{"id":74730,"date":"2024-07-24T00:03:22","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T04:03:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74730"},"modified":"2024-07-24T00:03:22","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T04:03:22","slug":"love-it-hate-it-how-about-its-maker-nyt-dissects-the-cultural-effect-of-the-cybertruck","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=74730","title":{"rendered":"Love it, hate it? What about its maker? NYT dissects the cultural effect of the Cybertruck – Autoblog"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the New York Times<\/a> puts a journalistic scalpel to an automobile review \u2014 here, the Tesla Cybertruck<\/a> \u2014 one should expect an essay that\u2019s less about crankshafts and more about psychology.<\/p>\n

Reporter Joseph Bernstein\u2019s Styles feature called \u201cA Culture War on Wheels\u201d is a deep dive into the culture created by Elon Musk\u2019s<\/a> monstrous experiment in mobility, and there’s nary a reference to horsepower or 0-to-60 times.<\/p>\n

Instead, the author tries to examine the polarizing effect of Musk\u2019s $80,000 invention and the attitudes it has effected not only from a breed of \u201cmacho\u201d males, but from women and kids as well. The reactions to the machine by owners and gawkers go beyond \u201cpretty\u201d or \u201cugly,\u201d Bernstein suggests; they have to do with politics, social standing and status, and projecting \u201ccool.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cConsumers have long expressed their personalities and lifestyles through their cars \u2014 think of the midlife crisis Corvette<\/a>,\u201d he writes. \u201cBut for many years there has not been an automobile \u2014 or any consumer product, really \u2014 that has provoked such strong reactions, that has carried so much loaded cultural meaning. It all starts with Mr. Musk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, the piece takes pains, sometime struggling with the effort, it seems, to draw parallels between the enigmatic Musk and the 6.000-pound wedge of stainless steel, regarding both as \u201cattention seekers loved by some and loathed by others.\u201d The author quotes an engineer who says, with great insight, \u201cThe Cybertruck<\/a> is very hard to separate from Elon Musk<\/a>, because it\u2019s not really logical.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a comparison that itself might not seem quite logical, Bernstein at one point refers to Chrysler<\/a>\u2019s PT Cruiser<\/a> from 25 years ago, the ungainly retro hatchback that he says \u201cregularly tops lists of the ugliest cars<\/a> ever made, but it was a hit with consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to quote Clotaire Rapaille, an anthropologist and marketing consultant whose research for Chrysler on consumer psychology influenced the design of the PT Cruiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had people who hated it and loved it,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that was enough to create a market. You don\u2019t need everyone to love you. You just need enough people to love you to make it a big success.\u201d<\/p>\n

The reasons for purchasing a Cybertruck \u2014 some of them mentioned above \u2014 have been exhaustively chronicled since they started rolling out of Tesla<\/a>\u2019s plant late last year. Somewhat surprising, though, is the fascination it\u2019s inspired among onlookers.<\/p>\n

As Bernstein observes, \u201cTo the legions of passers-by who owners say want to touch their Cybertrucks, sit on their Cybertrucks, and take selfies with their Cybertrucks, the vehicle isn\u2019t a political or cultural flashpoint. Instead it\u2019s something rarer: A genuinely novel piece of mass design.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full story here<\/a>. A Times subscription may be required.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the New York Times puts a journalistic scalpel to an automobile review \u2014 here, the Tesla Cybertruck \u2014 one should expect an essay that\u2019s less about crankshafts and more about psychology. Reporter Joseph Bernstein\u2019s Styles feature called \u201cA Culture War on Wheels\u201d is a deep dive into the culture created by Elon Musk\u2019s monstrous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":74731,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=74730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/74731"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=74730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=74730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=74730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}