This Is How The Tesla Cybertruck Became A Culture War On Wheels

It’s hard to think of a more divisive vehicle on sale today than the Tesla Cybertruck. Tesla CEO Elon Musk knew this from the get-go, saying it wouldn’t “be for everyone” at the time of the truck’s unveiling five years ago. Now, with these stainless steel behemoths on the road, the not-for-everyone-ness of the truck is on full display.

The Cybertruck has got to be one of the most photographed cars on the roads right now. It’s equal parts admiring fans taking pictures and detractors pointing out the shittiness of it while chastising drivers for behaving badly. At this point, there’s pretty much an entire cottage industry of videos online showing Cybertrucks stuck in sand, water and snow, according to the New York Times.

Here’s how Cybertruck owners who spoke with the Times are taking all this newfound attention, and they’re definitely not mad.

In May, a news site in Nantucket, Mass., got in on the act, shaming a Cybertruck driver for encroaching on a crosswalk on the affluent island and getting stuck while doing some off-roading on a beach.

The scrutiny has left some Cybertruck owners feeling a little embattled. “At first, I didn’t care — but now it’s starting to get annoying,” one driver wrote in a Cybertruck drivers’ forum in a thread titled “Cybertruck brings the haters.”

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Richard Zhang, a Cybertruck owner from Pittsburgh, said the vast majority of the interactions he has about his truck have been positive. But the negative ones are really, really negative.

“They are so filled with rage that they have lost all sense of human decency and respect,” Mr. Zhang, 30, said of the critics he has encountered.

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In an email, Dr. Helen Raynham, a dermatologist in Massachusetts, said that she had reserved her Cybertruck more than four years ago and had put a custom license plate on her new vehicle: “GRLBOS.” She added that she surrounded the plate with diamonds.

Talk to owners like Ms. Raynham, and they will report that, despite a smattering of middle fingers and passing guffaws, most people who stop to gawk at their trucks are friendly and supportive.

One big reason for people’s distaste for the Cybertruck is the fact it cannot be separated from the man who created it. Some folks will say you can judge a car on its own merit, but to me, this car represents Elon Musk and all the harm he has done to the world. You can feel differently, I do not really care.

The man went from a sort of champion of the future (think EVs, space, telecom, etc) to a right-wing shitposter who has pledged to give former President Donald Trump the GDP of a small country just so he can be mean to trans people on main. The Cybertruck IS Elon.

The Times spoke with former Jalop and current head of the Autopian David Tracy about why cars like the Tesla Model 3 and Model Y don’t get the same ire the Cybertruck does:

“They’re logical,” Mr. Tracy, an automotive engineer, said of the rest of the Tesla lineup, sleek, electric sedans that largely blend in with other vehicles on the road. “They are aerodynamic, they are efficient, they make sense from a usability standpoint. You can convince yourself anybody would have developed this car.”

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“The Cybertruck is very hard to separate from Elon Musk, because it’s not really logical,” Mr. Tracy said.

This truck also plays into rich people’s idea that us poor are out to get them. That’s why the Cybertruck is marketed as “bulletproof.”

Indeed, the vehicle’s fortresslike appearance and hefty price tag (it starts at around $80,000) seem to tap into contemporary anxieties around social disorder, according to Michael Rock, the founding partner of the brand consultancy 2×4.

“It’s the embodiment of the culture of fear right now,” Mr. Rock said. “Why do you need a bulletproof car in the Hamptons? There’s a mentality to it. You’ve built this huge thing around you, and it’s all about this invading horde out there, and you’re in this bulletproof container.”

Listen, I’m not going to sit here and tell you what you should think of the Cybertruck. I just feel you should be aware of what owning a car like this says to the outside world. It’s not entirely dissimilar to what owning a Hummer H2 in 2003 was like – a point the Times makes.

Anyway, you should really head over to the New York Times for a full rundown on what living in a Cybertruck world is like – hearing from people who study design, liberals who own them and people who love showing off.