Look, it didn't work this time, but don't stop encouraging Cybertruck drivers to use their vehicles in water!
They are fully submersible submarines, after all. I hear one guy got all the way to the Titanic in one!
this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
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If they can take a bullet, I'm pretty sure they can handle a little water. This was user error. Elon wouldn't lie and sell us junk.
Thankfully the power windows didn’t lock up, and the people inside got out safely.
That could have been the best Darwin Award of the month, maybe year.
Obviously, wading ain't swimming. The mode is probably useful in some edge cases. Driving straight into a lake just isn't one of them.
That Elmo, what a genius.
I don't understand what "wade mode" does?
If there's an air intake, it's just for cooling, not combustion. So like what is the point of "moving it to a snorkel position" or whatever?
There’s a photo of what it does. Absolutely nothing good, ruins the car and takes you to jail 😂
ruins the car and takes you to jail
In that case, Cybertrucks should all have it enabled by default 😁
IIRC it pressurizes the battery compartment so that water can't get in and probably some other crap too
According to Fox 4, the driver is being held in Grapevine Jail as of Tuesday afternoon, with violations including:
Having no valid boat registration.
That is both hilarious and stupid. You would have to imagine the definition of a boat would be something that floats, which the Cybertruck clearly isn't in this photo. It's also less water than the truck is rated in the owner's manual to be able to handle.
Well, I think it's not wrong to apply the same rules to any kind of vessel you take into the water. Therefore, it's good to simply assume that every vessel in the water is some kind of boat so people don't say 'well akshually this is not a boat' and do bullshit like this cybertruck driver.
You act as though there aren't already definitions for these things. You don't treat a child's pool float the same as an ocean liner.
Well, THAT'S comedy gold for me! laughs out loud
And, well, some laws are kinda stupid. After hearing a few of other examples it doesn't surprise me that you could end up in jail because of this kind of a law.
They are just keeping the driver there until they determine if he got hit in the head stupid or born stupid.
This got me thinking, you're right, how can it be a boat if it can't float?
Turns out, everything is bigger in Texas, including the legal definition of what constitutes a boat.
Is it motorized, above 14 feet in length, and afloat, docked, or stored on Texas waters? Then it's a boat that needs to be registered, fam.
It's not really on Texas waters, is it though?
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If I had a nickel every time a Cybertruck driver re-enacted the end of The Perfect Storm while casting themselves as George Clooney, I would have two nickels, which isn’t a lot but it’s weird that it happened twice.
Comedy gold.
I'd say weird except it was advertised as a hybrid boat (and would have been advertised as a rocket or plane too if he'd thought of it) so like, doing what you are told it can do is not stop weird.
They key word there is "advertised". Remember, bonless chicken wings don't have to be boneless. In the US, if your advertisement isn't lieing, you aren't trying.
doing what you are told it can do is not [too] weird.
It is when it sounds unlikely and the ones making the claim are notorious for constant embellishments and flat out falsehoods
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Wade Mode is a feature in the Tesla Cybertruck that allows it to drive through shallow water by raising the suspension and pressurizing the battery to protect it from water and debris. It is designed for use in bodies of water up to approximately 32 inches deep at slow speeds of 1-3 mph.
Should have called it creek mode.
Everything I’ve learned about flood water makes me think this “wade mode” thing is a lawsuit waiting to happen, especially given all the cybertruck’s other issues (like the hidden emergency door handles.)
Can’t see the bottom of the road due to all the fast-moving, murky water? “Don’t worry, I’ve got wade mode!” - famous last words before driving a cybertruck into a concealed ditch and getting swept away by unseen, underwater currents.
As if foolish people need extra confidence to do dangerous things. I might trust a traditional truck with this feature, but that’s just because most other vehicle manufacturers don’t appear to be trying to kill their customers. Tesla, on the other hand…
32 inches
That's 81cm. Up to! That means, you need to stay below that. Since no natural body of water has completely even ground this effectively means if deeper than knee-deep you risk your battery exploding.
Something I'm sure any normal truck could handle without an extra mode.
I mean EVs are better of course, but why make a truck that is too low and probably has the battery at the bottom like normal Teslas do... Why, oh why, Elon. Choke on your stupid business decisions and unsold bad quality products.
The lower the mass sits, the better the truck handles.
If you have something heavy (like a battery pack) which you need to include in the design somewhere, putting it as low to the ground as safely possible is the right choice. So that's not a stupid decision at all. It's what literally all EV makers do because it's objectively the right way to place the battery pack.
Watching that clip, I don't see the typical signs of a battery fire. So I guess, wade mode did in fact keep the battery dry. Wading through a stream reaching to the top of the wheels would probably work fine. But if you stay in the water, it eventually gets through to some electronics and power is cut off by the overcurrent protection. So just don't do that.
Yeah, I mean why not make a normal truck design with the battery in the cargo area?
Normal trucks can wade water as high as their air intake, which usually is above one of the front wheels, inside the fender. You can go a bit above that for short distances if you keep a good momentum and create a wave in front of you, but that's risky.
Of course modern trucks, having turned from work to luxury vehicles, may have issues.
Not that I know such things but from what I know you don't want to unless you've waterproofed the electrical connections. You might be able to but it will accelerate corrosion.
Old trucks dgaf, 12-24V circuits handled water just fine, after all they already are splash (and pressure wash) proof. And if you don't have electronic injection, the engine only needs electricity for the starter motor.
work to luxury vehicles
Still plenty of work trucks about. They didn't stop making them because some pavement princess wanted all the options.
Yeah but the engine, suspensions, etc have shifted towards comfort rather than ruggedness, and those are mostly the same for all models.
That said I come from a place where we are used to real work vehicles, say Mercedes sprinter or Iveco Daily, and the comparison to American pick-up trucks is just ridiculous.
Totally disagree. Every single generation the bed gets smaller, the body gets bigger and the engine is moved further back for a lower center of gravity. 
Again you're just comparing the top of the line options.
A single cab 150 is still available to purchase.
You've been done in by someone pushing an agenda by obscuring facts.
37%
Hmm, same % you see again and again in US political polls. Coincidence?
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N = 1 Seems pretty inconclusive to me. Let’s throw in a couple more and see what happens.
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