Tesla CEO Elon Musk claims to have shot up a Tesla Cybertruck with a machine gun in an effort to prove that the vehicle is bulletproof. And the internet has thoughts.
Is the Cybertruck bulletproof?
On Friday, a Cybertruck was spotted riddled with what appeared to be bullet holes while traveling down a highway in Southern California.
Footage of the Cybertruck, which has been viewed several million times online already, stirred excitement throughout the Tesla community.
“This is going to be one of the safest vehicles in the world,” one user on X said.
Musk later stated in a comment on X that he and his team had shot up the vehicle as part of an apparent publicity stunt.
“We emptied the entire drum magazine of a Tommy gun into the driver door Al Capone style,” Musk wrote. “No bullets penetrated into the passenger compartment.”
In subsequent remarks, Musk bragged that “You can empty the drum magazine of a Tommy Gun and still not penetrate the Cybertruck.”
But the boasting was quickly met with trolling from the billionaire’s critics, who mocked the feature as dystopian.
“The obsession with making the Cybertruck bullet proof is bizarre and dystopian,” one user wrote.
And despite Musk’s fans arguing that the Cybertruck could undoubtedly be used to protect everyone from police to the president of the United States, others noted that the stainless steel alloy is actually quite weak.
Many also brought up the infamous incident from 2019 when Musk threw a steel ball at a Cybertruck window to prove that it wouldn’t break. Yet the window did break.
“remember when musk threw a baseball that shattered the window at its reveal where they were boasting about it being bulletproof,” another said.
Multiple critics also pointed out the inherent danger in advertising the vehicle as bulletproof given that such claims could lead customers to be reckless.
“Above all, these thick panels provide no safety to occupants, especially if the shots hit vulnerable areas such as the columns or the windows,” the autoevolution blog reported. “The overreliance induced by a false safety feeling is the real danger here—just like it is with people who think they have an autonomous Tesla.”
The bullet-riddled display comes just weeks before the Cybertruck is set to be released in November.
Since claims the Cybertruck is bulletproof went viral, Musk also had Joe Rogan shoot the car with a bow and arrow.
