Patent Reveals Tesla Cybertruck Tailgate Can Be Remotely Opened And Closed

The mechanism has a counterweight to reduce the effort provided by the actuator.

Tesla Cybertruck prototype

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Jun 26, 2023 at 8:07am ET

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The much-anticipated Tesla Cybertruck is fast approaching the day when people who placed a pre-order will have one delivered, and more details about the all-electric pickup are coming to light as development continues on the company’s first-ever work truck.

According to an international patent application that was filed by Tesla last year but published just last week and discovered by Twitter user @tempermanant, the upcoming zero-emissions pickup will have a nifty mechanism that can remotely open and close the tailgate, including from a key fob or the smartphone app.

The whole thing is very compact, fitting inside the rear right side panel of the truck, and at the same time quite complex, consisting of an actuator, a counterweight member, latches, a switch, a controller, and sensors.

Gallery: Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla Cybertruck

Tesla describes the system as follows:

“A system for moving a hinge between an open position and a closed position is disclosed. The hinge couples a closure panel to a body. The system can include an actuator for driving the closure panel between the open position and the closed position. A counterweight member reduces a mechanical effort provided by the actuator to drive the closure panel.”

The American EV brand goes on to detail how the mechanism used to open and close the Cybertruck’s tailgate could also be used in other applications such as opening and closing hinged panels in storage compartments or cargo-hauling systems of different vehicles.

Furthermore, where EVs are concerned, the system can potentially improve the driving range by an admittedly small margin because it uses fewer components than comparable systems, so it’s lighter. With this being said, the lightest system of them all is a simple hinge, but then you’d have to use a hand to open and close the tailgate, which isn’t as cool as pressing a button on your smartphone’s screen.

It remains to be seen if this feature actually makes it on the production version of Tesla’s all-electric pickup truck, and if it does, it will be interesting to see if the company will offer it as part of the standard kit or if it will be an optional extra. If we were to guess, we’d say that it will be standard across the range, seeing how the Austin-based firm is trying to streamline its production process as much as possible, which includes slashing the number of possible optional extras.

More and more Tesla Cybertruck prototypes have been spotted in the wild in the past few months, including all the way in New Zealand, indicating that the American marque is getting closer and closer to finishing development and finally put into production as a finished vehicle.

What do you think?

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The pickup was unveiled back in 2019 and is expected to launch sometime in the third quarter of this year.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.