DETROIT – Spaceship. Dream car. UFO. Dumpster. Cool. Stupid. Phenomenal. Abomination.

Those were all words used to describe the Tesla Cybertruck during a 24-hour rental of the vehicle in metropolitan Detroit. They were expressed by strangers, friends, family, and auto industry experts and employees.

A word not used much? “Truck.”

That’s because the Tesla Cybertruck is far more “cyber” than “truck.” It indeed has some truck capabilities, such as a pickup bed and other utilitarian features, but it is not a truck in any traditional sense of the word.

It is a unique product that only comes along every so often. Similar to the first SUV, minivan or “roadster pickups” such as the Ford Ranchero and Chevrolet El Camino, it has created a new segment in the automotive industry that it solely holds.

That’s good and bad for both Tesla and its competitors, specifically the truck-reliant automakers from Detroit that have spent decades refining their trucks to meet the needs of their customers. That includes things such as bed access and door handle sizes to seating height and interior components.

The Cybertruck is not a direct competitor for electric trucks from traditional automakers. The Cybertruck is a “truck” for Tesla fans/owners and an experiment for the company in many ways regarding its technologies, including a new electrical architecture and steering system.

The top vehicles that are cross-shopped for the Cybertruck are Tesla’s other four models, followed by the Ford F-150 Lightning in a distant fifth at 7.4% of potential buyers, according to Edmunds.com.

I drove a roughly $100,000 all-wheel-drive version of the Cybertruck in regular driving conditions and traffic in Detroit and its surrounding suburbs, including a short torrential downpour in which the vehicle’s comically large wiper blade performed fine.

I did not test the vehicle’s towing or hauling capabilities, which have come into question recently following reports of problems involving the durability of the vehicle’s aluminum frame. Most notably, in an over-the-top viral video from YouTube channel WhistlinDiesel.

I wanted to have better first-hand knowledge of the vehicle and compare it with electric trucks from other automakers, but that was harder than initially expected. I also purposely did not watch or read any reviews ahead of time about the vehicle before driving it.

The Cybertruck is unlike any other vehicle I’ve ever driven. That includes every all-electric truck on sale today from General Motors, Ford Motor and Rivian Automotive.

That’s not to say it isn’t “tough.” As seen on YouTube, the company and owners have shot bullets at it, thrown steel balls at its windows and done other less-than-industry-standard tests. Having said that, the vehicle I drove had just more than 2,000 miles on it and I found two pieces of trim peeling off along the rolling bed cover’s sealant/guide rails.

Potential problems with the durability of the frame are concerning. It is the base of the vehicle that everything is built on. For a vehicle’s frame to break, even in severe testing conditions, is a serious problem.

Regarding its polarizing design, it’s on another level of its own. It makes GMC’s Hummer seem normal. Heads turned, jaws dropped and there were even a few people yelling or screaming, including one fellow driver aggressively giving me a thumbs down as I passed (some Cybertruck drivers have reported more explicit gestures). The reactions came from toddlers and school children to construction workers and police officers.

Inside the doorstop-shaped, stainless-steel alloy exoskeleton of the Cybertruck is where things get more interesting.

The interior of the vehicle, like its other Tesla siblings, is described by many as “minimalistic.” I’d call it sparse and, in some material choices, cheap for a $100,000 vehicle. Given its size, the interior of the vehicle also feels more like a car than a “truck.”

There’s about 3½ feet of unusable space from the driver to the bottom of the vehicle’s windshield, while the back seat is fine for a car but a little lacking for space compared with today’s full-size pickup trucks.

Woychowski, a former GM executive whose company has tested and benchmarked the Cybertruck, said the steer-by-wire feature is “discretionary.” But he described the change in the vehicle’s electrical architecture that powers all of its systems as “bare bones, engineering efficiency” that has been a needed change for years.

The Cybertruck features a 48-volt architecture to power the components of the vehicle. Doing so allows for additional electrical bandwidth for a vehicle and eliminates the need for a traditional 12-volt battery to power things such as windows, seats and headlights.

Tesla is the first to offer such a 48-volt system on a pure EV. Tesla CEO Elon Musk infamously sent competitors such as Ford and GM essentially a “how-to” guide on developing such a system.

The benefit with using the higher voltage for auxiliary devices is that the same power can be supplied at a lower current. It can save weight and cost as the wiring is about half the size.

However, the system requires a complete rethinking of a vehicle’s electrical architecture that can be costly. Whether or not other automakers follow Tesla is yet to be seen.

“The bill to make the change is huge,” Woychowski said. “It really is very, very good technology to bring in. It’s long overdue. There is a direct savings from a cost and mass perspective, and for an EV that is gold.”

It’s apparent that the Cybertruck appeals to a sector of Americans who have the means to afford it — likely along with several other vehicles. Motor Intelligence reports the Cybertruck was the top-selling electric “truck” during the second quarter of this year, edging out the segment-leading Ford F-150 Lightning, Rivian R1T and GM’s Hummer EV and Chevy Silverado EV.

But how much appeal such a polarizing vehicle has in the long term will be determined in the coming quarters and years ahead. The Chevy El Camino and Ford Ranchero were able to last a couple decades.