Automotive Tester Says Its Cybertruck Instantly Ran Into Critical Issue, Leaving It Stranded in Parking Lot

Ah: the Cybertruck special.

Bad Start

The Cybertruck: as far as reliability is concerned, it's no Toyota.

In an embarrassing incident that adds a fair deal of credibility to the Tesla pickup truck's reputation as a dodgy a ride, car reviewers for the automotive testing company Edmunds attempted to take one of these blocky-behemoths for a spin — only to instantly be met with a "critical steering issue" that left them stranded on the parking lot. How's that for a first impression?

"We're certainly used to teething issues with Teslas — we've owned several," the reviewers wrote for the website. "I guess we were just hoping our Cybertruck's first snafu wouldn't happen while it was still wearing its new-car temporary tags."

Errors Galore

The issue popped up while the Edmunds reviewers were driving the Cybertruck around a track, which is part of the routine testing they do for every vehicle. At first, things were going smoothly.

That is, until the infotainment screen suddenly started flashing red with an ominous "PROCEED WITH CAUTION" sign that warned of a "critical steering issue."

Moments later, the car started losing power, its AC refused to blow cold air, and a giant error message took over the screen: "Low voltage electrical system issue detected / Vehicle power reduced — Schedule service."

After parking the Cybertruck, the Edmunds reviewers tried the age-old trick of turning it off and on again. Instead of fixing the problem, the Tesla became unable to shift out of park.

As a last resort, the Cybertruck instructed them to perform a power cycle by leaving and re-entering the vehicle, then trying to drive again.

"We tried the exit/enter strategy, and nope, nothing," they wrote. When they tried shifting into drive once more and overrode the warning, they ran into — yet again — the "flashing red screen of death."

"At this point, the rear-axle steering did not work, the Cybertruck's front running lights turned off, and the vehicle would not exceed 4 mph," they wrote.

Track Record

There have been countless reports of these strange, unwieldy Cybertrucks breaking down or going haywire for seemingly harmless things like going through a carwash, or sometimes, for no apparent reason at all.

If they don't prove to be lemons out of the gate, they're running into glaring issues down the line. Thus far, Tesla has already been forced to issue four recalls — far too many for a car that hasn't been out for a year and sells in very low volumes — including one for a dangerous issue with its accelerator pedal.

The Edmunds team said that they own the Cybertruck they were using, and were not given a model by Tesla for testing. Fortunately for them, then, it did eventually start working again, inexplicably, after they left it alone for half an hour.

The Cybertruck drove without issue after that, but it doesn't inspire confidence going forward. For a new vehicle to freeze up like that is unacceptable.

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