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No, the Tesla Cybertruck is not a boat

Unless one of Elon Musk’s outrageous claims on Twitter is true

The latest of Elon Musk's claims is that its unreleased truck is waterproof enough to be used as a boat. Okay. ILLUSTRATION BY SAM SURLA

Among all the car companies in the world, Tesla is one of the more interesting ones to write about. That fact is largely down to the firebrand CEO of the firm, Elon Musk. The billionaire boss loves Twitter, and is never shy to use the platform as a free advertising opportunity.

His latest claim didn’t go down too well with some people, though. The other day, he tweeted that the upcoming Cybertruck will apparently be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat.The reactions to this unusual bit of news weren’t all positive, as you can probably already imagine.

Another day, another outrageous claim from Elon Musk. SCREENSHOT FROM TWITTER

First to react was the Washington State Department of Natural Resources, who posted a rather stern warning on its own Twitter account:

Please listen to your local government agencies. SCREENSHOT FROM TWITTER

Then a Twitter user who claims to have worked at Tesla chimed in, saying he doubts the design engineers behind the vehicle have heard of this requirement before:

We have the impression that some decisions at the company are made on a whim. SCREENSHOT FROM TWITTER

In his second tweet on the topic, he claims the car needs to be able to “get from Starbase to South Padre Island.” Starbase is the launch facility for SpaceX rockets, and Padre Island is to the north of it. Depending on how you drive between the two places, you’ll be looking at a minimum of around 500m of water that needs to be crossed.

We highly doubt any 'waterproof' vehicle is capable of crossing 500m of open water. SCREENSHOT FROM GOOGLE MAPS

Not exactly a small puddle, and a serious challenge for any car. If the odd-looking EV will indeed be able to conquer open water—and thereby become the perfect car to be driven around Metro Manila—remains to be seen. It would certainly be illusory useful.



Frank Schuengel

Frank is a German e-commerce executive who loves his wife, a Filipina, so much he decided to base himself in Manila. He has interesting thoughts on Philippine motoring. He writes the aptly named ‘Frankly’ column.



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