In March last year, Tesla had to recall nearly all the Cybertrucks it had then produced because a stainless steel trim panel could become detached from the vehicle while driving, blaming the problem on the wrong type of glue, a new adhesive “not prone to environmental embrittlement.”
Back in May this year, Cybertrucks were struck down by the wrong type of grease, which meant that their wheels could potentially fall off. In what was then the EV’s 11th recall, it was declared that the Rear Wheel Drive (RWD) Cybertruck Long Range model might have faulty brake rotors. In a notice posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Tesla stated that “brake rotor stud holes may crack and allow the stud to separate from the wheel hub.” Such a situation might have seen some RWD Cybertruck owners merrily driving along only to then be disconcertingly overtaken by their own wheels.
Musk even tried to get President Donald Trump to buy one of his Cybertrucks, creating an impromptu Tesla showroom on the White House South Lawn, no less. But, sadly, even President Trump must have smelt something was off about the truck as instead he shunned the pickup and opted for a 200-mph Model S Plaid in ultra red, clearly impressed with the interior, remarking that “Everything’s computer!”
At the end of 2024, Karl Brauer, executive analyst at car ranking service iSeeCars, told WIRED that he’d calculated that the Cybertruck’s six recalls to date at the time made the EV “worse than 91 percent” of all other 2024 vehicles.
Yet, despite supposedly being so unreliable, the Cybertruck did find a small but loyal audience. WIRED profiled a number of owners last year, all fervently in love with their vehicles, but who were periodically forced to endure insults and taunts that they were Nazis, perhaps referring to an on-stage gesture Musk made at the start of 2025.
However, despite evidence seemingly to the contrary, Musk claims he is killing the Cybertruck, not because of its unreliability and staggering unpopularity, but because he wishes to focus instead on Cybercab, an autonomous EV that is central to Tesla’s robotaxi ambitions but itself has had a rocky start.
Currently operating in Austin only, with a fleet supposedly numbered only in the hundreds, Musk apparently wants to ramp up production dramatically since he confirmed on an earnings call the first cab came off the line in February.
Musk sees Cybercab as very much the vision of Tesla’s future. The CEO has even said that Tesla should no longer be regarded as an automaker but as a robotics and autonomous vehicle company. “Cybertruck was an incredible technology development platform and lives on through Cybercab,” Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill said on X.