No, the Cybertruck did NOT explode or catch fire by itself

You likely saw all kinds of headlines around this. You know, the ones like “Cybertruck exploded” and “Cybertruck caught fire”.

These even made it to the news of my little northeastern European country.

Here’s a selection of the headlines that popped up for you. Now imagine if you haven’t heard the true story. What would you have thought had happened right off the bat?

If you’re in the Tesla circles you know what actually happened. I’m here to give you the details why all the headlines above are complete bs:

First off, here’s the explosion itself on tape:

And what was left of the Cybertruck:

Elon’s first public reaction:

And here are the important bits:

• Turns out it was explosives — fireworks, camping fuel and gas tanks — in the truck and its bed caused the explosion, which is believed to have been detonated by the person sitting inside.

• The cybertruck itself helped contain the explosion blast and it held up very well (likely even saving bystanders).

• Law enforcement officials confirmed: “The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred. It had most of the blast go up through the truck and out. The front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by the blast, which they were directly in front of.”

• The Cybertruck was rented from Turo.

• Elon also says: “Cybertruck is the worst possible choice for a car bomb, as its stainless steel armor will contain the blast better than any other commercial vehicle.”

• Elon Musk has sent a team from Tesla to try and recover any footage from the exploded Cybertruck.

Regarding the misleading news headlines, Elon apparently considers suing the outlets that framed the story harmfully towards Tesla, saying “Maybe it’s time to do so”.

Also, 1,767 Tesla shareholders representing more than 5.4 million shares wrote a letter asking Tesla’s Board of Directors to consider legal action against news outlets that report inaccurately on Tesla.

Meanwhile, a lot of people around are instead hailing all this as an advertisement for the Cybertruck — on how tough it is.

The thickness of the Cybertruck's steel exterior — which is roughly twice as thick as the exterior of an average car or truck — is key here, as you can see from the video of engineers talking to Sandy Munro here.

"We have two thicknesses. Our doors are 1.8 millimeters thick and all the other parts like the sails, hood, etc, are 1.4 millimeters thick. We worked hard to get the strength up on the stainless because the original we were about 2.53mm.

We actually increased the strength of the HFS over time. While doing that with the ductility for forming, we're able to get that strength and bulletproof toughness with having a thinner material."

Do you think this incident resulted in extra sales for the Cybertruck?