Ah, the Tesla Cybertruck. It's the electric pickup that was built to look good on Mars but struggles to cope with conditions here on Earth.
We've seen no end of Cybertruck design fails since the vehicle's release in late 2023, from parts flying off on the road to an inability to handle snow. Perhaps, it shouldn't be surprising, then, that the edgy-looking EV isn't quite as amphibious as Elon Musk once suggested it would be.
One driver seems to have confused the Cybertruck with James Bond's Lotus Esprit S1, which we recently included in our pick of the most iconic car designs of all time. The California Highway Patrol Truckee Instagram account has posted images of a stranded Cybertruck at the edge of a lake with a reminder to users that “Wade Mode isn’t Submarine Mode.”
This may seem less a design fail and more a failure of common sense. But, as outlandish as it may seem, Elon Musk did suggest as shortly ago as 2022 that the Cybertruck would "be waterproof enough to serve as a boat so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren't too choppy".
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppySeptember 29, 2022
That was a bold claim from the CEO of a company that historically had problems just keeping the rain out of its cars. It's strange way of phrasing it too. A Gortex jack is very waterproof, but that doesn't make it a boat.
Based on what Musk wrote in the tweet above, we could assume that while the Cybertruck might not serve to sail around Cape Horn, it would at least be able to cross a shallow lake. Musk suggested it would be able to cross the 360 metres of water between SpaceX’s Starbase and South Padre Island in Texas.
Alas, while the Cybertruck did come to market with a 'Wade Mode', it seems this isn't the Boat Mode we were promised. The feature is supposed to lift the suspension and temporarily pressurise the battery to allow a shallow water crossing, but that doesn't help with mud.
Perhaps it's best not to believe everything that Elon Musk writes on X. For Cybertruck's total antithesis, check out the Slate Truck. Its cheap price, no-nonsense design and almost infinite customisability make it everything the Cybertruck isn't.
