650

Well, I would say the test results were conclusive, if nothing else.

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[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 192 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 97 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 27 points 1 week ago

I've read that, and I don't think any reasonable person would consider a vehicle being driven on a lake bed to be a vessel.

[-] adespoton@lemmy.ca 57 points 1 week ago

No, but its owner was storing it in a lake, it’s over 14’ long, and has a (non-functional) motor.

[-] Dultas@lemmy.world 28 points 1 week ago

Have an accident where you drive off a bridge in Texas, get charged with not having a boat registration.

[-] anomnom@sh.itjust.works 19 points 1 week ago

I wonder if they charged the guy who crashed his Veyron in Galveston Bay? I mean with something other than insurance fraud.

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[-] MyTurtleSwimsUpsideDown@fedia.io 15 points 1 week ago

A submersible is a vessel.

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[-] dermanus@lemmy.ca 13 points 1 week ago

Maybe, but a reasonable person also wouldn't drive a car into a lake.

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[-] onnekas@sopuli.xyz 14 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] atzanteol@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 11 points 1 week ago

Change it to "no valid submarine registration"

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[-] someguy3@lemmy.world 72 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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.

[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 22 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Damage@feddit.it 18 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] phant@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Blocked storm water drain puddle mode?

[-] kkj@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 1 week ago

Wading is specifically for shallow water. I think it's aptly named.

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[-] Darkaga@lemmy.world 65 points 1 week ago

N = 1 Seems pretty inconclusive to me. Let’s throw in a couple more and see what happens.

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[-] j4yc33@piefed.social 59 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago

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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[-] KayLeadfoot@fedia.io 7 points 1 week ago

😂 Some of the time, the jokes are hard to shoehorn into the articles. This time? The jokes practically wrote themselves

[-] Lucidlethargy@sh.itjust.works 35 points 1 week ago

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!

[-] ivanafterall@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

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.

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[-] Microtonal_Banana@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 week ago

"Hold on. I just put you on speaker. Can you please explain what happened again for my coworkers? Its been a stressful day and I think they could use a laugh." - car insurance lady

[-] 843563115848@lemmy.zip 18 points 1 week ago

They should all experience this fate, fucking pieces of shit.

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

fucking pieces of shit.

And their trucks, too!

Well, "trucks". heh

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago

In point of fact… they’re not fucking. It’s why they’re so angry all the time.

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[-] frank@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 week ago

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?

[-] sploder@lemmy.world 26 points 1 week ago

There’s a photo of what it does. Absolutely nothing good, ruins the car and takes you to jail 😂

[-] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 1 week ago

ruins the car and takes you to jail

In that case, Cybertrucks should all have it enabled by default 😁

[-] winkerjadams@lemmy.dbzer0.com 17 points 1 week ago

IIRC it pressurizes the battery compartment so that water can't get in and probably some other crap too

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[-] Fedizen@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

1700s oxen towed wagons: can be floated down river if sealed properly. Oxen sometimes poop.

2023 cybertrucks designed by modern engineers. Dies instantly in water. No poop.

[-] thesohoriots@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago

Bro out here playing the fool’s Oregon Trail.

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[-] Kaligalis@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] Lon3star@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago
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[-] EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com 13 points 1 week ago

May have gotten better results with a Ford. It's right there in the name.

/obligatory: don't actually try to ford a river with a Ford

[-] kungen@feddit.nu 13 points 1 week ago

Fjord Focus

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[-] phoenixz@lemmy.ca 12 points 1 week ago

I love how the picture of that trashcan in the water has this black and white effect applied like it's 1933 and somebody accidentally dropped a garbage can off the docks into the harbour

[-] Ariselas@piefed.ca 10 points 1 week ago

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.

[-] daychilde@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

I grew up in DFW. I'm absolutely unsurprised that's where this happened.

[-] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

What a I really want to happen, is for the day he is released from jail, for the warden, or whomever, to ask in a very condesending tone:

"Now....what did you learn?"

And if he can't answer, he stays in jail.

[-] Ilovethebomb@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago

To be fair, this was less than the wading depth advertised in the owner's manual.

The owner had reason to believe the vehicle could do what he was trying to do.

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Not even close, really. The top edge of the bumper/front edge of the hood is roughly 4 feet off the ground, for reference.

You’ll notice in the photos the front driver side corner is *close to under water. Wade mode is specified for 3”. Also the truck might be floating a bit.

*edit, I ran the video. It’s not quite under. Still deeper than the 32” depth. That said they probably smashed the under carriage romping over the rocks like it was a EOHV racing truck or something. (Dumbasses believed the incel marketing.)

[-] A_norny_mousse@piefed.zip 8 points 1 week ago

I'll say it before, I'll say it again: it's their drivers as much as the trucks themselves.

[-] fox2263@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

The funny thing is he would have been arrested even if it succeeded.

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this post was submitted on 20 May 2026
650 points (99.5% liked)

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