The Autobahn

[a system is failing]

Let's talk car. 

Starting with the Cybertruck since it's on my mind now thanks to X. Overall I am not a fan of this thing. The other Teslas looked much better. I can sort of see the idea of having this ultra space age car that has very little details, tries to go for the "single solid piece of metal, with no seams" look typical of UFO descriptions, but it doesn't pull it off at all since there are plenty of seams anyways. Elon needs to get better taste in videogames if he wants to do stuff like this, because right now it just looks like some stupid crap from the latest disposable AAA studio scifi shit. 



Chrome is obviously the best color choice and I can't imagine it looking remotrly good in anything that isn't greyscale. Those wheels are fucking garbage too, good lord. I've seen several others in a very ugly pixelated-camo sort of wrap too.



No sir, I don't like it. Also been seeing some OFFROAD videos which have been extremely pathetic. I will cut it some slack as advertising your stock truck / suv even if it sucks balls offroad as a serious 4x4 is just a standard trope, the Cyber isn't really doing anything too out of the ordinary in that.



I don't like what I am seeing here either. There are 4 CV axles on this thing. Obviously that's for the purpose of this "4 wheel steering" system. I don't think this is gonna make any of the wheelers in America very happy. It's excessive engineering and just going to make this thing considerably less durable and more expensive to modify offroad. 

In fact the CyberTRUCK completely fails my 3-point Truck Qualifier Test. That is you get 1 point for ladder frame construction and 1 point for each straight axle. If you get 2/3 points the vehicle is formally a truck. Cybertruck has literally none of these, 0/3. No straight axle, unibody construction. Elon is contributing to the dastardly trend of truck erasure. Just like the faggots who GAYED UP the Pathfinder.



MOGGED by an old beater (mine cost 2000 dollars back in 2013). 

In that sense Cybertruck is just a futuristic looking CAR which will actually fit its target demographic of techbros who probably don't actually need a serious offroader anyways and mostly use it to drive around the city and enjoy a very digitized car experience. On this front it delivers just fine. The bugman appeal. Bugman truck. 









Here's a few more to get the ball rolling.

[august]

I really don't like new autos. Personally, I think that Skallas is completely correct about refinement culture's impact in this regard. And it seems that the futuristic, 'spaceship' car model was already mastered in the 1970s. Newer, more recent attempts just look like shit.

[Sakana]

snip

What a coincidence, I was going to post the Countach too. I've always thought of the Countach (and some other Bertone designs) as a natural extension of futurist aesthetics. The frame of the car is energetic like few other designs have ever been, and turns the car into a spear-like entity, where driving itself becomes a sort of piercing of the open void of space. I'd like to bring up some of Nefastis's comments on the Countach in his review of House of Gucci:

The closest thing to 80s kitsch we get is the Lamborghini Countach — but here, it’s like Apollo’s chariot. Visually synchronized with the tasteful excess of Maurizio’s ultimate form.

I find this quote interesting because it considers the Countach "kitsch", but indirectly acknowledges it's futurist leanings. In comparison with Apollo's chariot, it becomes a vitalistic symbol; used to denote the intensity and energy of Maurizio's existence. I think this excess is deliberate in design. What use is a luxury good without being excessive? What use is futurism without bringing forth the greatest intensity possible?

[Muskox]

I have some mild contrarian appreciation for the Cybertruck due to the fact that it looks different from other vehicles, even though it's ugly. All cars look exactly the same now. The new Elantra and Sonata have a somewhat distinctive look and I think they look nice. Generally though I agree that good car design is basically a thing of the past. The mass of fuel economy and safety regulations manufacturers have to abide by has caused massive coalescence. The last really beautiful mass market cars were produced in the 70s, with the 60s being the golden age.

It's also unfortunate, as the OP touches on, that SUVs have been twisted into the bizarre oversized sedans that they are now just cause millennials didn't want to seem uncool for driving a minivan. The old truck-platform SUVs look so much better. I wanted to take my grandfather's old Explorer after he died but my dad convinced me that it had too much that needed to be fixed. He was probably right but I'm regretting it now that my car is running into more and more problems and all used cars cost $50 million cause Obama destroyed the market.

I wonder if I could convince Trump to get rid of some regulations by executive order like he did with shower-heads.

[a system is failing]

I have some mild contrarian appreciation for the Cybertruck due to the fact that it looks different from other vehicles, even though it's ugly. All cars look exactly the same now. 

Not a bad instinct. The plus of the Cybertruck is it's move towards angular shapes over the crappy sculpted ones we see now. It definitely at leasy tries to be new. It rises to the level of warranting a critique whereas the other modern trucks are so unremarkable they don't even deserve a discussion. One thing I consider with the Cyber is it maybe CAN be pushed in a better direction over time. New generations that do away with some of the over-engineered gimmickry and make it more of a proper truck. Or maybe someone sharp at another manufacturer will be inspired to improve on it.