Cargo Bed

Last updated: December 20, 2023

Overview

The Cybertruck features a tonneau cover system to provide an enclosed space for the cargo bed.

The tonneau cover is a series of individually removable slats. Its operation is fully automated and includes two 48V self-locking motors, which prevents manual cover movement.

The tailgate consists of two latches and their dedicated release/cinching actuator. A damper strut on the left side of the tailgate smooths the tailgate's lowering motion.

The tonneau cover and tailgate can be controlled by a control switch located on left side of the cargo bed, through the User Interface (UI), or through the mobile app.

All the tonneau cover components are operated by the rear vehicle controller.

Specifications

The cargo bed system includes:

• Rear vehicle controller
• Exterior control switch
• Tailgate latches including built-in electrical actuator
• Tonneau cover motors
• Tonneau cover

1. Tonneau control switch 2. Left tailgate latch 3. Left tonneau motor 4. Right tailgate latch 5. Rear vehicle controller (VCREAR) 6. Right tonneau motor
Cargo bed system - Overview

Tonneau cover - Closed

Tonneau cover - Open

Exterior control switch - Detailed view

When the vehicle is unlocked, the tailgate can only be operated if the vehicle is stopped. There is no speed requirement for opening the tonneau cover via the UI, but opening the tonneau cover using the exterior switches can only happen when the vehicle is stopped.

The user can interact with the tonneau and tailgate by using the external tonneau control switch. The tonneau and tailgate can be operated via exterior switches if the vehicle is stopped. The tonneau open/close buttons have three positions:

1. Not pressed
2. Lightly pressed
3. Firmly pressed

To fully open or close the tonneau cover, firmly press and release. Press a second time to pause the cover. To open or close the tonneau cover partway, lightly press and hold the button until desired position is reached and then release.

The tailgate release switch has two positions:

1. Not pressed
2. Pressed

When activated, the tailgate latch releases, and integrated struts make sure the tailgate has a controlled descent, preventing it from forcefully falling.

The tonneau cover can be actuated manually or automatically from a fully retracted position, that clears the cabin rear-view glass, to a fully extended position that fully covers the cargo bed.

The rear vehicle controller controls the different tonneau cover and tailgate components. The tonneau cover motors are controlled by EGGREAR1, while the exterior control switch and tailgate latches are controlled by VCREAR.

Note

EGGREAR1 and VCREAR are two different microcontrollers located on the rear vehicle controller board.

Operation

There are three methods to operate the tailgate or the tonneau cover:

1. By pressing the exterior control switch, which is directly connected to VCREAR.
2. By pressing the tonneau cover open/close or tailgate open switch on the vehicle User Interface (UI), which is sent over the Etherloop from the UI to VCREAR.
3. By pressing the tonneau cover open/close or tailgate release switch on the Tesla mobile app, which:
   • If coming from an authenticated phone key, is sent over Bluetooth to VCSEC, which is then communicated to VCREAR over an internal CAN bus.
   • If not coming from an authenticated phone key, is sent over Internet to the UI and then transmitted to VCREAR over Etherloop.

Pre-requisite

The tonneau cover and tailgate requests are processed when the vehicle is unlocked. The tonneau can be actuated by the UI without a speed limit, and it is only speed-limited when using the exterior buttons.

If the tonneau cover is requested to open:

1. The tonneau cover motors actuate to retract the cover into the vehicle body.
2. If performing ...
   • ... an auto open actuation, the cover fully retracts and clears the cabin rear glass view.
   • ... a manual open actuation, the cover retracts until the switch is released or once the cover is fully retracted.

If the tonneau cover is requested to close:

1. The tonneau cover motors actuate to extend the cover out of the vehicle body.
2. If performing ...
   • ... an auto close actuation, the cover fully extends and contacts the tailgate, fully covering the cargo area.
   • ... a manual close actuation, the cover extends until the switch is released or once the cover is fully extended.

If the tailgate is requested to open:

1. The two latches release in parallel out of the primary and secondary positions using its built-in release actuator.
2. Once unlatched, the tailgate lowers smoothly due to a damper strut located on the left side until it reaches a horizontal position.

Manual release

The tailgate can be released manually by pulling the red strap located on its inner side.

The tailgate can also be closed manually:

1. The tailgate needs to be raised to a vertical position.
2. Once either of the two latches are engaged in the AJAR (secondary) position, the latch actuator performs a cinch actuation to bring the latch into a fully closed (primary) position.
3. If the second latch was not in AJAR position prior to the first latch cinch, the action of the first latch is expected to pull in the tailgate, engaging the second latch in the AJAR position and causing it to complete a cinch actuation.

Tonneau cover

The tonneau cover is an automated cover assembly that can retract into the Cybertruck body to give access to the cargo bed.

It can automatically close or open using two 48V self-locking motors that prevent the tonneau cover from being opened when not powered. The cover moves through two built-in tracks that are located on the left and right sides of the bed. The cover tracks have hard end stops in the fully closed position to prevent it from falling out of the tracks when tailgate is open.

Each tonneau cover motor needs to have calibrated end stops, which are the fully extended (opened) and fully retracted (closed) positions. The motor can calibrate by performing the following sequence.

1. The motors retract the cover until they stall in the fully open position.
2. The motors then extend the cover until they stall in the fully closed position.

The tonneau cover calibration can be triggered by a dedicated ODIN routine. See the Serviceability section for more information.

The tonneau cover can either be controlled manually or perform automatic movement. If the exterior control switch is held in first open or close position, the tonneau cover will open or close until:

1. The switch is released.
2. The motor reaches the fully closed or opened position.
3. An obstacle is detected.

If the exterior control switch is held in the second open or close position, and the tonneau cover is calibrated, the tonneau will perform an automatic open or close actuation.

During automatic movement, VCREAR monitors the tonneau current to detect potential objects and pinches. Users can override obstacle and pinch detection by manually moving the tonneau cover using the exterior control switch if needed.

To prevent the tonneau cover from skewing and preventing movement, each side's tonneau motor will monitor the position of the tonneau. If the position of the two sides differ above a threshold, each monitor will actuate individually to even out the tonneau's side positions. Tonneau skew correction is available in both manual and automatic tonneau actuations.

The tonneau cover motors' temperature is estimated by the rear vehicle controller to prevent the motors from overheating event. If the tonneau moves for a time period above a certain threshold, the user will be warned to not use the tonneau. If the user continues to use the tonneau for a certain period of time, the tonneau will complete its current movement and stop functioning for a time period to allow its motors to cool down.

Tailgate latch

There are two tailgate latches located on each side of the tailgate with built-in electrical actuator to perform release and cinching actuations.

Each tailgate latch contains four switches:

1. Fork bolt #1 switch (FB1), which reports if the latch is engaged in the AJAR (secondary) position.
2. Fork bolt #2 switch (FB2), which reports if latch is engaged in the fully closed (primary) position.
3. Detent switch (D1), which reports when the cinching actuation is completed.
4. Actuator home (Home), which reports if the latch actuator is located at its home position.

The switches are used to classify the latch status. The three main latch positions and their corresponding switch states are described in the table below.

Latch state	FB1	FB2	Detent
Closed (Primary)	Pressed / Closed circuit	Pressed / Closed circuit	Pressed / Closed circuit
AJAR (Secondary)	Not pressed / Open circuit	Pressed / Closed circuit	Pressed / Closed circuit
Open	Not pressed / Open circuit	Not pressed / Open circuit	Not pressed / Open circuit

The tailgate will be classified as open if either latch reports open or AJAR positions and is only classified as closed if both latches report closed. If either latch reports fault, the tailgate state will report as faulted.

The electrical actuator will rest when not commanded at its home position, which is detected by a dedicated switch.

When commanded to release, it will actuate in the release direction until the latch is detected in the expected state (AJAR or open) or until the release actuation times out. The actuator is then commanded in the opposite direction until the actuator home position switch is not pressed.

When commanded to cinch, it will actuate in the cinch direction until the detent switch is seen transitioning from a pressed to an unpressed state. The actuator will then actuate in the opposite direction until the actuator home position switch is pressed.

Serviceability

Tonneau cover

Diagnostic

If the tonneau cover does not function as expected, the first step is to understand what functionality is impacted:

• If the tonneau cover does not perform automatic open or close actuation, but performs manual movements, then the tonneau cover is not calibrated.
• If the tonneau cover does not open or close as expected:
  • If it does not open or close from the exterior control switch but does from the UI or mobile, then there might be an issue with the switch.
  • If it does not open or close from any sources, then there might an issue with the tonneau cover motors, or the tonneau cover tracks being jammed.

EGGREAR1 monitors the state of the tonneau cover during its operation and may trigger some alerts if specific conditions are detected.

Alert name	Description	Impact
EGGREAR1_a555_tonneauLeftMotorUncalibrated	Left tonneau motor is uncalibrated	Auto movement will not function until recalibrated
EGGREAR1_a557_tonneauLeftMotorUnexpectedStop	Left tonneau motor stopped unexpectedly	Tonneau may operate unexpectedly
EGGREAR1_a559_tonneauLeftMotorSkew	Left tonneau motor is skewed	If tonneau is unable to recover from skew, the tonneau cover will not move
EGGREAR1_a556_tonneauRightMotorUncalibrated	Right tonneau motor is uncalibrated	Auto movement will not function until recalibrated
EGGREAR1_a558_tonneauRightMotorUnexpectedStop	Right tonneau motor stopped unexpectedly	Tonneau may operate unexpectedly
EGGREAR1_a560_tonneauRightMotorSkew	:Right tonneau motor is skewed	If tonneau is unable to recover from skew, the tonneau cover will not move

In addition, EGGREAR1 reports the status of the tonneau cover at all times, including the tonneau cover calibration status.

CAN signal name	Description
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorLeftCal	Left tonneau motor calibration status
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorRightCal	Right tonneau motor calibration status
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorLeftState	Left tonneau motor status
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorRightState	Right tonneau motor status
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorLeftCurrent	Left tonneau motor current in amps
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorRightCurrent	Right tonneau motor current in amps
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorLeftEncoderTicks	Left tonneau motor encoder count
EGGREAR1_tonneauMotorRightEncoderTicks	Right tonneau motor encoder count

Repair

The tonneau cover motors and cover are serviceable. After replacing tonneau cover assembly components, the tonneau cover will need to be re-calibrated. This can be done by running the ODIN routine PROC_EGGREAR1_TONNEAU-CALIBRATE.

Tailgate

Diagnostic

If the tailgate does not function as expected, the first step is to understand what functionality is impacted.

First confirm if one or both tailgate latch statuses are incorrect. If so, then there might be an issue with one or more of the latch switches or with the wiring between the affected tailgate latch(es) and VCREAR. Otherwise:

• If the tailgate does not open as expected:
  • If it does not open or close from the exterior control switch but does from the UI or mobile, then there might be an issue with the switch.
  • If it does not open or close from any sources, then there might an issue with one or both of the tailgate's latch electrical actuators.
• If the tailgate does not close as expected:
  • If it does not close automatically with a cinching actuation, then there might be an issue with one or both of the latch electrical actuators.
  • If it does not close at all, then there might be an issue with the latch mechanical assemblies or with the tailgate alignment.

VCREAR reports the status of the tailgate latch at all times.

CAN signal name	Description
VCREAR_tailgateStatus	Tailgate status
VCREAR_tailgateLeftLatchStatus	Tailgate left side latch state
VCREAR_tailgateRightLatchStatus	Tailgate right side latch state

Repair

The tailgate latches are serviceable. If the latches do not release electrically, they can be unlatched by pulling the red strap located on inner side of the tailgate.

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