Cybertruck’s Patent Progression
For the last couple of months, Tesla fans have been keeping an eye on the Cybertruck’s pre-production for any details about the hotly anticipated vehicle - and keen observers have once again found some gold.
On February 23rd, Tesla published a patent for a proprietary “ultra-hard” stainless steel alloy - with CEO Elon Musk even confirming the invention via Twitter. Musk has hinted since 2019 that Tesla would be using some new type of alloy for their Cybertuck, but it’s taken a bit for the company’s engineers to get the procedures to the point that they could patent it.
Primarily what it describes is a type of stainless steel that is produced in the cold-worked (or “rolled”) fashion - meaning that the metal is worked at temperatures below the point at which the crystalline structure of the steel molecules can reform. This forces the steel’s molecular structure to push together, and harden - normally at the cost of becoming more brittle.
But despite this method being fairly common in the industry, the numbers we’re given for this new steel alloy aren’t overly helpful. We’re given numbers in the HV - or Vickers Hardness - scale for tensile strength, but unfortunately not the followup numbers that would indicate over what area the test was applied to - or for how long. This means we can’t really figure out how the new metal stacks up against average stainless steels in the 300 category - like 301 and 304.
But let’s assume for a moment that Tesla used some industry standards for their testing. That seems reasonable, given that they want to patent their composition - and more importantly production procedures.
And if that’s the case, then Tesla is correct about their alloy being harder than other 300-series stainless steel alloys. It also seems to handily outperform those alloys in terms of corrosion resistance - with the patent making specific mention that no coating or paint would be needed to ensure the body would last longer. All good things so far.
But the most interesting things in the patent aren’t the metallurgy - although that stuff is pretty fun to dive into if you have the time. It’s the amount of applications the patent covers that really stands out.
The document uses the word “embodiments” quite a bit - which is some very specific legal terminology for describing the various forms and applications this new alloy could be used for. The patent says that some embodiments of the steel can be formed into body panels which “may be referred to as an ‘exoskeleton.’” Some embodiments could have the body panel formed from a monolithic - or “large, single piece” - metal sheet.
Now, when making a patent, it’s normal - and smart - to lay out all the ways in which you might be using the thing you’re trying to patent - you’re not just patenting the formula, you’re patenting the process too.
Some of the “embodiments” mentioned later in the document detail that versions of the body panelling formed with this metal could be used without anti-corrosion protection or paint - those don’t point to extra versions of the body panelling, it’s just detailing everything in minute detail.
But the two we specified earlier - the panelling that could form an exoskeleton, and the monolithic sheet - those could be hinting at different strategies for the Cybertruck’s construction.
For basically the entire existence of the Cybertruck as a concept, the body has always been envisioned as an exoskeleton - a tough outer skin which would take the weight and stresses of the vehicle, rather than just the frame doing all the work - aircraft hulls have been used as an example a few times.
This plus the ultra-hardness of stainless steel has led a lot of people to wonder about how the Cybertruck would perform in crash tests. We haven’t gotten any data on that yet - and we likely won’t until the vehicle’s composition is nailed down. But just because the body is a unified piece of stainless steel doesn’t mean it won’t have crumple zones like any other road-safe vehicle.
That description of panels - as opposed to a monolithic sheet being used to form the body - or parts of the body - is a big clue there. This patent seems to be pointing out that Tesla will be making use of large sections of formed body panels, and supplementing that with some smaller, specific pieces in areas they can’t single form.
The obvious example here is the doors and hood - but this lends to the idea that we’re going to be seeing some engineered points where the truck is designed to crumple safely in the case of an accident. We don’t know for sure, but we do know that the design of the Cybertruck is being refined more and more as the start of production nears.
And we’ve been getting subtle peeks at that process as people keep catching glimpses of updated prototypes in the wild.
This version - spotted in early February - had a slightly redesigned front end, a new gigantic windshield wiper - which Elon was quick to point out is NOT the finished product - and triangular side mirrors.
More recently, we got a video from the Cybertruck Owner’s Club showing off the air suspension on a working prototype - and also this video of a Cybertuck with its rear bed cover - called a tonneau - driving around California.
We can’t really tell what it’s made of in the video - it could potentially be a mockup for an unrelated test - but Elon has said that the vehicle’s retractable tonneau will have a solar option, so it’s good to see it getting some testing.
All these sightings are examples of work-in-progress vehicles - but show a fierce effort by Tesla engineers to refine the Cybertruck design before production begins sometime this summer. And the stainless steel patent is a part of that process.
There’s still a lot of testing to do, and certainly more experts will be weighing in on this steel patent before too long. I think we’d all love to see the results of any crash tests once Tesla finalises their designs. For now we’ll just have to connect the dots as we get them, and wait for more data to roll in.