Tesla's latest topic: Musk's response to the death of an employee in a car accident, the stainless steel body is rusty

A few days ago, according to the Washington Post, it reported:

A Tesla employee died in a traffic accident while using the FSD (Full Self-Driving System) beta version, and the employee was suspected of drunk driving.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the news on the X platform, saying that the employee did not turn on FSD, and even the car did not download the FSD software.

Here's a screenshot of Elon Musk's response.

It seems that this case can only show that the Washington Post's report is wrong, and of course, Musk's unilateral response has not been corroborated, and it is up to him to judge which one to believe. It's just that there is one detail that is more interesting, as an employee of Tesla Motors driving a Tesla brand car, such a car owner must be at the forefront of technology, and should also be the most aware of the characteristics of Tesla's FSD system.

So it seems interesting why Tesla cars driven by Tesla employees "haven't even downloaded "FSD".

Tesla's first pickup truck model, the Cybertruck, has already been delivered in overseas markets, and according to the owner of the Cybertruck, the car will have orange rust spots after rain, which will look quite ugly, and because the car is made of stainless steel body coverings, there is no paint and no coating on the body, including a clear coat to protect the coverings, so it is not surprising that rain and air can directly interact with the stainless steel plates.

However, the Cybertruck's body is made of 30X stainless steel, why does stainless steel rust?

Maybe you will feel incredible when you see the word "stainless steel" and the body will rust, but stainless steel has never said that it will not rust...... Compared with ordinary steel, stainless steel is only more resistant to corrosion, thanks to the chromium element in the material, and the chromium-rich oxide film formed by it can prevent oxygen from penetrating into the metal surface to a certain extent. However, with the chromium-rich oxide film, it can only delay the oxidation and corrosion of the metal material, and once the protective layer is damaged, it will also rust; or the car environment is relatively harsh, and the surface layer of the stainless steel will also be destroyed if the vehicle is exposed to acidic or high-salt substances for a long time or at a high frequency, resulting in stainless steel rust.

Naturally, the environment in which the car is used is relatively harsh, so it is not surprising that the body of the Cybertruck is rusty.

The body of the car wants to avoid rust or need a complete paint layer, to have a substrate, primer, paint and varnish, among which the outermost layer of varnish plays a role in isolating air and rain from contact with the paint, internal materials, steel plates, but also has the effect of improving the brightness of the body, with the varnish there will be no rust trouble. However, the cost of stainless steel painting will be relatively high, and ordinary oil-based car paint or water-based car paint is not suitable for stainless steel, because the surface of stainless steel is too smooth, and the ordinary paint will fall off. However, there are also special paints for stainless steel with higher adhesion, or the surface of the stainless steel is frosted first, but either option will increase the cost of vehicle manufacturing.

In addition, stainless steel is too heavy, which is not conducive to the lightweight of the body, and at the same time, the ductility of stainless steel is poor, and complex modeling cannot be carried out.

Therefore, stainless steel is still not suitable for body coverings, and if you happen to choose Cybertruck, the only protection solution is to apply stainless steel film.

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