Tech

‘Biggest lemon yet’: YouTuber documents 5 critical failures in first 40 miles with new Cybertruck

The car broke down repeatedly after driving off the lot.

Photo of Marlon Ettinger

Marlon Ettinger

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Almost immediately after picking up a premium 2024 Cybertruck model called the Cyberbeast, the car broke down, a YouTuber documented in a video posted on Saturday.

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“It broke not even 6 inches off the lot,” the YouTuber, whose first name is Thomas, said in the intro of his video on the Gears Down channel. Thomas documents his life as a private jet pilot on the channel, and was planning to show the drive to the runway in the new car.

But instead of the planned vlog, the car “broke like 30 times on me the first time I had it, which absolutely sucks,” Thomas said.

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“Watch as this new Cyber Truck Beast fails in spectacular fashion, breaking down in under 1 mile. Is this Tesla’s biggest lemon yet?” reads the description of the video.

“Shout out Tesla, Elon I love you,” Thomas said after picking up the Cyberbeast from a dealer in Irvine.

The Cyberbeast is part of the Foundation series model of the electric truck, which retails for around $100,000, reported InsideEV.

“I am so pumped on this car, this thing is crazy,” Thomas said.

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“We got the Cyberbeast edition,” Thomas said, pointing at the dashboard screen in the driver’s seat. “All the rest say Cybertruck.”

“We also have no hubcaps, Tesla’s a little behind. Oh, one other thing. I did order this fully spec-ed with the light bar. They said I won’t get the light bar for two weeks,” Thomas said pointing at the car’s roof. “I’ll have to bring it back and then they’ll install it, because in true Tesla fashion, they are behind on everything.”

“The gas pedal’s so touchy,” he said as he started driving. “Something that’s kind of screwed up is we don’t have any autopilot at all, Tesla said they’re not going to activate the autopilot for like one or maybe two months even so, it’s just crazy but, sucks.”

After putting the car into fast mode and turning right out of the dealer parking lot, a red warning bar on the dashboard reading “pull over safely” started flashing along with an emergency beep. 

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“Whelp, we already broke it,” Thomas said laughing. “We literally broke it right out of the gate. Elon, what are you doing bro? How’s it already broken?”

The car kept beeping until Thomas pulled the truck over and fiddled with the dashboard touch screen, changing the mode the car was driving in.

“So, my Cybertruck is completely broken. My foot is on the floor and it’s not moving, so there’s that,” Gear Down said as the camera zoomed into the dashboard screen to show a message that a “critical steering issue” had been detected.

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Gear Down/YouTube
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After the fiddling, the car managed to start up again, and Thomas continued the vlog, showing off some of the features, including a built-in cooler and electrical outlets in the truck which you can charge another Tesla from.

But after getting back into the car again, the car stopped working when it was put into “Beast Mode.”

“This car just—t doesn’t want to work. This is a f*n lemon. Like what’s up Elon? Come on. This is crazy. This car has 40 miles on it. It has 44 miles on it and this is the fifth time I’m getting ‘critical steering issue detected.’”

After fiddling with the touch screen once again, Thomas got the car back working.

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“Hey, I’m getting good at it,” he said. “It breaks so much I’m figuring out how…”


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