Cybertruck Struggles to Drive Up Steep Dirt Road

"Is it even on?"

Uphill Battle

The plight of Tesla's beleaguered Cybertruck continues videos surface on social media showing three of the stainless steel vehicles struggling to drive off-road on steep dirt hills.

First posted to Instagram in October and spotted more recently by CarBuzz, the videos show the blockish silver EVs in several cringe-inducing situations. In one clip, the car's wheels can be heard squealing as the car's driver jerkily heads uphill at what can only be described as a snail's pace; in another, the truck sadly rocks back and forth in between hills as another four-wheel vehicle easily coasts right by.

It's not a great look for Tesla, considering that trucks, just as a general automobile genre, are marketed as more powerful alternatives to compact vehicles, capable of navigating difficult terrains and adverse conditions.

It's also yet another bump in what's been a long and chaotic road for the Elon Musk-helmed Tesla and its smudgy trucks. Fans of the company have been waiting for the Cybertruck to hit the market for years now. And already, as beta versions of the vehicles — which will apparently be reaching customers as quickly and efficiently as the truck going up and down dirt hills — finally hit the streets, the cars have been caught in multiple highway breakdowns, while at least one was seen literally falling apart on a California roadway.

Pros and Cons

A bit of color commentary in the background of the videos — which were taken at a California-based off-highway motor vehicle recreation site dubbed Hollister Hills — adds another layer of drama to compromising clips.

"You don't see this everyday," a woman says while watching the truck struggling to clamber up the dusty desert road.

"Is it even on?" the same woman adds again later, at another point empathetically exclaiming that the "poor Tesla's broke down there" as one of the Cybertrucks appeared to have stopped moving entirely.

In any case, if you're planning a trip that might require some off-roading, maybe don't count on Tesla's giant stainless steel oven of an automobile to take you where you need to go. But it's not totally useless! If any future trips might require — checks notes — Joe Rogan shooting arrows at your vehicle, the Cybertruck might be just the car for you.

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