A month after customer deliveries began, an example of Tesla’s stainless-steel electric pick-up has been involved in a crash on the road.
Images of what is believed to be the first Tesla Cybertruck electric pick-up to be involved in a crash have appeared on social media, about a month after the first customer examples hit the road.
Photos posted to social-media website Reddit show a Cybertruck stopped aecross a lane of traffic in California with its airbags deployed – and a heavily-damaged Toyota Corolla parked in bushes nearby.
According to California Highway Patrol statement posted to Reddit, the Corolla is believed to have “for unknown reasons, turned to the right and subsequently struck a dirt embankment on the right shoulder.”
The Toyota is then claimed to have “re-entered the roadway, crossed over the double yellow lines into the northbound lane, and crashed into a Tesla Cybertruck traveling north on SR-35 northbound.”
The images show the Corolla carried the brunt of the collision – which occurred in Oakland, California, about 30km east of the centre of San Francisco, on 28 December 2023 – with significant front-end damage, and airbags deployed.
Meanwhile the Cybertruck also deployed its airbags, but only appears to have deformation in its doors and rear wheel arches, a cracked alloy wheel, and broken rear wheel-arch trim.
The police statement says the driver of the Cybertruck “sustained a suspected minor injury and declined medical transportation,” while the Corolla driver did not report any injuries.
“It does not appear that the Tesla Cybertruck was being operated in autonomous mode. The investigation into this incident is ongoing,” the written statement reads.
Photos of the first recorded Tesla Cybertruck crash on public roads come amid concerns by experts of how the pick-ups stainless-steel outer structure – which the Tesla website shows withstanding impacts from hammers, glass balls and baseballs without leaving dents – will crumple in a collision to protect occupants and pedestrians.
“The big problem there is if they really make the skin of the vehicle very stiff by using thick stainless steel, then when people hit their heads on it, it’s going to cause more damage to them,” Adrian Lund, the former president of insurance company-backed US crash safety organisation Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), told news outlet Reuters.
Crash images via two Reddit posts (link and link).
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