Chatter about Tesla’s upcoming Cybertruck has subsided since its unveiling in late 2019, but that’s not stopping designers from imagining its potential uses.
This includes Lance King, the CEO of Stream It, a software and artificial-intelligence company that’s now pivoting to create attachments that can turn Cybertrucks into a pop-up tiny homes on wheels.
Yes, you read that right. A tech company is now making pickup-truck campers, or “CyberLandrs.”
The production of Tesla’s infamous Cybertruck might have been pushed back from 2021 to 2022, but that’s not stopping Stream It from “ramping everything up,” King told Insider.
King first thought of the idea when he was preordering a Cybertruck and realized no existing RV or camper would be compatible with the futuristic truck’s body.
The RV industry “hasn’t innovated in 50 years,” King said. “They’re not going to get a stroke of genius and create a new RV. And I thought, ‘Who could do it?'”
King says the answer is his Stream It team.
“The only company I can think of that could do that is my company,” King said. “We’ve got the software developers; we’ve got the AI; and we’re really creative. We wanted it to be a Tesla-like experience even when you were in a RV.”
According to King, a “true Tesla level RV” needs strong software that’s capable of artificial intelligence and yearly updates, similar to Tesla’s vehicles.
So toward the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the face of potential layoffs, King decided to put his team to work designing the CyberLandr.
Before this project, the company had never worked in the RV industry, though many team members enjoy overlanding, camping, and RVing.
King says this inexperience with RVs is actually a “massive strength.”
“Tesla would never have been able to reinvent the car had they been in the car business,” King said. “Just being in that changes your field of vision. We think it was necessary to not be in the RV industry to create a truly new and unique product.”
So far, the investment is paying off.
The camper was an instant success upon its unveiling in early April, according to the company.
To prove potential market success, the company’s goal was to have 100 to 200 interested customers within the first month. Instead, it saw 1,000 buyers, it said.
According to King, the Cyber:andr team has already hit more than $80 million in preorders, and it’s still recording daily sales, which Insider confirmed.
It’s even received a one-word stamp of approval from Elon Musk, who called a video of the CyberLandr “cool” in early July.