Itโs 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 wouldnโt โbe for everyoneโ at the time of the truckโs 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. Itโs equal parts admiring fans taking pictures and detractors pointing out the shittiness of it while chastising drivers for behaving badly. At this point, thereโs pretty much an entire cottage industry of videos online showing Cybertrucks stuck in sand, water and snow, according to the New York Times.
Hereโs how Cybertruck owners who spoke with the Times are taking all this newfound attention, and theyโre 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. โAt first, I didnโt care โ but now itโs starting to get annoying,โ one driver wrote in a Cybertruck driversโ forum in a thread titled โCybertruck brings the haters.โ
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.
โThey are so filled with rage that they have lost all sense of human decency and respect,โ 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: โGRLBOS.โ 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 peopleโs 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 donโt get the same ire the Cybertruck does:
โTheyโre logical,โ 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. โThey are aerodynamic, they are efficient, they make sense from a usability standpoint. You can convince yourself anybody would have developed this car.โ
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โThe Cybertruck is very hard to separate from Elon Musk, because itโs not really logical,โ Mr. Tracy said.
This truck also plays into rich peopleโs idea that us poor are out to get them. Thatโs why the Cybertruck is marketed as โbulletproof.โ
Indeed, the vehicleโs 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.
โItโs the embodiment of the culture of fear right now,โ Mr. Rock said. โWhy do you need a bulletproof car in the Hamptons? Thereโs a mentality to it. Youโve built this huge thing around you, and itโs all about this invading horde out there, and youโre in this bulletproof container.โ
Listen, Iโm 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. Itโs not entirely dissimilar to what owning a Hummer H2 in 2003 was like โ a point theย 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 โ hearing from people who study design, liberals who own them and people who love showing off.
