A Brief History
On November 21, 2019, cutting edge technology and electric vehicle producer, Tesla, proudly demonstrated their latest gem, the Cybertruck, and its alleged unbreakable windows. This ultra-modern pickup truck was touted to have a range of 250 to 500 miles, depending on trim level, and a blistering 0 to 60 mph time of as little as 2.9 seconds.
Digging Deeper
The “Armor Glass” was demonstrated by having metal balls thrown at it, and both of the subject windows promptly shattered. Ridicule followed, and company CEO Elon Musk made excuses, as expected.
Another window demonstration gone wrong was the 1993 death of Toronto lawyer, Gary Hoy, who took a running leap at his office window on the 24th floor of a bank building to show how the window could not break. Though the glass did not shatter, the window was broken from its frame and Hoy and the unbreakable glass fell to their respective deaths.
Question for students (and subscribers): What other product demo disasters can you think of? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
If you liked this article and would like to receive notification of new articles, please feel welcome to subscribe to History and Headlines by liking us on Facebook and becoming one of our patrons!
Your readership is much appreciated!
Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Falcone, Rob. Just F*ing Demo!: Tactics For Leading Kickass Product Demos. CreateSpace, 2014.
Lee, Daniel. Elon Musk’s Tesla: Driving The Future. Independently published, 2023.
The featured image in this article, a photograph by u/Kruzat of a Tesla Cybertruck with shattered windows and tesla.com/cybertruck URL during presentation, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
