After several reports that the Cybertruck’s hood closing force may need to be adjusted to better detect obstructing objects, Tesla released a software update to address the issue. But feedback from owners suggests that the feature seems to be not working properly again. Are they right?
Previously, the Cybertruck’s hood could squeeze your fingers if you held them in the right place when closing it. A recent review of the Cybertruck Basecamp accessories by Top Gear demonstrated how the Cybertruck mechanism works after the new update. In the so-called banana test, the hood detected the presence of an object and immediately bounced back.
People, however, began to test the mechanism with several consecutive attempts using carrots, bananas, and, well, their fingers. In these tests, the Cybertruck performed almost as if it had been updated: it crushed a finger, crushed a banana, and cut a carrot. Cybertruck’s lead engineer had to intervene to explain why the lid behaved the way it did.
«Pinch detection — this is a learning algorithm, it will increase the closing force each time it returns without a successful closure. … The algorithm assumes that if you repeatedly try to close the hood — it’s because you, as a human being, know better and think it should close»,” says Wes Morrill.
Ever since I was told the Tesla Cybertruck had an ALGORITHM for the automatic frunk, I have been super intrigued.
It will apply increased closing force after every failed attempt. This means if you close you finger in it once, it shouldn’t hurt TOO bad, but try it 5 times in a… pic.twitter.com/uSax1zpdtn
— Jeremy Judkins (@jeremyjudkins_) May 3, 2024
Knowing this feature can prevent sudden pinching. However, this is not very intuitive and it is not surprising that someone may not realize the effect of several attempts in a row.