From gunky surfaces t0 embarrassing off-road exploits to malfunctioning after going through water, the stainless steel Tesla Cybertruck seems like an all-around mess. We cover a lot of those concerns here on Jalopnik, but if you want an even clearer picture of just how dire owners of this machine have it, look no further than the Cybertruck owners forums.
We decided to check out the forums for ourselves after we spotted a tweet by @salsadrunkard that featured a screenshot of a Cybertruck owner detailing how their truck broke down a mile from the delivery center. It didn’t take much digging to find the forum and the thread itself on Cybertrucks Owners Club. The initial post reads:
Took delivery today, AWD.. made it 1 mile down road, started getting steering error, flashing red screen, pulled off side of highway now the truck is dead and I’m waiting for a tow truck. Dealer couldn’t do anything for me. It was great for 5 minutes.. tried everything, restarting, screen is stuck black and keeps beeping
Tesla really rushed these trucks out, what a nightmare.
Click through some other posts, and you’ll quickly fall down a rabbit hole of malfunctions and issues. One owner, for example, described how their Cybertruck suddenly braked after passing another truck on the side of the highway:
I encountered a truck on the other side of a two-lane highway.
My Cybertruck suddenly made a hard brake stop when we both have a clear wide enough space between us.
Luckily there is no vehicle at the back as it would have been a definite collision.
Note: The auto-pilot is simply a glorified reactive cruise control.
Another owner gave their Cybertruck such a damning review that they were allegedly banned from one owners forum and had to turn to another, Tesla Motors Club, to warn prospective buyers about the “borderline dangerous” visibility issues:
It’s so, so bad. You can’t see the front corners adequately. It’s borderline dangerous! It’s a joke that there’s no rearview camera display where the rear view is, instead, it’s a tiny display on your main screen that shows you behind. So stupid. Cost cutting.
Another owner described how their Cybertruck threw some sort of error code while driving and then wouldn’t charge. None of their local service centers could help either for various reasons.
So my beautiful CT get towed to the service center this morning. When driving around town yesterday (after receiving the truck last Saturday, with only 1 home charge to 80%), it keeps beeping about the battery has reached max limits and it won't be able to charge -- this is happening while driving. Park the car and screen went black. Reset the screen, everything came back on. Checking service and it shows Hvbatt_a223 error, but OK to drive. We drove straight home and try to plug in, it started charging for 5 minutes and stop charging, Hvbatt_a260 error. Call Tesla emergency service, and got it towed. Irvine center won't accept it (due to too busy), Costa Mesa can't accept it because it does not have the right lift, another one in Tesla Service Costa Mesa North finally accepted it. Waiting for Service center to come back with a diagnosis
And yet another owner described how, after just two days of ownership, their Cybertruck simply stopped turning on, despite the 40-percent battery charge:
I’ve had my truck for two days, got in this morning, everything was on. Went to press the brake to put it in reverse and everything went black. Power door button wouldn’t even let me out, had to use manual release to get out. I can not get back in either. My battery is at 40%, so no it’s not dead. Has anyone had this problem?
We could spend all day plucking horror stories from these forums, but we think you get the picture: Plenty of owners are having a real bad time with their Tesla Cybertrucks. If you’re in the market for one, we’d recommend you do some digging in these forums, just so you know what you’re in for.
from the comments:
Replace HV battery. Don’t forget the HV battery is the entire floor of the truck. So remove seats, entire body, suspension and drive, replace battery, reassemble. That truck will never, ever be right again. (if it ever was)
Um, doesn’t it just drop right out like the ones on the cars?
On the cybertruck, the battery is the floor. The seat brackets are mounted directly to it. So dropping the battery means seriously rearranging the interior.
I believe on Tesla’s previous models there was a separate steel/aluminum/whatever floor between the HV battery and the interior.
