Footage shows a Cybertruck venturing off-road — but unfortunately, one of its wheels snapped off.
A stock bolt on one of the truck’s rear wheels reportedly failed after it completed some gnarly donuts at the King of the Hammers, a desert racing event in Johnson Valley, California, over the weekend.
According to a Redditor who claims to have attended the event, there were roughly 40 trucks, including Rivian EV pickups and some Ford F-150 Lightning vehicles.
A picture shared by a X-formerly-Twitter user shows the carnage.
“Drive it tell until the wheels fall off,” they added in the caption.
It’s not exactly confidence-inducing, considering Tesla’s marketing for the truck. The Elon Musk-led company claims it can “tackle anything.” Sure, the truck was put through its paces at the event — but all four wheels staying on feels pretty basic, especially for a vehicle that’s only been on the road for a month or two.
As InsideEVs points out, it’s not just Cybertrucks that have had their tie rods, which are the cylindrical structures that allow a vehicle to steer by translating sideways movement to the wheels, fail. Last year, for instance, a Rivian R1T had the part snap while tackling an off-road obstacle in Moab, Utah.
However, the Cybertruck’s all-wheel steering, a feature that sets it apart from the competition, means that it’s the only one out of this bunch that could have one of its rear tie rods fail in the first place.
So was the failed bolt the result of a poor design decision on Tesla’s behalf? Or should something like this be expected during an off-road event?
The owner of this particular truck, Tesla after-market parts company Unplugged Performance, released a particularly salty statement on X, claiming that the media was simply “stoking drama.”
“It’s as if the world has never seen anything break on a truck going off-roading,” the company wrote. “But hey, this is the Cybertruck, and everyone seems to want to angle an opinion. If it were any other vehicle, we’d have broken a bolt, and nobody would care.”
Unplugged Performance pointed to a Ford F-150 Raptor R, which also snapped one of its tie rods at the same event.
“Well, here are the simple facts,” the company wrote. “We drove the hell out of the truck, and we had a fantastic time; a bolt broke on the rear steering rack at the end of the day. Anticlimactic, isn’t it?”
It’s hard what to make of the situation. It’s true that the event sounds grueling. But there have also been a string of poorly thought-out design decisions that have resulted in headaches for owners.
Is Tesla is overselling the truck, or are these just launch pains? It’s harder than ever to tell given Musk’s long history of aggressive marketing — including that the Cybertruck will one day make its way to Mars.
More on the Cybertruck: The Cybertruck’s Wheel Covers Are Tearing Up Its Tires
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