Cybertruck engineer asks Tesla owners to please stop beating up the 'tortured' truck

Elon Musk and Tesla’s designer put the Cybertruck’s shatter-resistant windows to the test when the truck was first unveiled in 2019. It didn’t go well. Frederic J. Brown/Getty Images

Cybertruck owners have been subjecting the vehicle to various damage tests, including shooting it.
Tesla engineer Wes Morrill called for owners to stop beating up the truck on Wednesday.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has marketed the Cybertruck as “apocalypse-proof.”

Don’t be surprised if you see a brand new Cybertruck rolling around town with some bullet wounds or a cracked window.

Over the past few months, Cybertruck owners have been putting their trucks through a battery of tests — from taking them through windshield-high waters, shooting them with an AR-15, throwing a metal ball at the windows, or taking them off-roading. These are just some of the many battle scars the vehicles have suffered at the hands of new owners curious to test their toughness.

Cybertruck engineer Wes Morrill is calling for an end to the experiments on Wednesday.

“Cybertruck has lived a tortured life for entertainment – Jumped on, kicked, burned, beaten, and shot (multiple times),” Morrill wrote on X. “To quote the black knight, it’s just a flesh wound, I’m invincible! Now we’ve confirmed is tough, maybe Cybertruck can roam freely on and off-road in peace?”

Cybertruck has lived a tortured life for entertainment – Jumped on, kicked, burned, beaten, and shot (multiple times). To quote the black knight, it’s just a flesh wound, I’m invincible!

Now we’ve confirmed is tough, maybe Cybertruck can roam freely on and off-road in peace? pic.twitter.com/VuC5j9r35E

— Wes (@wmorrill3) March 14, 2024

For most people who purchase a nearly $100,000 vehicle, their first thought likely wouldn’t be to see if they could break it, but in some ways Tesla CEO Elon Musk has encouraged this instinct. He’s done public demonstrations looking to highlight its durability and more recently commented on some videos of the destruction online while marketing the vehicle as ‘”tough” and “apocalypse-proof.”

Musk said last year that the truck is bulletproof to 9mm and .22 caliber firearms. He’s also said that while the standard version of the truck won’t have bulletproof glass, Tesla would also offer a version of the truck with thicker fixed-pane glass windows. So far, that feature has yet to be seen.

Here are just a handful of beatings the truck has gone through publicly:

Zack Nelson from JerryRigEveryting took a torch and a variety of firearms to the truck, including a .50 caliber weapon.

Tesla Owners Silicon Valley threw a steel ball at the Cybertruck. (The video is an apparent homage to the truck’s debut when Tesla design chief Franz von Holzhausen threw a metal ball at the vehicle.)

Tesla shared a clip of the truck scaling a steep off-road trail. Some owners have followed suit, with varying degrees of success.

Auto reporter Jason Cammisa took a sledge hammer to the Cybertruck. (Musk did a similar test when the vehicle was first announced.)

YouTuber TechRax took the truck into waters that were as high as its windshield to test out Cybertruck Wade Mode.

A group of Tesla fans tried to physically beat the truck up by kicking it.

For those who have successfully damaged their Cybertrucks in various tests, it’s not clear how many have since taken the vehicles in for repair.

For now, Cybertruck owners might be content to live with “the badge of honor” that is a dent from a bullet or a banged-up door, Morrill said on X. Cybertruck owner and YouTuber Zack Nelson previously told Business Insider he plans to leave some of the bullet wounds from his experiment “because they look cool.”