Tesla Cybertruck Engineer Politely Asks People to Stop Shooting His Pride and Joy
There aren’t many new ways left to hurt it as some folks have taken boots, sledgehammers, and even .50 cal bullets to the truck.
Elon Musk set the precedent when he threw a metal ball at the Tesla Cybertruck's window all those years ago. Now that the ostentatious electric pickup is in production, people won't stop testing its durability with, um... guns. And sledgehammers. And high water crossings. It's been entertaining, of course, but Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill is kindly asking folks to cool it with the ballistics and such.
Morrill tweeted about the tests, seemingly half-joking:
He's not wrong. It says more about the customer base than anything when people fork over nearly six figures (or well above $100,000) for a truck only to assault the product they purchased. Sure, they may get some of that money back if their clip gets millions of views, but YouTube doesn't pay that well. Right?
Some of the tests were independent, where the people involved had no financial skin in the game. Jason Cammisa with Hagerty, for example, doesn't own the Cybertruck that his coworker Randy Pobst thwacked with a hammer. Then there's the goofy Carwow video that tries denting the pickup, but not so hard, by ramming into it with a shopping cart.
Really, the Cybertruck's greatest challenge is yet to come. That's because the world's most destructive YouTuber WhistlinDiesel is about to get his hands on one. He's known for pulling stupid stunts that destroy perfectly good classic trucks and even $100,000 SEMA builds, so the guy surely won't mind tearing the Tesla to smithereens. Morrill acknowledged the influencer's upcoming test in his tweet replies (if we're still calling them that) so he knows his pride and joy is due for even more abuse soon.
Ultimately, people can do what they want with what belongs to them. I'm siding with the engineer on this one and saying that, by now, we have a pretty good idea of how tough the truck is. If you own one, don't shoot at it with a .50 cal—that's already been done before, and bulletproofing is a much more complex topic than most folks know.
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