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

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[–] 193 points 4 months ago (29 children)

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.

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  • [–] [S] 97 points 4 months ago (22 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 27 points 4 months ago (20 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 57 points 4 months ago (13 children)

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

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  • [–] 29 points 4 months ago (4 children)

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

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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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    [–] 72 points 4 months ago* (33 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago (24 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 18 points 4 months ago (18 children)

    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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    [–] 65 points 4 months ago (1 child)

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

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    [–] 60 points 4 months ago (4 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 35 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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!

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  • [–] 20 points 4 months 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

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  • [–] 18 points 4 months ago (3 children)

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

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  • [–] 18 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    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?

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  • [–] 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    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.

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    [–] 15 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)
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    [–] 13 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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

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    [–] 12 points 4 months 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

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months 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.

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  • [–] 10 points 4 months ago

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

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  • [–] 9 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    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.

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months 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.)

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  • [–] 8 points 4 months ago

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

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago

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

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