Watch This Tesla Cybertruck Sputter Out After Driving Through A Creek

At this point, I think it’s safe to say that the Tesla Cybertruck is a rolling disaster. I’m not talking about sales performance; I’m talking about the truck itself. There have been all manner of screw-ups with this thing damn near starting from the moment customers got their hands on it — trust us, we’ve been keeping track. Worst yet is the truck’s off-road performance. From getting stuck in the snow to getting bested by an entry-level Subaru crossover, it’s been bad. And it’s happened again — this time with a creek.

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Kyle Field, a writer for the alternative energy site Cleantechnica.com, went on a recent off-road excursion with some fellow Tesla owners. He’s interesting in that he’s part of a group that owns and modifies Teslas for off-roading; he drives a modified Model Y. A recent trip to Moab that included a Model X, his Y, and three Cybertrucks tested the limits of what these machines could do off-road.

While Field has more than a few tweets where he sings the praises of Supercharging and how well the Teslas were able to handle the tough trails of Moab, one of the Cybertrucks appeared to have some issues. The truck was filmed crossing Kane Creek Road through what looks to be a nice sized puddle, or a part of Kane Creek itself. At first, the Cybertruck seemed to have handled plowing through the water just fine. It looks like something out of a commercial.

All of a sudden, a loud grinding noise started coming from the Cybertruck. At nearly the same time this happens, the lower lights on the truck lit up, and the windshield wiper turned on. After that, the video abruptly cuts.

Things got dicey at that point. In the replies to the tweet of the video, people started to question what that noise was, and if the truck was OK. Field explained that part of the wheel liner came loose on the truck: “The front part of the wheel well liner disconnected and started rubbing on the wheel. I pulled it back and field repaired it like you do…”

Now, this could have happened. It’s been known to happen on other Tesla models.

But many folks in the replies weren’t buying it. Some even called what happened an obvious malfunction, pointing to the fact that the the windshield wiper and lights suddenly turned on and started flickering. One person even pointed out that it might have been user error; wheel fairings on the truck are supposed to come off before doing tough off-road activities. Of course, there were more defenders.

One person explained this away by saying that both the lights and the wiper automatically came on when the truck detected water on the windshield, and the strobing lights were due to the camera’s frame rate not being in sync with the LED (this is common when LEDs are filmed.) But others still weren’t sold, saying that wasn’t frame rate sync and outright calling it a malfunction.

It does look to be a malfunction. If you watch and listen closely to the video, you’ll notice the grinding sound starts almost immediately as the truck is coming out of the water. It also seems to get louder as the truck looks to be slowing down; a wheel liner rubbing against a wheel wouldn’t increase in volume as a truck is slowing down. Suffice it to say, the truck continued to get cooked in the comments. Field, however, considered the Mohab trip a success. But with how Tesla fans and Cybertruck owners do everything they can to save face and make these trucks look as cool as possible, it’s doubtful we’ll ever know what really happened to the truck.