The Tesla Cybertruck's windscreen wiper is so huge that it could double up as a lightsaber

"Design a car differently, or design it not - there is no convention-following", Tesla's designers have probably said to each other every time they put their heads together for a new model.

With this ethos, the Cybertruck was unveiled to the automotive world in 2019 as Tesla's foray into the lucrative market of pick-up trucks. Curve-hating and lunar rover-like, the ute's design still slants more towards first-draft concept car than production-ready mass market model two years on. 

But that has apparently come at a cost. When it debuted on stage as a prototype, the Cybertruck was missing one very important piece of kit on its humongous windscreen: A wiper.

As per reporting from The Verge, drone footage of the truck in action at Tesla's Fremont test track has now shown what the truck will be like with it. The result is likely one of the longest windscreen wipers ever fitted to a modern car.

Unsurprisingly, Tesla CEO Elon Musk didn't mind responding to an unimpressed Twitter user curious if this design choice was final, candidly conceding that there remains "[n]o easy solution" to the wiper's length. He also seemed to suggest that his team had explored the idea of a deployable wiper - to be stowed away in the front trunk - but was unlikely to go through with it considering its mechanical complexity.  

Apart from its unwieldy wiper and unorthodox design, this is not the only time the Cybertruck has come under scrutiny.

A live-demo during its unveiling was supposed to evince the strength of its 'Armor Glass', but went south when a metal ball managed to smash both its front and back windows. Musk laughed it off, then explained later on on Twitter that his crew had accidentally weakened the base of the glass with the sledgehammer test right before.

Furthermore, Tesla has not been the most realistic about the Cybertruck's delivery timeline. Even when signs were pointing in that direction, the electric carmaker had been reluctant to admit that it would be pushing back production of the truck for an entire year. Then, a few weeks after appearing to maintain in its Q2 2021 report that the first Cybertrucks would hit the roads come end-2021, it quietly revised the date on the truck's configurator. 

We can't foresee in entirety what else 2022 will bring to us but it's safe to say this: The Cybertruck is already one of its most intriguing cars. If it actually gets released within the year, of course.