Posted on Jun 28, 2024 11:50 AM EDT
A customized Cybertruck on sale for $149,999 recently earned headlines after being polished to resemble a funhouse mirror on wheels. Questions still linger about its road safety (and whether or not it violates Tesla’s resell policies) but the man who shined the EV into semi-invisibility confirms the “marketing tactic” has paid off, and more eye-straining Cybertrucks are likely on the way. diamond cup grinding wheel
Apart from the potential rust, faulty windshield wipers, malfunctioning accelerator pedals, and an aversion to soap, Tesla’s stainless steel Cybertruck also smudges very easily. And while most owners are unlikely to spend tens of thousands of dollars on upfitting their chonky EV for tactical police work, some of them might be interested in a modification that avoids leaving fingerprints everytime they touch their vehicle. There are a number of wraparound detailing options already available offering matte-like finishes, but at least one person recently took the opposite route—turning their Cybertruck into a disco ball on wheels.
Previous write-ups of Tyson Garvin’s project claimed the Joplin, Missouri, resident decided on his own to augment his vehicle after receiving it almost 5 years after first pre-ordering Tesla’s first truck. According to an interview with Business Insider, he immediately wasn’t thrilled with what he saw.
“I didn’t like it when I first got it,” he said in May. “It was actually very dirty when I picked it up. It was a very bad delivery experience. And just the look of it—the dull stainless steel isn’t evenly brushed.”
Garvin reportedly took his Cybertruck to a local company specializing in industrial-grade semi truck buffing. After images of the Cybertruck spread online, many commenters worried that taking the car onto public roads would end in disaster. Traffic safety experts and a former judge told Business Insider in a follow-up piece that although it technically might not be illegal to turn your vehicle into a three-dimensional mirror, that doesn’t necessarily make it a great idea.
[Related: Militarized Cybertruck cop cars are coming.]
It’s easy to imagine any number of situations in which driving behind, ahead, or really simply anywhere in the general vicinity of a reflective Cybertruck could turn into a nightmare. As ostentatious as they are right off the factory floor, the base model isn’t capable of mirroring the sun directly into other drivers’ eyes, for example. An unpolished Cybertruck won’t necessarily make it difficult to focus on countless other traffic variables around you, or obscure where the road ends and an actual Cybteruck begins. Garvin said last month that he tested his EV’s outlandishness by having his wife drive behind him in their other vehicle. She reportedly didn’t have much of an issue—other than the fact that “all she could see was the ground’s reflection.”
The current status of Garvin’s glossy Cybertruck is somewhat opaque at the moment. Waits says that “the Cyber truck [sic] isn’t for sale” anymore, although its listing on the automotive resale site, Concierge Motors, is still online at the time of writing. That said, Waits said he has multiple Cybertruck buffing projects currently in the queue but he does not resell them himself.
Popular Science has reached out to multiple police departments, including Joplin PD, for comment.
Andrew Paul is Popular Science‘s staff writer covering tech news. Previously, he was a regular contributor to The A.V. Club and Input, and has had recent work featured by Rolling Stone, Fangoria, GQ, Slate, NBC, as well as McSweeney’s Internet Tendency. He lives outside Indianapolis.
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