← Back to topic list

That viral video of a ‘deactivated’ Tesla Cybertruck is a fake

Evangelistis | 2025-08-12 15:42 | 829 views

Comments (75)
AutoModerator 2025-08-12 15:42

**I am a bot. This is a friendly reminder that unwelcoming toxic/griefing/pessimistic sniping comments that are not on topic and don’t move the discussion forward will be removed. A ban will be issued if necessary. Consider this before commenting. Report posts or comments that violate the [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/mod/teslamotors/rules/). Thank you.** If you are unable to find it, use the link to it. We are not a support sub, please make sure to use the proper resources if you have questions: [Official Tesla Support](https://www.tesla.com/support), [r/TeslaLounge](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/) personal content | [Discord Live Chat](https://discord.gg/tesla) for anything. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/teslamotors) if you have any questions or concerns.*

Bangaladore 2025-08-12 19:02

Everyone with two brain cells could tell that the moment it was released.

OkSchool619 2025-08-12 19:04

New to tesla Fud?

altimas 2025-08-12 19:15

from the verge? whats the catch?

_______o-o_______ 2025-08-12 19:21

Too bad most people only have one…

neferteeti 2025-08-12 19:25

I'm sure all the haters are going to retract their statements regarding this, right? No? They dug in? shocker.

Zyrinj 2025-08-12 19:25

Watching this play out is a reminder of the sad reality playing out across multiple subreddits. Anger generating posts catch like wild fire, while this one will likely fail to make smoke.

[deleted] 2025-08-12 19:29

Well duh. Of course it was fake.

[deleted] 2025-08-12 19:32

That's being generous.

PKSubban 2025-08-12 19:34

As is tradition now

EV-CPO 2025-08-12 19:40

All that, as well as Tesla does not have "dealers" so the message "Return to Dealer" is obv super fake.

dispassionatejoe 2025-08-12 19:52

"The video quickly went viral on Reddit and BlueSky" Of course it did, these places nowadays are full of misinformation and disinformation. These places seriously need community notes like X has.

mflboys 2025-08-12 20:12

Lol you should have seen r/publicfreakout and r/whatcouldgowrong This situation got me to unsubscribe from a couple more trash subs, though, so that’s a positive

tarrasque 2025-08-12 20:16

That alone almost makes buying one worth it in and of itself. So refreshing.

mrandr01d 2025-08-12 20:17

"mom says we have to share the neuron"

[deleted] 2025-08-12 20:28

Can’t affect the brand anymore than all the other press does

Underwater_Karma 2025-08-12 20:28

I would have said "yes. We know", but apparently a lot of people really are gullible enough that they've just assumed it was true. It was a rather obvious hoax from the start, and I got downvoted to hell every time I pointed it out.

Socksfelloff 2025-08-12 20:34

Too late. My mom already saw it on Facebook and messaged me as if it was fact and she was very concerned

Evangelistis 2025-08-12 20:44

Truth be told, it was a convincing fake if you never saw Cybertruck’s UI. Wondering how they did it.

Tellittomy6pac 2025-08-12 20:51

Jesus Christ more anti Tesla stuff and people jumped on the bandwagon wagon. I swear,the people who believed this stuff, it’s a wonder they can function on a day to day basis

qiuboujun 2025-08-12 20:51

Playing back a pre uploaded YouTube video or something similar. Not hard at all. But to stop in the middle of a highway just to pull this stunt is pretty psychotic btw

Individual-Ad-8645 2025-08-12 21:04

They can’t, unless someone tells them what to do next, who to hate, which protests to go to, etc etc.

latca 2025-08-12 21:12

I’ll admit that I bought it. I should have suspected that Tesla would never disable a vehicle especially while it was driving. That would be a major safety risk.

treeforface 2025-08-12 21:20

I'm running out of trash subs to unsubscribe from. On a related note, I'm running out of subs I'm subscribed to

Present-Ad-9598 2025-08-12 21:21

“Return to dealer”

MeinWaffles 2025-08-12 21:22

Defamation lawsuit incoming?

Andurhil1986 2025-08-12 21:24

It was a very effective fake. Tesla owners see right through it, but they’re not the intended audience. The anti EV crowd and conspiracy theorists ate this up.

[deleted] 2025-08-12 21:53

Too many people have a hate on for anything Tesla just because Elon is a twat that needs to be fired and can’t keep his mouth shut.

StdSam 2025-08-12 21:57

Honestly everything on the internet should be fact checked.

[deleted] 2025-08-12 22:25

[removed]

NoHonorHokaido 2025-08-12 22:50

The funniest part is he is going to receive a real cease and desist letter now and probably gonna get sued for damages.

Jkastelic 2025-08-12 22:58

I’m surprised no one was pointing out how you can see pillarboxing (gray bars) on the sides of the screen when he pans the camera. You get that from a video that doesn’t match the aspect ratio of the screen, not a native UI message lol

TowElectric 2025-08-12 23:06

Of course it is. Social media is basically 75% fake.

TowElectric 2025-08-12 23:07

Community notes are too slow. Even on gratuitous misinformation, 90% of the views and engagement happen before the note goes up. Maybe they need to automate it with Grok or something, but 3/4 of X thinks "Grok is too woke" because it basically tells MAGA its wrong constantly.

TowElectric 2025-08-12 23:08

Full screen YouTube video or webpage. The browser can do full screen. Parking the car in the middle of the freeway to do it was fuckin balls, though.

comicidiot 2025-08-12 23:22

Community notes are slow because they’re rated by others for accuracy. I write and vote on community notes (albeit not on X) and I get a notification when they go live. Sometimes it’s up to two days, but never within hours. The notes I’ve written are all on less popular posts and they still haven’t met whatever the threshold is for the note to be published. Community Notes are as helpful as they are useless: They help those who see the post way later but they are useless to anything that’s trending viral, which is when a note is needed most. An AI to catch repetitive claims (like YouTube with certain subjects) would be helpful but still wouldn’t put a note in front of a video like this one.

dearmratheist 2025-08-12 23:49

I’m not arguing it isn’t fake, but do they not have dealers? I got a model y 5or 6 years ago. I went to the Tesla place(?) in Littleton, CO, was shown what they had in stock, set up my lease, drove off in it. Is that not a Tesla dealership?

spennnyy 2025-08-12 23:52

At least if you interact with a post that gets noted, you will get a notification about the new note. X is the only platform I'm aware that does something like that.

EV-CPO 2025-08-12 23:58

They are all corporate owned stores, not "dealerships" in the conventional sense. All other auto "dealerships" are independently owned franchises. Tesla does not operate that way. The Tesla locations are "stores" or "galleries" or "service centers" -- not dealerships.

littleempires 2025-08-13 00:04

Don’t forget Tesla’s #1 haters over at r/technology

KnightsSoccer82 2025-08-13 00:19

Yet it shot to the top of r/PublicFreakout and I had people calling me an idiot in the comments when I called out it was fake lmao

EstrellaCat 2025-08-13 00:36

Yeah didn't this guy doctor this alongside a cease and desist to promote his new song?

GrandEquivalent8828 2025-08-13 00:38

Elon should sue the clown and his benefactors

[deleted] 2025-08-13 00:54

I don't know.

agonyou 2025-08-13 01:25

Generous WAS having a neuron to even share!

laserdicks 2025-08-13 01:31

By me of course. Everyone agrees that I'm not biased.

spitzer1113 2025-08-13 01:36

Unfortunately all the simpletons out here just eat this up and run with it. People can't be bothered to research or verify things.

StdSam 2025-08-13 01:37

> By me of course. Everyone agrees that I’m not biased. *Community Notes* u/laserdicks is a self proclaimed obese drug user. https://reddit.com/r/StopEatingSeedOils/comments/1f01ktl/im_obese_and_use_drugs_are_seed_oils_even_worth/

laserdicks 2025-08-13 01:50

Thought you were the first to think of this huh.

StdSam 2025-08-13 02:21

This community notes/fact checking is already making Reddit better!

ajn63 2025-08-13 03:10

First question: why does this dimwit make a fake video like this? Second question: will Tesla prosecute this dimwit?

Quin1617 2025-08-13 04:37

You forgot TikTok, which is arguably much worse.

Quin1617 2025-08-13 04:40

Same honestly. Sadly I feel like within a couple years I’ll wind up leaving Reddit for good.

[deleted] 2025-08-13 05:53

Its a failed rapper that tried to get free promo like this and get known. Too bad his music is D tier at best

wooder321 2025-08-13 07:31

I used to have friends that would easily fall for this crap We are no longer friends.

VideoGameJumanji 2025-08-13 08:43

The intersection of anti ev and anti tesla people go crazy for stuff like this. Other ev subs are straight up incoherent with how much disdain they have for solely for this company, it’s nonsensical but this is Reddit where every other person is putting on a performance in the comment section.

PotatoesAndChill 2025-08-13 09:45

Tesla should definitely sue that guy. He should also lose his license for stopping in the fast lane and endangering others for the sake of a social media bit.

opinions_dont_matter 2025-08-13 11:16

I’m not a Tesla owner and you had to question the location of the shut down. That alone made the video questionable because a company wouldn’t take the liability on by shutting a car down on the highway, regardless of what the screen was showing. Guess I’m not anti ev or a conspiracy theorist either so…maybe I wasn’t the intended audience.

DAC_Returns 2025-08-13 13:31

Sounds like a relatively nuanced distinction which you would expect an average person to overlook.

Equal-University2144 2025-08-13 13:37

This.

squish102 2025-08-13 14:05

Now I expect Elektrek to do a whole article claiming it happened Probably written by Fred Lambert.

HIGH_PRESSURE_TOILET 2025-08-13 15:37

People will overlook the numerous imperfections in the video to confirm their existing biases against Tesla and Elon, even though said biases were also formed by consuming tons of anti-Tesla fake news over the years. And when you debunk this piece of fake news they will just go "oh well, but it's something they _would_ do given their history!"

[deleted] 2025-08-13 16:26

r/noshitsherlock

mchinsky 2025-08-13 16:38

Typically if Tesla has some type of 'show stopping' issue, it goes into 'limp' mode and lets you power the car out of danger.

mchinsky 2025-08-13 16:40

It's as much Anti-Trump as well. 95% of the people who hate Tesla voted for Kamala. I'm not saying you can't vote for Kamala and love Tesla, but those who hate Tesla, voted for her. This is also why they need that 'safety monitor' in Austin. Do you know how many aholes would be purposely doing things in the car to make for a dramatic video saying FSD is dangerous or causes accidents?

nevetsyad 2025-08-13 16:48

It was sent to me twice before I even saw it on my feed. Everyone that doesn't drive a Tesla, anyone that remotely doesn't like the CEO, is believing it and sharing it like crazy.

EV-CPO 2025-08-13 16:50

Sure, perhaps the "average person" might. But someone who owns a Cybertruck and is creating a totally fake viral video making real headlines to draw attention to himself?!? He should know better.

cinred 2025-08-13 18:02

Thx. Now im racist again apparently

CAMMARMANN 2025-08-13 18:07

Of fucking course it is. But it’s ok only 99% of Reddit believed it because rocket man = bad

DAC_Returns 2025-08-13 19:08

Oh, gotcha. I did not realize you were strictly criticizing the creator of the hoax. I was seeing a lot of people here mocking the general public for believing the image and thought your dealership statement was more of it, but that was incorrect on my part.

GameRoom 2025-08-13 23:17

I mean that subreddit seems to hate technology broadly, ironically enough.

Infamous_Tour_2232 2025-08-14 22:29

Noooo! But it’s on the internet? It MUST be real!

GodwynDi 2025-08-15 20:27

75%? A true optimist.

FriendlyEyeFloater 2025-08-16 04:22

Embarrassed to say I thought it was real because I didn’t think someone would be insane enough to stop in the middle of a busy highway to film a fake video. Putting lives at risk for that is beyond my comprehension.

PcChip 2025-08-17 13:19

\>I'm running out of subs I'm subscribed to try: r/hardware r/berries r/linux r/linux_gaming those are usually my happy places

Add comment

Login is required to comment.

Login with Google