It’s no secret that we here at Jalopnik have been critical of Elon Musk’s stainless steel middle finger to the automotive industry. In fact, we wrote over 60 Tesla Cybertruck blogs in its first year as a real car in the real world.
In the past year the Cybertruck has faced a total of seven recalls, plus a litany of customer complaints and ample bad press from owner crashes and breakdowns. Even many die-hard Tesla stans ended up questioning their loyalty to Musk’s vision. Given the vast array of blunders we figured it might be nice to bring some of the Cybertruck’s highlights together in one place. Tap or click the title of each fail to read the original blog.
This was one of the most dangerous design flaws that afflicted the Cybertruck in 2024; an accelerator pedal with poorly glued trim that would slide and trap the pedal against the floor, turning the Cybertruck into a 7,000-pound runaway stainless steel death trap. The fix? Rivet the trim piece to the pedal.
Elon Musk insisted that the Cybertruck look like nothing else on the road, giving it unpainted stainless steel body panels, and a silhouette that looks like it was penned by one of his 12 children in their infancy. So when the Cybertruck’s aerodynamically optimized wheel covers with tendrils that extend beyond the wheel itself and onto the flexible rubber tire sidewall started cannibalizing said sidewall, Tesla was quick to respond. And by that I mean they just stopped producing and shipping those wheel covers and just let the trucks reach customers with no wheel covers at all. Eventually it released an updated design that didn’t carve grooves into the tire sidewalls, but again, how the hell did engineers not identify that problem during the truck’s several-year development?
The Cybertruck, as many Teslas often do, was launched without finalized software. Fortunately for owners, over-the-air updates can make modern cars much easier to fix en masse. Unfortunately for Tesla, the Cybertruck’s electrically operated front trunk had some serious beef with the fingers of several social media influencers before one of those updates increased the system’s pinch sensitivity. Influencers across the internet were sticking various fruits, vegetables, and appendages into Cybertruck front trunks to see just how dangerous it was.
The Cybertruck is alarmingly powerful and quick, but when the launch video showed a Porsche 911 get spanked in a drag race by a Cybertruck towing a Porsche 911, the internet raised an awfully suspicious eyebrow. Turns out Tesla had omitted some very important details about the conditions of this performance showcase.
Pickup trucks have been America’s favorite vehicle for decades, so Tesla faced off with some stiff competition when the Cybertruck hit the market. The always sensible team over at Whistlin’ Diesel thought it would be entertaining to pit the “tougher than a bag of nails” Cybertruck against the best-selling vehicle in the United States, a Ford F-150, and over 28 million people agree since that’s how many views this video garnered since it hit YouTube in August. Sure some of these tests are a tad unorthodox, but seeing the subframe rip off this “tougher than a bag of nails” truck was some pretty bad publicity.
The longest windshield wiper in the industry was another component of the Cybertruck that had to be reimagined because of the wacky shape of Elon’s pickup truck. The big floppy singular windshield wiper turned out to be yet another point of failure for the bulletproof* truck, as owners quickly found out. Who needs to see out the windshield anyway?
As with all of Elon’s promises, there was some deception about the Cybertruck’s proposed maximum range. Initially Musk promised that the range extender would increase the maximum range of the Cybertruck to nearly 500 miles, but the laws of physics had something else to say. Batteries are heavy, and it takes a lot of energy to move heavy objects, Elon. Instead of the initially promised nearly 500-mile range, the Cybertruck with the range extender can hardly break 400 miles in top trim with all-terrain tires. Not nearly as impressive as initially promised.
The Cybertruck is described on the Tesla website as being “durable and rugged enough to go anywhere,” but earlier this year when the first Cybertrucks were finally in the hands of owners, they learned that phrase should have an asterisk at the end. Cybertrucks kept getting into sticky situations in snow and sand so frequently, that the National Forest Service in Stanislaus, California urged Cybertruck owners to learn how to use Motor Vehicle Use Maps to stay safe while venturing off-road. Cybertrucks were even seen getting passed on trails by compact crossovers like the Subaru Crosstrek.
9) Each Recall Explained
How many recalls faced the Cybertruck this year? Seven? Damn. Here’s a brief overview of each recall issued throughout the triangular pickup’s first year of existence. Click each recall to read the full stories.
Edmunds is a trusted source of consumer information for all cars in the U.S.; its staff will often purchase new vehicles and drive them for a year just like a normal consumer would, and report on the ownership experience. Edmunds had some bad luck with its Chevrolet Blazer EV, but its Cybertruck developed a critical steering error after one month of ownership and just 1,300 miles of driving. That snowballed, and hilarity ensued.
