Tesla Showcases Cybertruck’s Off-roading Prowess in Baja, Mexico

Tesla has once again captured our attention with a riveting seven-minute video, showcasing not one, but two of its Cybertrucks tackling the challenging terrains of Baja, Mexico. This region, famous for the Baja 1000 rally, is recognized as a battleground for some of the world’s toughest off-road rallies.

Back in 2020, shortly after the Cybertruck’s grand unveiling, Elon Musk, Tesla’s CEO, hinted at such a move. He said, “We’re working on increasing dynamic air suspension travel for better off-roading. Needs to kick butt in Baja.” Clearly, Tesla’s recent activities in Mexico are in line with Musk’s ambition to dominate even in rugged terrains.

While Tesla did not partake in the actual Baja 1000 rally, the released video surely demonstrated the Cybertruck’s potential. Viewers tuned into the X/Twitter livestream, witnessing the electric pickup in action.

The visuals were undeniable: Tesla’s test drivers masterfully controlled the vehicle, drifting seamlessly and executing aggressive turns with ease. These maneuvers, impressive for any vehicle, are especially noteworthy for a full-size truck like the Cybertruck.

It’s designed with a state-of-the-art air suspension system, ensuring versatility. This means it’s equipped for smooth drives on regular roads, even with varying loads, while simultaneously being rugged enough for challenging off-roading escapades.

Tesla’s decision to share this video via their official account is strategic. With Q4 upon us, and Cybertruck deliveries anticipated since Q3, this might be a move to reignite excitement amongst potential customers.

In essence, if the video is a testament to the Cybertruck’s capabilities, Tesla enthusiasts have a lot to look forward to. Only time will tell if the Cybertruck truly “kicks butt in Baja” as Musk envisaged.

Here’s what Tesla’s test drivers had to say about the Cybertruck:

All right, we are coming to you live from Baja, California, Sir, in Mexico. As with anything on a live stream, success is uncertain but excitement guaranteed. So bear with us if we have some technical difficulties. We are shooting this from Starlink and will do our best.

So we’re down here in Mexico. We’ve got two release candidates from Cybertruck, doing off-road durability testing because we really wanted to see firsthand how these trucks handled one of the most challenging routes in the world.

These trucks are straight out of the factory except for some special race seats we got installed. As you can see, we’re getting jostled around pretty hard. We’ve got five point harnesses for our safety, but otherwise this is off the factory floor.

We’ve obviously also attached a Starlink mobility unit and that’s what we’re using for this live stream.

We’ve been out on his route for about a week now. We started up at San Diego, and we’ve taken the whole Baja peninsula down. We’re nearly to the bottom in Cabo, 1,280 miles later.

This trip was pretty awesome, and made possible by the Tesla destination charging network. The team had chargers set up at hotels all along the route. So anyone with the Tesla can go follow the same route we did. It’s pretty sweet.

We’re really thankful for all the great people we met along these destinations, too. Like these folks were so gleeful, surprised, excited, amazed. Their reactions and conversations were priceless. It was really humbling to have such a great reception. Everyone’s excitement really helped us push through. It was a pretty tough weeklong trip. Long days, early days, early hours, late nights.

We’re sorry if my live stream isn’t the most perfect here, but we’re doing our best. It’s a bit bumpy.

The terrain we’ve been on has been unbelievably varied as well. Of course, we’ve got Baja desert, but we’ve also had sandy wash, that’s what we’re in right now. We’ve got rocky ridges we had to climb through. We had a forest of giant cactus we made it through. We went through a salt flat that had red salt pines. Pretty sweet. Up and over a ton of mountains. and of course, it’s Baja, there was washboard.

The weather has been pretty great. You can see right now it’s around sunset. Things are going well. It’s been mostly 80s and sunny. Although, over the week we’ve had a bunch of storms in and out. So we’ve got a few car washes throughout the trip but nothing too terrible.

I’m sure everybody has been wondering, but how did the trucks do? Well, you can kinda see for yourself. These trucks are hard-core. They are super fun. Super durable. The only issues we’ve had were two flat tires so far, you know. We’re still a few miles from the ocean, but we’ll make it. I think.

The ability of these trucks is super impressive. You can get on the road, be super comfortable driving on the road, turn off onto the trailhead and suddenly switch to off-road mode. We’ve got air suspension and active dampers, so we can totally change the ride and handling characteristics of the vehicle. And it not just capable but super fun as you can see from our viewpoint here.

We’ve got some traffic, so we’re just slowing down. it’s a bit bumpy.

Yeah, it’s been a super fun trip. Really, really successful. Overall, as far as an off-road durability trip. We’ve got lots of seat time. Lots of time at tuning all the firmware, all the variables, testing out of the hardware taking it to the extreme. It’s been great.

Really excited for everybody else to get a chance to experience this product as we have.

Overall, super impressed and I want to get a shout-out to the whole team. Everybody involved. Everybody from the studio team who made this iconic design to the engineering team that took great pride in the details very part. And especially the factory team that’s made it a reality. It’s been great working with everyone in this process, and the result is this super capable product is super fun. It’s hard to put into words. I’m sorry I’m not doing it so eloquently.

Here you go. You can see the ocean up ahead. That’s the Pacific Ocean. The tip of Cabo. We’ve got a little bit of sunset over here.

So just wanted to say hi and that’s all for now. We’ll be signing off, so have a good one everyone.