Earlier than there was Cybertruck, there was Truckla. Affectionally named by her creator, Simone Giertz, Truckla was the primary all-electric Tesla pickup… technically. Giertz massively altered the physique of her Tesla Mannequin 3, eradicating the rear seats and doorways and placing in a truck mattress. Already Web well-known for constructing loopy and foolish robots, Giertz’ fame hit the stratosphere when mainstream media caught wind of Truckla.
4 years later, Giertz has given us an replace on her YouTube channel about Truckla. Very like the remainder of us beginner wrenchers, she admits Truckla was solely 80 % achieved when it debuted. And it mainly stayed that method for the final 4 years.
The mattress was by no means welded in so the truck rattled loudly taking place the street. It additionally wasn’t watertight, so when it rained, Giertz needed to run outdoors to cowl it. And lastly, the tailgate was by no means completed; when you wished it down, you needed to take it off completely.
So Giertz used the event of the automobile’s fourth anniversary to lastly end the final 20 %. That required a visit from her dwelling base in Los Angeles, California to Northern California the place her buddies Marco and Ross would take it throughout the end line. Certainly, she discovered her limits the primary time round and determined to let the professionals put the ending touches on Truckla.
Truckla returned from NorCal trying like one million bucks. Marco and Russ had cleaned up loads of unfinished trim work and even raised the automobile a pair inches. Their most spectacular achievement, although, was the customized tailgate resolution. As a result of the Mannequin 3’s rear finish was by no means designed for a tailgate, the blokes engineered a intelligent design that slides out and away from the automobile’s physique earlier than tilting down like a standard tailgate.
Whereas ready for Truckla to be achieved, Giertz left the blokes to work on one other challenge: constructing an autonomous charging robotic for her well-known truck. Tesla itself had as soon as designed an autonomous charger that regarded like a snake, however Giertz attached with one her sponsors, Viam, to develop a totally totally different resolution. What they got here up with seems extra like a Martian rover or bomb disposal robotic.
But like most of Giertz’ robots, the autonomous charger they constructed bought the job achieved… after making everybody within the room snort. Whereas its very first try to connect with Truckla’s cost port was profitable, the efficiency was a bit R-rated. Giertz even gave the charger its personal title: Chargela.
Giertz deserves a ton of credit score for nonetheless having probably the most spectacular customized construct of a Mannequin 3, even after 4 years has handed. The upgrades she debuted on this fourth anniversary video put Truckla that a lot farther forward of different builds we have seen. And in contrast to the Mannequin 3 with 10-foot-tall wheels, it is nonetheless her day by day driver.