Tesla’s Cybertruck, the most obnoxious trend to emerge in America’s current midlife crisis epidemic, is most famous for just being hideous to look at. But the latest TikTok video to go viral about Elon Musk’s baby might be the most ridiculous yet. The Cybertruck appears to have a design that makes snow build up right in front of the headlights. And that seems like it could be a problem for anyone trying to drive these things in the snowy parts of our country.
Joe Fay, a Cybertruck owner who went viral for appearing to break his finger back in May while trying to demonstrate the vehicle’s safety features, posted a new video this weekend about the headlights that may struggle when it’s snowing. Fay is reportedly a New York state trooper who lives in Watertown, near the U.S.-Canadian border, according to the Daily Mail, and that’s obviously an area that gets a lot of snow in the winter.
“So I just found a major flaw in the Cybertruck’s design. Let me show you,” Fay said in the short video that’s racked up 3 million views. “The headlights are actually hidden down below and can you guess what the issue might be in the wintertime?”
Yeah, we can guess the issue. Because it’s obvious to anyone who’s lived in a snowy environment before. The snow will build up along that shelf, blocking the very thin band of light. And that’s going to become an issue when you try to drive and snow continues to build.
“These headlights are amazing. They’re extremely bright. However, I found that the snow is building up right in front of the headlights. So that can be a major problem when you’re driving in the wintertime because if snow builds up right here, the headlights are going to be completely blocked,” Fay said.
Fay, who appears to have a vanity license plate that reads CYBATWUK, tried to give the Tesla designers the benefit of the doubt. They really couldn’t have been so dumb as to not realize this might be a problem, right?
“Now I can’t imagine that Tesla just didn’t think about this when they put this giant shelf in front of the lights, but if they did, it’s honestly an awful design,” Fay said. “So I’ll let you guys know how driving is in this blizzard. It’s done pretty well so far and I haven’t noticed that the headlights are getting all clogged up like that. So I guess I’ll have to drive a little bit more and let you know how it is.”
Fay seems perplexed about why his incredibly expensive car would have such an obvious design flaw. And he noted that he hadn’t heard about others having this issue on the news addressing why Tesla had designed it like this.
True to his word, Fay did drive a little more and posted a follow-up video. And while Fay seems to downplay the issue in his new video, it all sounds like a rationalization.
“So obviously, if the vehicle is just sitting, snow is going to pile up right here and block the headlights. That is definitely a problem,” Fay acknowledges. “However, I just drove a couple of miles and as you can see, they are not blocked whatsoever. There’s a little bit of buildup right here, but the lights shined right through this light fluffy, well, wet snow. So honestly, I don’t think that this is an issue.”
Fay seems to continue to flip back and forth between realizing this is a problem and then insisting it’s not a real problem throughout the video.
“So yeah, there might be the occasional time or two where that could be an issue, but I don’t foresee this being much of an issue that you’ll even notice if you get a Cybertruck. Because for me, I haven’t noticed it at all until I saw people complaining about it. I haven’t noticed it,” Fay insists.
But then by the end of Fay’s follow-up video, he acknowledges an entirely new problem. The side cameras are completely blocked when it snows.
“What I did notice though is that these cameras right here, they are always blocked by the snow, so neither kind of useless,” Fay says before the video abruptly ends.
Fay isn’t the only Cybertruck owner who’s complaining about the design of the headlights for traveling in the snow. The Cybertruck Owners Club forum appears to have similar stories.
“Had a chance to take the truck out in the endless snowstorm in southern Vermont,” one user on the forum wrote. “This evening there was some snowfall, nothing heavy / but the lights totally are inadequate.”
The user reports they have several other vehicles that don’t experience any problems in the snow. It seems to just be a Cybertruck issue.
“I have three other vehicles where there hasn’t been an issue (volvo wagon, g63, f250),” the user wrote. “The lights get clogged with snowfall, then the bits that melt freeze and create a sort of ice wall blocking the lights. This can’t be removed without a hammer (my scrapper couldn’t). Super bummed out about it as I was counting on it being a beast in the snow. I didn’t take pics while driving but if you don’t take my word for it, you’ll experience it soon enough if in snowy locations.”
Tesla didn’t respond to questions emailed on Monday, but that’s really no surprise. Elon Musk abolished the company’s media relations team years ago under the theory that it’s not really needed. But we’ll definitely update this post if we hear back. We’re just not going to hold our breath.
