Tesla will occasionally unveil a new product and then wait over a year to actually introduce it. Elon Musk has not been shy about his aspirations to build a Tesla pickup, but we haven't seen anything beyond some light teaser renderings. Simone Giertz -- the "Queen of Shitty Robots," as she's occasionally known -- wanted a Tesla pickup, but instead of waiting until 2021 or whenever, she went ahead and built one.
Giertz, whose impractical and hilarious robots earned her fame on the r/shittyrobots subreddit and beyond, has created the "Truckla," a Model 3 that's been hacked into a truck. She put out two videos of the creation -- the video just below is a fake commercial that's about two minutes long, while the video at the bottom of the article details the build process and is about half an hour.
In the longer video, Giertz said she wanted a Tesla pickup without having to wait. Thus, the idea came to build one herself. She assembled a crack team of car modifiers, including Richard Benoit, who runs the Rich Rebuilds YouTube channel we've covered in the past. The group decided to use a Model 3 as the base, since its steel chassis is easier to mess with than the Model S' aluminum frame. They decided to lop off everything behind the B-pillar and above the window line, replacing it with a new rear window and a bed. For added versatility, there's also a roof rack and a set of LED lights up top.
After more than a year planning the DIY hackfest, the result is seriously impressive. For all intents and purposes, it's now a truck with a proper bed. It's unclear just how much effect this will have on the Model 3's range, so here's hoping Giertz provides us with some updates about what it's like driving a car you can't find anywhere else in the world.
