Elon Musk said it could, so it is doing it. A Tesla Cybertruck was seen going into the ocean in the Gulf of Mexico. People stared at the electric pickup truck that seemed willing to go for a swim.
People on the beach shot videos of the Cybetruck prototype going into the water in Port Aransas, Texas, and uploaded them on social media. It was Elon Musk the first to say that the pickup truck would be able to drive through water.
Back in September 2022, Musk went on to explain that the Cybertruck will be "waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren't too choppy." For instance, Musk said, it could go from Starbase to South Padre Island in Texas. By car, that is a whole hour's drive on land. There is no information on how fast the Cybertruck would be able to sail.
In June 2016, Elon Musk tweeted that the Tesla Model S was able to float "well enough to turn into a boat." Yet he insisted that it was not actually recommended. Furthermore, warranty does not cover any damage caused by water. We are yet to see if the Cybertruck can do it as well.
Still important details about the electric pickup truck, price included, are under wraps. We are most likely to find out more on November 30, when the handover event is set to take place at the Giga Texas. That would be exactly four years after Tesla unveiled the model in Hawthorne, California, with Elon Musk saying the model would go into production before the end of 2020. From that moment on, the production story was just a chain of delays. But the Gigafactory in Texas finally started rolling the Cybertruck off the assembly line in the second quarter of 2023.
Photo: Fast KitKat | TikTok
The model that shows up in the video uploaded on TikTok drives through shallow water, so the driver is obviously not testing its floating capability. The water barely reaches the height of the side sills. The Cybertruck comes with a ground clearance of 16 inches (40 centimeters) in the highest suspension setting.
As for the beach driving, it was obvious that the experience posed no threat to the EV. The people who gathered around were told that they could take pictures of the exterior of the Cybertruck, but should not photograph the interior.
The Cybertruck had more of a headache while going into some serious off-roading last month at the Hollister Hills SVRA near Monterey, California, an hour's drive from Tesla's headquarters in Palo Alto. Back then, the pickup truck seemed to struggle going up the obstacle called "the stairs."
Days later, both the Ford F-150 Lightning and the Rivian R1T tried to show the Tesla Cybertruck how it's done and showed up in videos on social media, doing the exact same thing in the exact same location. The Ford CEO Jim Farley himself was the one who uploaded the video with the Blue Oval's pickup truck on X.
Can the Tesla Model 3 float as well?
Tesla never mentioned a floating function when it came to the Model 3. However, the compact sedan was seen several times driving through quite deep water without breaking a sweat. The latest such video comes from China and shows a white Model 3 "swimming" to its destination and defying the flood.
But another Model 3, this time on the highway outside Mono City, California, ended up in a pond after both the driver and the FSD Beta system ignored the sign that read "Flood" while doing 60 mph (97 kph) and not showing any sign of braking to avoid the water.
Once it hit the flooded surface, the car lost traction, went aquaplaning, and slided toward the left side of the road and into a pond.
There is, though, a production floating car
There is, indeed, a car that can float. It is the YangWang U8 SUV with the IP68 level waterproof. The Chinese model built by the BYD sub-brand is equipped with an emergency floating mode, capable of preventing sinking for 30 minutes.
And it is not just floating that it does. It can also move forward at 1.8 mph (3 kph) and turn wheels once it hits the water. Furthermore, it can do a 360-degree tank turn on land and water both.
The U8 is an electric SUV equipped with a 2.0-liter turbocharged engine that works as a range extender. Using both electric power stored in the 49-kWh and the 20-gallon (75-liter) fuel tank, it can drive as far as 621 miles (1,000 kilometers). On land, that is.
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