Grok Has No Idea What A Tesla Cybertruck Is

By Gary Gastelu |

Sep 25, 2024

Grok Cybertruck rendering — Credit: Grok

We recently asked X’s generative AI image generator what it thought Tesla’s Robotaxi might look like when it is revealed on Oct. 10.

It clearly didn’t have any insider information, despite X’s connection to Tesla, but exhibited some interesting ideas on the topic that at least put it in the ballpark, or parking lot.

However, it appears to have a total blind spot for another Tesla vehicle that’s already in production.

Inspired by a flurry of AI-generated videos on YouTube featuring speculative versions of modern films set in the 1950s, we wondered what the Cybertruck might have been if it were designed back then, so we asked Grok to create a 1950s-style Tesla Cybertruck.

The result was impressive, but the opposite of a truck, cyber or otherwise. Grok rendered what appears to be a sleek, two-door luxury sports car accented by tall rear fenders that might be its retro-futuristic take on tail fins. Curious how it missed the mark so badly, we went ahead and simply asked it to create an image of a Cybertruck several times. It didn’t go well.

The closest it got in spirit to an electric truck was a semi tractor that looked more like one of the cabovers from Tesla’s competitors Volvo and Nikola, which would’ve been less of a surprise if the prompt had been to create a Tesla Semi.

One resembled a Freightliner straight job from the 1980s, complete with exhaust stacks, while another an International semi of the same era accented with funky pink neon lighting.

The only pickup it drew was a cool 6×6 off-road tray bed that could’ve been an F-150 modified by custom truck builder Apocalypse Manufacturing.

As a final baseline, we asked it to draw a Tesla Model Y and the outcome was exactly what you’d expect a design student to come up with. It was a near perfect Model Y with oversized wheels and paper-thin tires.