IMO a lightened trailer is fair. It’s really all about power to weight ratio. If a cyber truck could tow a car faster than that car can drive itself, then it means the power to weight ratio is that much higher. Torque also plays a role. They’d have to use a negative weight trailer for it’s weight to change that.
Guessing they ran the numbers and realized the instant torque of the electric motor would give them an edge at the very beginning, based on the “didn’t go the entire 1/4 mile” bit, which just means it takes less than 1/4 mile to make up for the higher torque in that particular scenario.
Also the skill of the drivers would play a role unless they set up an automated system (and tuned it right for both vehicles).
No, the marketing was “a tesla towing a porsche is faster on a 1/4 mile than the porsche”. And then they only tested it up to 1/8th, and “extrapolated” that it would win 1/4. Which it didn’t. It simply was false advertising, even with everything going “their way”.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with the way you put it there, the only part I disagree with in your comment above is that using a lightweight trailer should be considered a part of the cheating.
Why isn’t it part of cheating? You wouldn’t be able to use that trailer on public roads. It’s not that they used a lightweight trailer, it’s that they took an already barebones trailer and then cut and hacked away at it to make it lighter.
Because being able to accelerate just the combined mass of the two vehicles faster than the other can accelerate its own mass alone would still be impressive when that other vehicle is a high performance one.
It doesn’t really matter if it’s impressive still or not. What matters is what they said and what the parameters of the test are. They said “while towing” not “laden with the weight of a porsche on a weightless trailer”. It’d be like winning the olympics on steroids. Impressive, since most people wouldn’t come close even while taking steroids. But still cheating.
IMO a lightened trailer is fair. It’s really all about power to weight ratio. If a cyber truck could tow a car faster than that car can drive itself, then it means the power to weight ratio is that much higher. Torque also plays a role. They’d have to use a negative weight trailer for it’s weight to change that.
Guessing they ran the numbers and realized the instant torque of the electric motor would give them an edge at the very beginning, based on the “didn’t go the entire 1/4 mile” bit, which just means it takes less than 1/4 mile to make up for the higher torque in that particular scenario.
Also the skill of the drivers would play a role unless they set up an automated system (and tuned it right for both vehicles).
No, the marketing was “a tesla towing a porsche is faster on a 1/4 mile than the porsche”. And then they only tested it up to 1/8th, and “extrapolated” that it would win 1/4. Which it didn’t. It simply was false advertising, even with everything going “their way”.
Yeah, I don’t disagree with the way you put it there, the only part I disagree with in your comment above is that using a lightweight trailer should be considered a part of the cheating.
Why isn’t it part of cheating? You wouldn’t be able to use that trailer on public roads. It’s not that they used a lightweight trailer, it’s that they took an already barebones trailer and then cut and hacked away at it to make it lighter.
Because being able to accelerate just the combined mass of the two vehicles faster than the other can accelerate its own mass alone would still be impressive when that other vehicle is a high performance one.
It doesn’t really matter if it’s impressive still or not. What matters is what they said and what the parameters of the test are. They said “while towing” not “laden with the weight of a porsche on a weightless trailer”. It’d be like winning the olympics on steroids. Impressive, since most people wouldn’t come close even while taking steroids. But still cheating.