Tesla CEO Elon Musk wrote on Twitter Thursday that his long-promised Cybertruck would be “waterproof enough” to operate as a boat, the day before Tesla will give a demonstration of its artificial intelligence capabilities.
In a followup tweet, Musk said he “needs” his company’s big, inelegant crime against polygons to travel from his still in-development Texas-based spaceport Starbase to South Padre Island, located off the state’s southwestern coastline. The channel he could be referring to might be the Brazos Santiago Pass north of the SpaceX Launch Facility, requiring a short jaunt from Brazos Island to South Padre. Of course, he could take the bridge that requires just a few miles driving around the cape, but the man is notorious for taking extremely short flights in his private jet, so maybe he’s just looking for a more low-key way to travel.
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
I mean, it is a car, and there is a bridge, so why does anybody, let alone Musk need to risk the Cybertruck, even if it’s just for some upcoming promotion?
But it isn’t just every day Twitter users going HAM on the man’s claims, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources has an opinion, too.
Our derelict vessel crews are begging you to understand that anything that “serves briefly as a boat” should not be used as a boat https://t.co/lcrunbf1DJ pic.twitter.com/j2eL5tGcJZ
— Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources (@waDNR) September 29, 2022
As much as he might want a Bond-like transforming car-submarine, Elon’s made such promises before about his Tesla cars. In 2016, he said the Model S floats “well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time.” Thrust would come via rotating the wheels, which obviously seems like an incredibly inefficient method of propulsion.
Musk has made plenty of promises about his Cybertruck. He once suggested the windows were so hard they were practically “bulletproof.” A couple of limp-armed tosses of a baseball-sized steel ball proved that theory incorrect in front of a crowd of hundreds of Tesla fans.
Yikes! I like Elon Musk, but this is a disaster.
Tesla wanted to show off its Cybertruck’s “bulletproof” windows but it shattered immediately with a metal ball.
“We’ll fix it in post,” Musk joked. pic.twitter.com/oWLHFwaVOH
— Samantha Chang (@samantha_chang) November 22, 2019
The truck that looks like the love child of brutalist architecture and Blade Runner is supposed to come out in 2023, emphasis on “supposed to.” Tesla has famously delayed multiple models by multiple years. Last year, when announcing his so-called “Tesla Bot,” Musk called his cars “semi-sentient robots on wheels.” Unfortunately, the only thing he had to show off his man-sized bot meant to do menial labour is a man in a skin-tight suit.
When will Musk’s “robot” upgrade from a person walking stiffly in a black and white spandex suit into an actual, mannequin-sized robot? Well, there’s been a lot of hopes pegged on the upcoming Tesla AI Day set for Friday evening. The event should be watchable on the company’s YouTube channel starting at 5 pm PT (Saturday, 10 am AEST), but as of now, the timing isn’t exactly clear.
The man in charge also posted a promotional image for AI Day 2022 with robot hands in the shape of a heart while couching his own statement by saying the “event is meant for recruiting AI [and] robotics engineers, so will be highly technical.” He’s mentioned the team developing the 5’8” bot code-named “Optimus” has an end-of-month deadline.
In addition to its robot, Tesla is also supposed to talk more about its self-driving cars, which haven’t had all too much good press lately and are under federal investigation. Musk has said that the fully self-driving cards beta updates are due soon. And not to outdo itself with its failed attempts at public transportation via Musk’s Boring Company Las Vegas tunnel system, Tesla has also mentioned it intends to create a Tesla Network taxi service, using both company-owned and user-owned vehicles to pick up passengers.
As much as people speculate we could see the human-sized robot prototype operational come Friday to get ready for its stated 2023 production schedule, Musk is a man made for missing deadlines, as evidenced by the ever-delayed Cybertruck.
This article has been updated since it was first published.