diego's Westfield UTC mall on the sly, surprising even the Tesla reps there on the next day. The Cybertruck ad outside of said mall even contained an "exosekelton" typo which has subsequently been fixed for the other display units across the country, exemplifying the somewhat rushed nature of the Cybertruck launch period that would culminate at the November 30th delivery event. While it took a few days for Tesla fans to get a whiff of this new launch strategy, they are now forming queues outside Tesla places with a Cybertruck unit on display that resemble the lines which not long ago Apple fans were forming for the release of each new iPhone.

This may serve as a tangential evidence for Tesla that demand won't be a problem for the foreseeable future, but its main problem will rather be the Cybertruck's production ramp. In fact, the first retail Cybertruck units may not even go to the first people in its sprawling reservations list. The same tipster who predicted the Cybertruck's showroom appearances before the launch, also said back in August that "either during the event or right after, SCs all over the country will simultaneously deliver the 5 or 6 trucks they've been allocated... not based on reservation numbers," but rather that "Tesla has already determined the first few customers based on many factors," one of which a separate rumor claimed to be the sway that those industry influencers hold.

Tesla seems to be aiming for the general pickup public with the Cybertruck, rather than its devoted fans, which would explain its showroom and industry influencer push, as well as the focus on the pickup's toughness in the display ads. A big part of the image Tesla is trying to build around the Cybertruck would then be its off-road capabilities, aided by the 14-inch suspension travel, and Tesla has been testing those at dedicated places.

So much so, that a recent overflight of the Gigafactory in Texas that is assembling its first electric pickup has caught a glimpse at the dirtiest Cybertruck ever seen. Bathed in mud from the tires to the automatic tonneau cover, and with the stainless steel body nearly invisible underneath, this unit suggests that the single Gigawiper of the Cybertruck may have had its cleaning abilities stretched to the limit.

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