I suppose this was inevitable: you can now have a Tesla Cybertruck upfitted for police duty. Yes, following in the footsteps of such legendary cars as the Dodge Diplomat or the Volkswagen Rabbit, the Cybertruck can now be had with reds and blues and prisoner partitions and even K9 enclosures, all thanks to Tesla upfitter UP.FIT. The company is part of Unplugged Performance, one of the first Tesla tuning companies. Police departments have been reportedly excited about this, according to publications like Law Enforcement Today, perhaps because it allows for all sorts of RoboCop/Judge Dredd-types of future-cop fantasies to feel a bit more real as law enforcement officers muscle shoplifting teens and deadbeat dads into the back of their electric low-polygon stainless steel land-speeders.
The cop-spec Cybertruck offers a number of enhancements to the consumer-grade truck, which I’ll quote from UP.FIT’s press release to give you the full rundown:
“The UP.FIT Cybertruck combines Tesla’s unparalleled electric vehicle technology with Unplugged Performance’s expertise in vehicle modification and adaptation to deliver a complete turn-key solution to meet the needs of police departments. It features the expected suite of warning lights, sirens, PA system, as well as upgraded radio and computer systems thanks to specialized wiring systems and proprietary integrations. UP.FIT Cybertruck can be customized for tactical, military or search and rescue missions with available prisoner partitions, storage for weapons and specialty tools, K9 enclosures, upgraded vehicle dynamics with specialized UP.FIT Forged wheel and tire packages, braking systems, and optional upgrades for extreme off-road usage, as well as Starlink internet connectivity. Law enforcement agencies and fleet operators will find the UP.FIT Cybertruck a key advancement in practical policing, offering officers the best tools to protect and serve communities effectively.”
The upgraded radio and computer systems and specialized wiring systems I’m curious about; is this referring to the special terminals (like the legendary SCMODS) that cop cars already have, or is this something new and different?
https://t.co/m8yvbWeZtS introduces the world’s first duty-ready Cybertruck. This Next-Gen Patrol vehicle, expands the capability of this new platform for tactical response, patrol and Fire response. The future has arrived, and it’s ready for anything. pic.twitter.com/sJHdGsipg5
— UP.FIT (@UpfitTesla) June 7, 2024
The promo pictures released by UP.FIT include the expected cop-car-with-all-the-cool-lights-on photos, and also a number of photos with military-like tactical gear casually and artfully draped in the interior:
That shot also shows the added control panel of pleasingly illuminated physical buttons, which makes me wonder: is the Cybertruck’s huge center-stack touchscreen employed to act as the cop terminal’s display? Adding another console with a separate display seems a bit absurd, considering what comes in the car already. So far, I’m not sure how this is working, though I believe there is a web browser in Tesla’s software, which could allow for cop-specific software to run in a browser and use some manner of StarLink internet connection. But I’m just guessing.
They’re really enjoying draping that helmet and vest on here.
Okay, okay, we get it, there’s hardcore tactical equipment! This is a big, scary, law-enforcing machine, got it.
The cop-spec Cybertruck has different wheels and tires than the consumer-grade one, too. These aren’t the rugged steelies seen on iconic cop cars like the Ford Crown Victoria, but are custom-forged wheels.
I’d be curious to see how the large bed area is utilized; is it all racks of tactical gear? Is it a dungeon for particularly uncooperative perps? Just open space? Nap area? Maybe they’ll release some pictures of that, too. Same goes for the frunk; what’s in there?
The cop Cybertrucks also seem to have at least a partial black wrap from the beltline down; it’s hard to see in this profile pic, which looks all black:
Those side lights are interesting, too. A three-quarter view here seems to show the upper stainless area more clearly:
I like those searchlights, too.
As I said, I’m not surprised to see police Cybertruck variants; the imposing look of these seems like it would appeal to police agencies, for better or worse. The tone of these is a lot less “protect and serve” and a lot more “pursue and subdue,” but I guess that’s the way the world is at the moment.
Re: “upgraded radio and computer systems and specialized wiring systems I’m curious about; is this referring to the special terminals that cop cars already have, or is this something new and different?”
It’s referring to standard cop-car equipment. The physical-button thing you point out is a standard Code 3 siren controller. I presume the lighting is Code 3 too.
I imagine the bed has slide-out trays in it if it has anything.
This looks like kind of a PR thing more than a practical concept that shows a vehicle that any municipality is actually going to buy.
Among other things, I write technical requirements for a bunch of stuff including police patrol vehicles and manage getting them built, so I’ve got some familiarity with this.
Excellent PR prop to display for children at Officer Friendly meet n greets and recruitment fairs. I can’t imagine a giant stainless steel brick would serve well in tactical situations.
Now let’s see if the military would like to buy some.
I believe that the police prefer vehicles that can reliably steer both left and right. Steer by wire doesn’t have a place on public roadways let alone be in use by people who need to actually make it to the scene of a crime. Also, in the case of a large accident, police vehicles need to be in one place with equipment running for up to several hours, theres no way an electric vehicle could possibly do that.
The “in one place for several hours” seems feasible, as long as the truck doesn’t arrive at the scene with low charge. My Volt consumes 2kW at rest with the A/C on high. Let’s generously assume all the other electronics and lights on the truck use 4kW. That’s 6kW, or about 20 hours if the truck’s 123 kWh battery was full. Not saying it’s a great police vehicle, just that idling shouldn’t be an issue.
If the frunk clamps down on an officers hand, will it be charged with assaulting an officer?
Why does the dumpster behind the police station need lights and sirens?
With all the sharp edges on this thing, I’m thinking “protect and sever.”
No protect! Only sever!
The header image is perfect, because a) the Cybertruck is the perfect modern EV equivalent to the 6000SUX and b) Elon Musk is doing whatever he can to create a real life OCP.
I’m frankly kinda surprised electrical vehicles with onboard 120v haven’t caught on more among police departments/county sheriffs.
There’s a lot of stuff – SAR, accident management, to name just two – where you need electricity to power your gear. In a lot of cases, that means getting a truck on-scene with a generator. If you can deploy a vehicle (whether it be a Ford or a Tesla or whatever) that has lots of onboard battery capacity, you neatly solve for a big chunk of your deployment problems. Roll the EV, turn on your lights and comms and coffee maker and skip the genny.
Ford, given their longstanding effort at making factory-direct police vehicles (Crown Vic with police package, Interceptor, etc.), would be the logical ones for this kind of market, though. The Cybertruck has some things that make it sorta useful (onboard power, lockable tonneau), but if I were a municipal procurement committee then there’s no way in hell I’d touch a Cybertruck (which, unlike Ford, doesn’t really support third or second-party maintenance and management programs; if I’ve got a fleet of 20 Interceptors, you damn well better believe that they’re probably going to be maintained in-house for the most part, whereas a CT it would be impossible to do that with). Not to mention that “easily replaceable body panels” is one of those things you really do want in a police vehicle.
If I am being chased I will just cut through a small puddle or modest incline to get away.
A police force like cal to me has several Model 3 cars for patrol and have shown massive fuel savings.
So why isn’t a vehicle that can better protect the occupant, be used to recover another vehicle, and able to go more places not better than this: https://www.theautopian.com/why-the-tesla-model-y-cop-car-makes-perfect-sense/
Well, so much for just giving JT a recommendation on a funny comedy special!
The regular cop on the beat disdain here is real, lol.
Sure. Give a cop a 4-5 ton vehicle that is fast in acceleration. Nothing bad can happen.
Here’s the thing about vendors: they try to sell things. They screw on some lights, take some photos, gin up a brochure, and start hitting the socials. They especially do all of that before they build a production line, procure parts in quantity, or hire anyone new to do the new work. Just because a vendor wants to sell something doesn’t mean that anyone is buying anything.
I’m not seeing a Unique Selling Propostion here – what is the vendor selling that no one else is? Why is it useful for the police to own a CT? After getting past the “INNOVATION!” buzzwords I don’t see them even trying to make a case.
So, will one or more of the 18,000 police agencies in the US buy one? Sure. But in our national conversation about policing, a Sheriff’s Department buying an electric pickup truck doesn’t move the needle. At all.
Yup. This thing likely wont pass most of the fleet durability tests anyway.
This is the most dick-in-hand, authoritarian bullshit I’ve had to give thought for awhile.
This is nothing more than flexing social status and intimidation.
The Cybertruck is a woeful vehicle, period. It has been heavily documented since it’s public launch how many shortfalls the design has and how unreliable the vehicle is. There’s no world in which someone sensibly deciding on a new vehicle for the Police Force, would look at a first year, experimental platform EV truck, with too many issues to even fit in its own bed as a useful and trustworthy choice.
This is for a class of people who should not be in law enforcement. The CT already seems to attract the worst customer base possible and now they want to flaunt it around for the worst pigs in the pen as well? This is going to end in two ways, one of these things getting heavily ridiculed, stuck somewhere after losing a suspect fleeing in a Geo Metro, or getting snapped sitting in the background of the header image of yet another article about police brutality.
How are these people so blind to the fact that the cyber-future police car they’re cosplaying as, features almost exclusively in distopian works of fiction where the cops are sometimes subtly, other times blatantly portrayed as the bad guys? This is a joke, the world is satire and the cop-spec Cybertruck is the new poster child.
My daughter saw a cybertruck going the other direction on the highway the other day and accidentally unlocked a 15-minute dad rant about what an abject failure it is as a design exercise, an engineering exercise, an automotive exercise, a manufacturing exercise, as a vehicle.
Wheel covers that fly off and chew up tires. Corroding, mismatched steel manufactured sharp enough to cut you. That stupid, hilarious, sad, stupid “bulletproof window” farce on stage all those years ago. The touchscreen shifter. The way they advertised that “in an accident, the cybertruck will win” like every thing that happens in traffic is a goddamn ground war. The lack of shared resources across the Tesla lineup, resulting in this low-poly fuckugly robot turd autoerotic billionaire fever dream sapping resources from better ideas.
When I told her about the steel ball predictably shattering the windows, she said “you’d think they’d have tested that before showing it off on stage.”
I couldn’t have said it any better myself…well done!
Fuck the cYbErJuNkTrUcK
But isn’t that a main demographic of applicants?
Not just that, but the target demographic for recruiting.
Yes, and yes, but I reiterate; it shouldn’t be.
There is no confusion about who this is targeted towards, but the question needs to be asked, why the fuck are we targeting product, lifestyles and ideologies towards these people instead of shutting them down. When you feed it, it grows, when you starve it, it dies.
I’m with you. My first realization that they were actively recruiting this mindset instead of just allowing it is when I applied to a sheriff’s office in 2006ish. They asked about my defensive tactics and martial arts experience and I said (what I still maintain is correct) that my verbal judo is more important than my martial arts. One of the interviewers got visibly angry and said that if I had seen meth use in my community, I should understand that you can’t talk to meth users. They no longer wanted to hire me and I no longer wanted to work there. You shouldn’t hire people into law enforcement who just want to beat the shit out of drug addicts, but that’s the person they are looking for.
And it’s at a lot more than that one. I’ve seen the people that get jobs in law enforcement and corrections these days. Worked with some of them while they were private security. The attitude of us vs them is a selling point in the interview.
I’m gonna reply to this one, but then I’m going to let this thread rest. I respect that the Autopian tries to focus on car culture without falling too deeply into politics and beliefs, but I’d also like to remind everyone that the argument of politics is supposed to be people arguing how they’d implement policies to help their people, not IF they should be helping their people. Basic human rights should not be politics.
I have a wealth more respect for social workers than I do law enforcement. Those people actually deal with the worst situations, people who are scared, confused, mentally unwell and unable to help themselves and they somehow manage to do this without EVER unloading a full clip into someone because they flinched. The systems are all rotten to the core, not just the US, but here in Aus we have a wealth of our own problems and elsewhere. It’s just shit to watch unfold and the last place I want to have to acknowledge it is within my interests and communities. I’m absolutely down for cool cop car tech and developments in that regard, but the Cybertruck Gravy Seal Edition doesn’t genuinely reflect any of that, and that’s why I had my piece to say, we need less of this in the world.