A Tesla Cybertruck prototype was spotted testing the waters—literally—of the Gulf of Mexico yesterday, reminding social media users of Elon Musk’s claims that the electric pickup truck has some waterproof abilities.
The short video posted on Reddit by u/ilyasgnnndmr shows the Cybertruck on a beach in Port Aransas, Texas. The truck is seen heading toward the ocean and driving into the water, much to the disbelief of beachgoers.
However, the Cybertruck did not venture out into deep water, sticking to the very shallow area—the water did not even reach the vehicle’s floor. After a short “bath,” the truck drove out of the water and was seen heading away from the beach.
While the depth of the water wouldn’t have posed problems to pretty much any other vehicle, the Cybertruck did face the risk of getting stuck in wet sand. However, that did not happen, partly because this particular beach seemed to have very dense sand that’s more stable even when wet.
The interesting thing to learn here would be why Tesla engineers drove the Cybertruck into the seawater, and that’s where the realm of speculation begins. The most obvious answer—besides creating buzz, obviously—would be that Tesla is looking to test the Cybertruck’s water fording abilities.
But why do that in salty ocean water? Could Tesla actually be testing for a crossing of the channel between South Padre Island and southern Brazos Island, as Musk suggested last year? Judging strictly from a location standpoint, that’s pretty hard to believe since Port Aransas is some 160 miles north of South Padre Island, according to Google Maps’ distance measuring tool.
As a reminder, Elon Musk said in September 2022 the “Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy.” He added that the electric pickup “needs (to) be able to get from Starbase to South Padre Island, which requires crossing the channel.”
He later tweeted, “You’d need an electric propeller mounted on the tow hitch to go faster than a few knots. There might a creative wheel hub design that can generate meaningful thrust.” Mind you, he didn’t say anything about actual plans to offer such accessories as options.
The shortest way across the channel measures about 1,400 feet, and the Cybertruck would have to float on water that’s more than 40-feet deep. Will Tesla actually attempt that? Better said, can the Cybertruck actually float?
Those are open questions at the moment, but in an ideal world, the delivery event on November 30 may shed some light on the Cybertruck’s floating abilities—among many other missing details like pricing, range, powertrain specs, and more.
