Tesla Cybertruck features, including 'vault' and no door handles, demonstrated

New videos of the
Tesla Cybertruck show its vault in action and sleek door handles.
Samantha Delouya

Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen showed off the Cybertruck over the weekend.
Videos from the event show the EV’s electronic tonneau and how to get into the truck without door handles.
Elon Musk has said Tesla will start deliveries of the Cybertruck later this year.

Tesla’s chief designer Franz von Holzhausen showed off the automaker’s highly anticipated Cybertruck at Petersen Automotive Museum in California on Sunday.

Videos on Twitter from the Electrified Cars & Coffee event highlighted some of the latest updates to the electric pickup truck, which is expected to hit the market later this year — including the electronic cover on its bed and how to get into the vehicle.

One video from the event showed more of Tesla’s Cybertruck “vault,” also known as the truck’s bed. The electric pickup truck has a electrified tonneau cover that slides opened or closed at the touch of a button, covering the 6.5 feet truck bed smoothly.

—S.E. Robinson, Jr. (@SERobinsonJr)
June 25, 2023

Another video from an attendee takes an even closer look at the bed of the truck and what appears to be a charge port along the side of the EV.

—Ryan Zohoury (@RyanZohoury)
June 25, 2023

Von Holzhausen showed how to open the stainless steel doors manually, which can be opened by pushing in on a small button near the edge of the window or on the vehicle’s C-pillar. Otherwise, the truck does not have a door handle.

Earlier prototypes of the vehicle appeared to have a door handle along the side of the car that would pop out similar to the Model S door handles. But, Tesla CEO Elon Musk first announced the vehicle wouldn’t have door handles in 2021.

“Car recognizes you & opens door,” he said on Twitter.

The front window can also roll all the way down, according to the video of Von Holzhausen driving off the in the vehicle.

The design boss demonstrated the car’s rear wheel steering and mobility in a parking garage. In 2021, Musk said on Twitter that the car will be “amazing for nimble handling & tight turns!”

—Sawyer Merritt (@SawyerMerritt)
June 25, 2023

Not everything on the vehicle was as sleek as its stainless steel doors. Photos from the event show that the Cybertruck still seems to have a noticeably clunky windshield wiper. Insider previously reported that previous photos of the Cybertruck showed the massive windshield wiper leaves much to be desired.

In the past, Musk has said there’s “no easy solution” to the vehicle’s massive windshield and the initial 2019 design for the Cybertruck didn’t even include windshield wipers.

The Tesla CEO has said the carmaker plans to release its Cybertruck later this year and confirmed during Tesla’s quarterly earnings call in April that he expects to commence deliveries by the end of the year.

The billionaire has changed the delivery date — which is two years later than he initially predicted — several times since he first announced the truck in 2019.