Every so often the tweet pops back into my head – Elon Musk saying that the upcoming Tesla Cybertruck can “briefly operate as a boat” if it encounters water. Teslas are not waterproof.
If I need to scream, I will. Do not put an electric car underwater, or in water to the point that it could touch the bottom of your car. Never mind the build quality concerns that Teslas are currently caught up with, one of the essential things to know about any piece of technology is that water can kill it. This is why companies like Apple and Google go out of their way to provide IP ratings on their phones (indicating water resistance, not a waterproof guarantee) and why heavy-duty peripherals companies (like GoPro) build such durable gadgets with very specific use cases.
Teslas are bigger, more expensive and, of course, not waterproof. Such is the lesson of the following Twitter thread.
PSA: Stop driving Teslas through high water. Seriously. I don’t care what Elon says: They’re not boats and you will regret it.
A client recently referenced @elonmusk claiming that Teslas could be used as a boat for a short period as “proof” we must be wrong about his issue.😐 pic.twitter.com/bPiteVYbev
— Jason Hughes (@wk057) April 18, 2023
Jason Hughes, the founder of 057 Technologies, a company that replaces Tesla batteries, took to Twitter to post the tweet above, along with a thread of tweets on why it’s such a problem.
“Rain, snow, splashing through a reasonable depth puddle: Within spec,” Hughes said.
“Driving through water near or above the bottom of the rocker panel? You’re going to end up with your car here and me telling you that your pack has no core value.
“For perspective, the customer claims they drove through ‘a little bit of high water’ for ‘a few seconds’ in this case. I have no way to verify any of this, but logs on the car seem to support their (eventually disclosed after much arguing) description of what occurred.”
For clarification, the rocker panel is located on the underside of your car, along its sides between the front and rear wheels.
Now, the boat tweet we brought up earlier about the Cybertruck wasn’t actually an isolated incident for Musk. Here he is claiming that the Model S could be a boat for a short period of time back in 2016.
We *def* don’t recommended this, but Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time. Thrust via wheel rotation.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 19, 2016
And here’s the Cybertruck tweet. In another tweet after this, Musk claims that the Cybertruck must be able to get from SpaceX’s Starbase to South Padre Island, which requires crossing the channel. Sure? The Cybertruck isn’t out yet, so we can’t say definitely that it can do this, but you can’t take this tweet as an indicator that electric vehicles are waterproof.
Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes & even seas that aren’t too choppy
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 29, 2022
Teslas are not boats and are not waterproof. They are not! I am sorry. Electric vehicles are good for a lot of things, but driving through water is not one of them. There are plenty of videos and articles on the internet claiming that electric vehicles run perfectly fine through high water, but even with these videos in mind, is it really worth risking? I’m of no mind to compare the water resistance of ICE vehicles and electric vehicles, but it’s beside the point, don’t be silly with an EV.
Oh, and also, after Florida’s Hurricane Ian flood in October 2022, electric vehicles had a habit of combusting due to water damage. Not terrific.
Don’t drive a car into the water. They’re not meant to do that and it’s not worth the internet points.
And before you ask, no, Teslas cannot fly either.