Legendary Automotive Designer Frank Stephenson Calls the Tesla Cybertruck "Gimmicky"
Saying its design will look dated very quickly.
A year after its monumental unveiling by Elon Musk, Tesla‘s upcoming Cybertruck still divides opinions among automotive fans, and now legendary car designer Frank Stephenson — whose work spans across McLaren, BMW, Ferrari, Maserati, Alfa Romeo and more — has shared his opinion on the controversial pickup.
Speaking to his viewers via his YouTube channel, Stephenson explained that the video took him over a year to make because of the significance of the Cybertruck in terms of innovative and technological design as well as being inspiration for future or young automotive designers. Despite its importance, however, Stephenson doesn’t seem impressed, beginning the review by saying that it’s angular design will look dated after several years.
“It’s our job as designers to not guess what the future is going to look like, but to decide what the future will look like.” he explains. “In every OEM project that I’ve worked on, my responsibility has been to create a car that will still feel fresh at least 10 years into the future. My first concern with the Cybertruck is how dated that it’s going to feel in a very short timespan.”
“This design for me reveals that Elon Musk’s genius is of course sturdily rooted in the future but without a strong enough grasp on the past,” he continued. “If technological progress does not march into the future hand in hand with nature then it is not progress at all and — given Musk’s dedication to a collaboration with nature in his use of electric vehicles — makes this design feel even more dissonant against the future that we ought to be creating.”
For Stephenson’s entire commentary and criticism of the Cybertruck, check out the video above.
Elsewhere in the automotive world, MANHART has turned the BMW X7 into a robust off-roader.
