The Washington State Department of Natural Resources has issued a warning on Twitter, cautioning Tesla fans and prospective owners against using the Cybertruck as a boat - not that anyone can, of course, since the electric pickup is nowhere to be seen. This follows Elon Musk's statement last week, where he promised the truck would be waterproof enough to "serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren't too choppy."
Unsurprisingly, the agency found this alarming and quoted Musk's original tweet with a message that reads, "Our derelict vessel crews are begging you to understand that anything that 'serves briefly as a boat' should not be used as a boat." This is accompanied by an image of a stranded vehicle trapped in flood waters.
At this point, we cannot say whether Elon Musk's promise will be fulfilled or not. But, even if the Cybertruck turns out to be waterproof, it will be incredibly difficult to engineer a road vehicle that can also traverse large bodies of water like a boat - even for brief periods.
The Cybertruck hasn't entered production yet, so there's no concern of people driving off into the ocean to test these bold claims. However, a warning from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources is nothing to shrug at. This isn't the first time Musk has suggested the electric pickup would have aquatic abilities; in 2020, he tweeted that it "will even float for a while."
The Cybertruck was first shown to the public in 2019 and, at the time, Tesla said it would enter production in 2021 with a starting price of $39,900. Customers across the world were interested and placed myriad reservations - as of November 2021, Tesla had received 1.27 million of them.
But there was still no sight of the Cybertruck. The electric truck was delayed yet again, with sources close to the matter confirming it would arrive in 2023. This was later corroborated by Musk himself, who said manufacturing will commence in 2023. "At least, the design is finally locked. We got too carried away," admitted the billionaire CEO.
To make matters worse, the Cybertruck won't debut with the promised $39,990 price tag. This comes as no surprise; the automotive industry and global economy have changed drastically since the Cybertruck first hit the scene. Aside from inflation, other challenges facing car companies have forced most to jack their prices up.
"A lot has changed since [the Cybertruck's unveiling], so the specs and the pricing will be different. I hate to give sort of a little bit of bad news, but I think there's no way to sort of anticipate the inflation that we've seen and the various issues," said Musk at the time.
