Tesla design chief on the incident when he shattered glasses of Cybertruck behind Elon Musk on stage: It was …
Tesla chief designer Franz von Holzhausen recently discussed an infamous incident from 2019 when the Cybertruck’s window shattered during its launch. Standing next to CEO Elon Musk, von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at the vehicle’s window to showcase its durability and strength. However, the vehicle’s window cracked, creating an awkward situation then. In a recent interview with Tesla Club Austria, Franz von Holzhausen called the incident a “Murphy’s law” moment, where anything that can go wrong. He said he has done test run on the armoured glass window “multiple times right before we went live on the stage”.“I think it was just one of those Murphy’s law kind of things where something bad happens. But it turned out to be a great meme,” von Holzhausen said. He added that despite the blunder, the incident became a “great meme” and “turned into a great marketing moment” for Tesla. Interestingly, the EV maker launched a $45 T-shirt featuring a shattered window design shortly after the incident, turning the accident into a merchandise opportunity.Franz von Holzhausen said “The ball didn’t go through the window, so you know, you’re still safe. It was not an expected moment, but in that moment, you have to roll with it.”
How Elon Musk reacted to the Cybertruck window cracking incident
The Tesla CEO then laughed off the incident, saying there was “room for improvement.” He also shared a video of the incident on X with caption “Franz throws steel ball at Cybertruck window right before launch. Guess we have some improvements to make before production haha.”In another explanation to the cracking incident, he wrote: “Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn’t bounce off. Should have done steel ball on window, *then* sledgehammer the door. Next time …”
