Anthony Yates
A TikTok video of a Tesla Truck went viral after it appeared to ‘deactivate’ and stop on a highway. The error screen displayed in the car is comically fake, but it still managed to fool hundreds of people on the platform.
Videos by Rare
Instagram user @bighuey313 shared footage of the alleged Tesla Cybertruck error. The post quickly garnered hundreds of thousands of likes and almost 20k replies.
The short video has the caption, “Dog wtf my cybertruck just shut off on the freeway! 😡Almost just crashed wtf.” The user even addressed the official Tesla Motors account directly.
You can see a screen inside the vehicle with the Tesla logo displayed during the video. The message reads, “Tesla Cybertruck De-Activated. Critical Issue Detected – Contact Customer Service. Comply with Cease & Desist To Reactivate.” A smaller message displays in multiple languages and reads, “Update Failed. Return to Dealer.”
The driver exclaims, “Everything is locked,” as the error message pulses red and white. He briefly gets out of the vehicle, saying, “Bro. I gotta call Tesla, bro.” The driver then gets back in the car, exclaiming, “I can’t move the car, bro, I’m stranded as ****.”
Tesla Addressed The Video Directly, Declaring It A Hoax
Dramatic pulsing screen aside, the video is short and sweet enough that it appears to have fooled many social media users. “So basically he got banned? Now we get banned from driving? Yeah no thank you,” one user wrote. Dozens of replies share similar sentiments, with one comment saying, “U could of easily avoided this issue by NOT BUYING A TESLA CYBERTRUCK.”
The video prompted the manufacturer to reply to the post. “This is fake – that’s not our screen. Tesla does NOT disable vehicles remotely,” they said. Many Instagram users chimed in, still unconvinced by the official response.
Tesla addressed the video on X with the same message after another user, Jeremy Judkins, posted it, picking holes in its authenticity. “It’s likely a YouTube video or something just playing on full screen to look like a legitimate error,” Judkins wrote. He added, “What’s even more wild is someone would just park their Cybertruck in the middle of the road for a publicity stunt.”
