Only a select few people who pre-ordered Tesla‘s long-delayed Cybertruck have received one so far — it helps to be Jay Leno, apparently — but fans of the futuristic vehicle have already convinced themselves it’s a flawless product, and another triumph for Elon Musk. And they’re just a tad defensive when someone suggests otherwise.
On Thursday, the Center for Auto Safety took a swipe at the divisive truck in a tweet joking that anyone who drives one is insecure about their “manhood” and was “picked last in gym.” The nonprofit consumer advocacy organization also asserted that the Cybertruck will be “dangerous to everyone else on the road.”
While the post didn’t specify why the truck could pose a particular hazard, other car safety experts have said that its stiff, stainless-steel panels could contribute to additional damage in collisions with pedestrians, cyclists, and other vehicles. (At the Cybertruck delivery event last month, Musk told prospective owners, “If you have an argument with another car, you will win.”) The truck is currently not available in the European Union due in part to regulatory issues, and a Tesla vice president has confirmed it’s unlikely to ever be sold in that market.
Yet none of these concerns have afflicted Musk’s army of blue-check loyalists on X (formerly Twitter), who also don’t seem to realize that the Center for Auto Safety, founded in 1970 by activist Ralph Nader, and Consumers Union (now Consumers Report), has been instrumental in the recall of millions of defective vehicles and parts in the past half-century.
“This can’t be a real organization,” griped one ill-informed Cybertruck defender. “Safest truck ever produced,” replied another, with zero specifics to back up this claim. (Neither U.S. safety regulators nor the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety have tested it to date.) “Ad hominem is always a true indicator of objectivity and critical thinking,” seethed a third. Some paid accounts accused the nonprofit of corruption or being “funded by Big Auto.” (Tesla itself did not immediately respond to a request for comment.)
One X user — display name “Elon’s My Hero” — went so far as to ask Grok, the AI chatbot developed by Musk’s xAI startup, to compose a lengthy response. The bot imagined the author of the Center for Auto Safety as someone “possibly wearing Crocs and a shirt with a questionable stain, trying to roast others for their choice of vehicle.” The passage concluded that “the only thing more dangerous than a Cybertruck on the road is a person with a keyboard and a fragile ego.”