When Tesla officially revealed the new Cybertruck, it made some big claims about how the Cybertruck was designed to survive the apocalypse and off-roading on Mars or whatever. While it won’t be crash-tested anytime soon, we can at least say it’s been durability tested by YouTuber WhistlinDiesel, and let’s just say this was not a normal test. Cody Detwiler, the man behind the YouTube channel, did not hold back. Damage to both the Cybertruck and the F-150 it was tested against was guaranteed, but even Detwiler didn’t expect the structure of the truck to snap.
It would have been nice if they’d tested the Cybertruck against the off-road-focused F-150 Raptor (and also more comfortable for the driver), but you could also argue it’s better this way since it’s just a bog-standard F-150, and you’ll probably see at least 20 of them by the end of the day. Odds are, though, none of the drivers you see are going to dump their truck off the back of a flatbed and break the driveshaft. In case you need to be told not to do that, now you know.
With its adjustable air suspension and extra power, the Cybertruck definitely had a significant advantage in some of the tests. Then again, this test wasn’t exactly about how well each truck would perform. It was about which truck would survive the torture test. Unfortunately for Tesla, its biggest failure happened not while it was being beaten on but while it was doing something it should have been able to handle with no problem — pulling out the stuck F-150.
The Cybertruck has a tow rating of 11,000 pounds. It should have easily been able to rescue the F-150. And yet, the part of the subframe the hitch is attached to tore off completely. Even though he may as well have been trying to total the Cybertruck, you can tell even Detwiler was shocked. That’s just not supposed to happen. Period. So far, it doesn’t appear that Tesla has commented on the frame snapping, but Elon Musk’s Twitter timeline is a vile cesspool of bigoted nonsense, so it’s possible he said something in the middle of all that. Either way, you’re definitely going to want to watch the entire video below.