November 21, 2019 was a momentous day in the world of tech and automobiles- Elon Musk unveiled to the world his brand new invention, the Cybertruck.

Apart from Elon hinting on twitter the truck being a part of the majorly awaited videogame, Cyber Punk 2077- the most unique thing about the new car is its design.

The truck looks very similar to the first-generation Honda Ridgeline. Instead of the body structure sitting on a frame, the Cybertruck's and Ridgeline are built around what a metal cage.

Because of the metal cage design, the vehicle has to include a vital feature: the sail pillar.

A vehicle naturally wants to twist. In a conventional car’s design where the engine rests on a large frame, which absorbs a lot of the stresses. In a unibody design, vertical strength helps absorb the stress with the car’s A pillar by the windshield till the D pillar in the rear window of SUVs.

The strong body of the structure prevents the car from twisting and damaging the overall integrity of the product. At the core of all the strength of this unconventional design is the sail pillar that prevents the truck from twisting.

Honda described the redesign like this:

“The rear frame structure of the 2017 Ridgeline is vitally important to the overall structural rigidity of the body, to collision safety performance and to the Ridgeline’s hauling and towing capability. Utilizing fully boxed frame members for the body sides and rear tailgate frame, the truss-style rear inner construction contributes to the new Ridgeline’s more conventional three-box design profile—allowing for the elimination of the buttress-style body structure in the forward portion of the upper bed on the previous model—while contributing to a 28-percent gain in torsional rigidity versus the previous model. Also, the U-shaped rear frame member serves as a highly rigid mounting structure for the rear tailgate, allowing for a highly precise tailgate fit.”

Tesla truly has changed the way we look at and think about trucks. What’s crazy about the reveal, apart from the countless memes from the failed shatterproof glass presentation of the car- is that Elon revealed a crazy statistic. The Tesla Cybertruck has been preordered 187,000 times within 3 days, with a 146,000 preorders within the truck's first 48 hours.

Looks like Elon has again struck a chord with the world through his unique blend of innovation in design, tech and his brilliant marketing presentation.