Cybertruck’s Viral Hoax Exposes Tesla’s Epic PR Failure
Hello everyone. Gather around, because today’s absurdist theatre comes courtesy of the Tesla Cybertruck – yes, the metallic doorstop masquerading as a pickup that somehow manages to be both “apocalypse-level safe” and “sales-report dangerous” all at once. This time, it wasn’t another stainless-steel panel falling off or a door misbehaving – no, it was a viral hoax so ridiculous that even Tesla, the company that famously acts like PR is a communicable disease, had to speak up. That alone should tell you just how stupid the situation got.
The Hoax That Broke the Internet
It all started with some social media cowboy – going by the wonderfully subtle username “bighuey313” – who posted a panic-filled video from behind the wheel of his supposedly dead Cybertruck. The dashboard, in all its cutting-edge glory, flashed a message so melodramatic it could’ve been written by a high school theatre student:
“Tesla Cybertruck De-Activated. Critical Issue Detected | Contact Customer Service, Comply with Cease & Desist to Re-Activate.”
Our hero claimed “everything is locked” and that the truck had been “remotely bricked” because – wait for it – he wrote and released a song called “Cybertruck.” Apparently in his cinematic version of events, Elon Musk sits on an ivory throne somewhere, listening to SoundCloud, activating the “Ban This Musician” button whenever someone dares rhyme “lug nut” with “shut up.”
To really sell the drama, he posted a photo of a “cease and desist” letter allegedly from Tesla’s lawyers. Unfortunately, internet sleuths quickly noticed that the signature on the letter belonged to a lawyer who hasn’t used that title for some time. Which is kind of like waving around an expired Pokémon card and demanding it still be tournament legal.
Tesla Enters the Chat (Rarely)
The nonsense escalated so far that Tesla broke its own “we don’t respond” doctrine and actually issued a statement. In the icy corporate equivalent of slamming the controller down and declaring “not my save game,” Tesla’s official X account posted:
“This is fake – that’s not our screen. Tesla does NOT disable vehicles remotely.”
Translation: Stop believing random people on Instagram who think Photoshop is a lifestyle. But the damage was done – the image of a car manufacturer flipping a “kill switch” from afar lodged beautifully into the tinfoil-coated brains of tech conspiracy lovers everywhere.
Why People Bought It
Here’s the thing – people were primed to believe it because the Cybertruck’s reputation has all the stability of a Jenga tower in an earthquake. Sales are plunging (over 50% down in Q2), its resale value has imploded by more than 30%, and the hype-to-reality ratio is so lopsided it could star in its own tragicomedy series.
Elon’s marketing spin paints it as “built bullet tough” and “apocalypse proof,” but in the actual marketplace, it’s faring like a newly spawned player walking into a Dark Souls boss fight with no armor and a stick. People are now just waiting to see which calamity will arrive next – so when the “Tesla kills your car if you enrage the Musk” story landed, they didn’t blink.
EV Fears + Corporate Paranoia = Viral Gold
There’s a deep vein of paranoia out there about corporations holding absolute control over your tech. The thought that Tesla could flick an off-switch on your $80,000 stainless steel Minecraft block plays perfectly into that fear. And when the brand is already the butt of every EV skeptic’s joke, you might as well paint a target on it with neon lights.
Yes, there’s been a short-term sales bump thanks to expiring EV tax credits, but that’s like reviving a dying MMO with a weekend double XP event. It works for a while, but once the event’s over, population drops back to “ghost town with occasional bots.”
Final Diagnosis
From my perspective as a doctor – and yes, occasionally the diagnosis is “laughter-induced whiplash” – this incident is a textbook case of a brand suffering from chronic overhype-induced fragility. It’s living with a fatal comorbidity: a fan base ready to defend it at all costs, and a cynical public ready to believe literally anything against it. That means every tiny spark, even a forged letter and fake dash warning, can turn into an inferno needing corporate intervention.
The Cybertruck has successfully cemented itself not as the future of transportation, but as an ongoing episodic saga of viral nonsense. This hoax was dumb, obvious, and self-defeating – yet entirely believable to a market that has seen just enough real problems to fuel the fantasy.
Overall impression? Not a good look for Tesla. When your mythology overshadows your reality, you’ve lost control of your own narrative – and you’ll spend more time firefighting internet drama than fixing the product people are actually driving. That, in the tech world, is how bosses end up rage-quitting their own game.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is entirely my opinion.
Article source: A Viral Cybertruck Hoax Got So Big, Tesla Had to Break Its Silence, https://gizmodo.com/a-viral-cybertruck-hoax-got-so-big-tesla-had-to-break-its-silence-2000642000
