Thin Tesla Cybertruck body panels cause guillotine effect in fruity finger facsimile testing against Rivian R1T's safer frunk closure with pinch sensor

There were many concerns surrounding the Tesla Cybertruck's launch, including everything from crash safety issues resulting from the stainless steel body panels to quality control and fitment problems and anxiety over flimsy suspension designs. A handful of the Tesla Cybertruck's issues have been fixed throughout the launch period, but as with any car, as more people get their hands on the, the more flaws start to show up.

In a recent video, Out Of Spec Reviews on YouTube used bananas, carrots, and hot dogs to test the safety of the door, frunk, and tailgate closures of the Cybertruck, Rivian R1T, and Ford F-150 Lightning, and the team only had positive findings about the Rivian's motorised mechanisms.

When placing these objects between the closing tailgate and the body of the electric pickup trucks, all three trucks made quite a mess of the foodstuffs. The same cannot be said for the other closures, where the Rivian R1T proved to be the safest of the current crop of mainstream electric pickup trucks.

Being manual closing doors, all three vehicles lack pinch sensors on the doors, but the Cybertruck's unusually sharp body panel edges make it particularly risky to get your fingers caught in, as it sliced the hot dogs clean off. The Rivian R1T, on the other hand, has rounded edges on both the door's edge and the vehicle's body, making an accidental finger slam a little less traumatic.

The Rivian R1T was also the only one of the electric pickups that didn't sever any of the test items when testing the motorised frunks. Both the Ford F-150 Lightning and Tesla Cybertruck made salad of the banana and carrots put in the way of the closing frunk, while the Rivian R1T's pinch sensor, which runs basically the whole length of the frunk seal, immediately stopped closing the frunk when it sensed an object in the way.

The lack of pinch sensors is not normally an issue — there is usually enough space between the rest of the body and a closing door, trunk, or hood that any fingers caught in between the two will usually just sustain some bruising.

What makes the Cybertruck's case potentially more dangerous for fingers is the lack of a radius on the edges of the body panels. Tesla ultimately decided to make the Cybertruck's body panels out of 1.8 mm thick stainless steel sheets, which are not folded over into a hem at the edges, leaving a sharper edge than normal. When two of these thin, relatively sharp panels come together so closely, they could present trouble for anything that gets in the way.

It should also be noted that these are far from scientific tests. However, similar tests have been conducted in the past to highlight the lack of safety equipment in many electric car windows, which could become problematic when a child or unsuspecting passenger accidentally gets their fingers caught in a closing window.

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