Why Does The Tesla Cybertruck Make Me Think of the Emperor's New Clothing?

I think I see a clue

Photo by Maxim on Unsplash

There’s an old fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, about a vane emperor, who’s obsessed with his own appearance and how others view him. One day he’s convinced by his “special tailors” (at great personal expense) to believe that the (invisible) clothing they’ve created for him can only be seen by those of his subjects who possess good taste and a keen appreciation for the finer things in life.

Alas, he is eventually outed by a precocious young boy during a royal parade who points out that there really is no special clothing after all and that he’s actually walking naked in front of everyone.

What a concept.

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The first time I saw a Cybertruck rolling down Foothill Boulevard, I almost swerved and hit a garbage truck picking up the weekly recycling. It was “Fugly” as my wife would say.

A conglomeration of angles and flat surfaces that looked more like an old hash pipe I used back in the day than a state-of-the-art pickup truck by the makers of the much classier-looking Tesla E-cars.

But it was cool. Awesome. Unlike anything else on the road. Forward thinking. Innovative. Worth every penny people are paying. Not my words, but ones borrowed from comments and articles I read at the time they made their appearance on the nation’s roads.

Granted they are interesting. Like a Jackson Pollock canvas is interesting and probably does deserve to be hung somewhere in a museum. But worth $100 million? Not so sure.

And as far as being a pick-up truck, that one can haul things in, like bricks or bags of cement or a used BBQ you bought at a garage sale for $30 - I wonder. Where would you put it? And wouldn’t it mess up the whole wabi-sabi thing it has going for it?

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The emperor thought he was special. Thought he was different and deserving of not just the best things in life but of everyone’s praise. Whether he earned it or not. It just came with his position.

I’m not saying that Elon Musk and Hans Christian Anderson’s emperor are the same character, no not at all. But… it does make one think.

Invisible clothing sort of defeats the purpose of having clothes in the first place, doesn’t it? The whole point of fashion, and we’re not just talking about Paris runways and tall slender women wearing a fishbowl and silk butterfly wings, is to keep one warm and comfortable. It’s useful and not just for show.

But what do you do with a pick-up truck that’s never actually seen picking anything up?

What is its purpose? Or has it assumed a position in our society that it doesn’t actually deserve?

Food for thought.