I Don’t Want a Truck but if I Did I’d Want a Slate Truck
Slate wants to give you an electric pickup truck for $25,000.1
It doesn’t have speakers, or power windows, or a big-screen TV in the dash. It has three climate control buttons. It has a steering wheel that is round.
It has two seats, four wheels, a front trunk, a rear bed, and 205 miles of range.2
Looks like a pickup truck.
In its default gray, it looks incredibly boring (like an unfinished toy or the clay model the designers started with). But it holds so much potential, from vinyl wraps and decals to interior design elements and even to exterior hardware components.
Apparently, you can just add parts, 3D-print your own components, and change pieces as desired. You can do that to any vehicle, I guess. But on the Slate truck, there seem to be a bunch of built-in mounting points (holes) onto which you can bolt parts.
It’s begging to be tinkered with.
Lots of aspirational pickup owners out there don’t tow boats or haul lumber or lawnmowers or anything bigger than a cooler and a few chairs to the soccer sidelines. Do your thing, no hate.
The Slate truck makes me aspirational in a different way: I want it because of all the things I can do to it, and how that can change what I’d do with it.
Like:
- install a custom sound system
- add the rear roll cage to convert it from a pickup into an open-air SUV
- wrap it and add decals
- get somebody to 3D print me extra cupholders, and a phone mount, and a sunglasses holder, and maybe even a purse/bag compartment
- install retractable window shades
- for the rear bed: add a cooler holder, a closed golf club compartment, hell, maybe a refrigerated compartment or a flat top grill.
Questions That Seem… Important
Are people just going to steal all of your Slate parts?
The customizability of the Slate truck made me wonder: if I bolt on some custom hardware in an open-air model, or I add parts to the rear bed, or I attach the roll cage, can someone with a screwdriver walk up to my parked Slate truck on the street and just… take the parts?
Are there going to be trucks parked on sidewalks like bikes in the city, just a frame chained to a signpost with no wheels, seat, or handlebars?
Is this thing… safe?
A roll cage you can install yourself. With built-in airbags, but still. Speakers and bluetooth modules and lights and switches, marked as “intermediate” to “advanced” skill levels for installation.
Lots of interchangeable, customizable components. It just makes me wonder about the cohesiveness of it all as a vehicle that doesn’t sacrifice safety.