In 2012, Elon Musk had a lot to say about bad car designs — and he didn't hold back.
During an interview with tech entrepreneur and investor Kevin Rose, Musk was asked why so many automakers seemed to "suck" — especially when it came to their design choices.
"I don't know. It blows my mind," he said. "It just seems like you can take a body panel and you can stamp it with that shape or this shape, and yet they choose to do the bad shape. But it costs the same either way."
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He even went further, explaining: "You can make an ugly expensive car, you can make a good-looking expensive car, and actually the cost differences are relatively small."
Of course, "ugly" is in the eye of the beholder — one person's sleek modern design is another's design disaster. Still, Musk was clearly frustrated that automakers were spending luxury-level money and still delivering cars he thought looked bad.
At the time, Musk touted Tesla's approach: weekly design sessions where every curve and corner was obsessed over, filtered through engineering, safety, and regulations. It was a fresh take that helped Tesla's early models stand out in a sea of snooze-worthy sedans.
But fast forward to the present, and the internet is asking a different question: What happened to that guy?
Because these days, it's Musk's own Cybertruck that's getting roasted for looking… well, pretty ugly — and at a very expensive price.
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When the Cybertruck first debuted, its sharp-angled, stainless steel body split opinions. Seeing it in person didn't help much. As one Tesla owner bluntly put it in a forum post last May, "I am frankly shocked by how stunningly ugly the Cybertruck is. Seeing it in person on the road is even more retina-burning than seeing it in pictures."
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Critics didn't stop there. A CNN review compared it unfavorably to the Ford F-150 Lightning, pointing out all the Cybertruck's practical headaches:
- Nowhere to stand to reach into the cargo bed without slipping on a muddy tire.
- A tiny, barely useful "frunk" (front trunk), unlike Ford's spacious, power-outlet-packed Lightning.
- $100,000+ price tags for Foundation Series models — while Ford's Lightning is significantly cheaper.
- Manufacturing flaws, including body panel gaps so large you could see daylight through them.
Even basic controls came under fire. CNN pointed out that while most modern SUVs put the rear camera view inside the rearview mirror — where drivers naturally look — Tesla buried the Cybertruck's rear camera in a small box on the center screen instead. A small thing, but a big clue, the review said, into Tesla's habit of ignoring what people are used to, even when it makes things harder.
"There are indications this attitude contributes to higher crash rates," CNN noted bluntly.
Adding to the challenges, the Cybertruck has been subject to eight recalls since its release in late 2023. Issues have ranged from a faulty accelerator pedal that could become stuck, to windshield wiper failures, and a trunk bed trim that might detach while driving.
The most significant recall affected over 46,000 vehicles due to a stainless steel trim panel that could separate from the vehicle, posing a road hazard. Unlike many Tesla recalls that can be addressed with over-the-air software updates, several of these issues required physical repairs at service centers.
All of this would just be a footnote — if Musk hadn't been so loud a decade ago about how other car companies were the ones wasting money making bad design choices.
Of course, Tesla fans would argue that Musk isn't wrong: the Cybertruck is different because it's intentionally radical, a moonshot at reimagining trucks from scratch. But when you've got stainless steel panels that don't line up, small safety features skipped, and a public divided between "visionary" and "eye sore," it's hard not to hear those 2012 words echo back.
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