I don't know if I'm more annoyed at the physics baloney, or the obvious fact it was at least partly written (not merely edited!) by AI. The paragraph starting "The second possibility..." is a naked LLM hallucination that confuses cause and effect. The LLM seems to have been tasked with answering that question in several parts, and catastrophically lost its attention halfway through.

("The second possibility is that while magnets do not directly affect stainless steel corrosion, the type of stainless steel, whether magnetic or non-magnetic, correlates with its corrosion resistance. Austenitic stainless steel (non-magnetic) resists corrosion better than ferritic or martensitic stainless steel (magnetic), which Tesla uses with the Cybertruck.")

Agreed, the article (and potentially the domain) should be flagged. It’s low quality which I don’t see on the front page here very often.

The picture in the "article" is a wrap. The actual damage is tiny by comparison, still annoying I'm sure.

Link to actual images:

https://www.cybertruckownersclub.com/forum/threads/don%E2%80...

Never thought I'd see the day where HN needed a community note.

I actually think it makes the thing look better. Embrace the ugly and maximize it.

Thanks for pointing this out, I was really confused seeing the photos in the article since they didn't make any sense. I feel like this article's dishonesty is so egregious that it should be flagged.

The link could just be updated to the forum post.

The way stainless steel resists corrosion is the reaction of chromium and oxygen in the air to produce a protective chromium oxide layer. If you mess up the surface with a magnet you're trapping water in the interface, pushing that chromium oxide layer aside, and probably causing micro scratches.

"Every problem is created by a solution" goes the old saying. What was the raw stainless steel body a solution for? Oh ... right.

it's almost as if cars are painted for a reason

well, historically it was because manufacturers didn't have the opportunity to sell six-figure cars, so they had to use the cheapest acceptable steel alloys in order to produce a product that people could afford -- and paint was a 'decent enough' band-aid to the corrosion problems that came directly as a result from using cheap and cheap-to-manipulate alloys.

i'm not a Tesla fan, but let's not be ridiculous and presume that corrosion-resistant stainless steel is a myth; it's abundant on sea vehicles. Tesla decided to develop their own alloy and it back-fired in their face; this isn't a testament to stainless steel itself but rather to the intricacies of metallurgy and Tesla's own NIH-syndrome.

later deloreans used good-ole 316 Stainless rather than Tesla brand "Ultra Hard 30X stainless steel" and they still look great many decades later.

I thought that the Cybertruck alloy was an austenitic (non-magnetic) stainless steel. A 301 derivative. Did they change the composition of the alloy? If magnets are sticking to it so well, maybe they've switched to a ferritic steel? Or are they rolling it so severely that the austenite is mostly transformed into martensite?

“Austenitic stainless steel (non-magnetic) resists corrosion better than ferritic or martensitic stainless steel (magnetic), which Tesla uses with the Cybertruck.”

Galvanic corrosion?

I feel like I keep seeing gotchas with the cyber truck. It’s sad as I like the concept of a cyber truck.

The way it collects snow on the front of the car and blocks the headlights is really bad.

Tons of cars do this much worse

Tons? I can’t think of any typical modern car with recessed headlights other than the Jeep Wrangler.

Which ones ? I live in a very snowy place and I’ve heard of it before.

This isn't because of magnetism: it's water in contact with straight iron and stainless steel. (Saved you a click - the owners identify this).

A classic stainless steel failure mode is if it gets contaminated by iron particles (i.e. regular steel) during processing (you have to use not Fe grinding discs, keep posts separate etc).

The magnet trapped water, and the particularly low grade stainless used in the truck did the rest.

Yet another entry in this is literally the stupidest vehicle on the road though.

It could have been electrolytic too - there is no mention of what was pressed up against the body - it could have been something with zinc or other active metal.

Yes, that's called galvanic corrosion: metals with different electrical potentials come into contact and water enters the mix.

I can't imagine paying six figures for this vehicle. There's nothing aesthetically pleasing about it. It's a "truck" but also somehow more worthless than other modern trucks/bro-dozers on the road today. Have seen a few videos where towing reduces the battery life significantly. In some very cold climates, the vehicle becomes absolutely useless.

Living in a city that absolutely glazes Tesla and their CEO (ie, frequently encounter Teslas), they look even worse in person. A CT owner made the mistake of parking next to the dumpster where I throw my dog's shit, and threw the bag of shit into the trunk. Probably a video out there of this incident.