For whatever reason, there’s a strange trend among Cybertruck owners to just abuse the crap out of their electric trucks, and often record it for the delight of the viewing public, who are blood/oil/coolant-thirsty monsters that seem to delight in seeing the wanton destruction of an expensive, low-polygon stainless steel electric truck. We’ve covered some of this before right here, to a combination of delight and disgust of our readers, for many complex and maybe predictable reasons. Now there’s a video that’s been making the rounds of someone else doing something wantonly destructive with a Cybertruck and a plastic white picket fence, but the motives and outcome are a bit different.
The video in question was done by a YouTuber named SupercarRon, and was first released back in June on Instagram, where the stated goal of the video was, at least in part, a pre-response to destructive Cybertruck content from a competing YouTuber or influencer or whatever the hell the general title is for this vocation. From the Instagram post:
“Just trying to get our use out of this thing before @whistlindiesel makes our cybertruck content obsolete.”
…and this was the video in question:
Now, as far as car videos go, this is hardly Citizen Kane; we have someone attempting, I believe, to showcase the Cybertruck’s perceived toughness by driving through a white picket fence, the kind made of hollow plastic parts. It looks pretty impressive and destructive, but of course this could be accomplished with pretty much any truck, or, really, pretty much any car. A ’73 AMC Hornet could do this, as could a ’95 Ford Aspire or, again, just about anything.
But, it did appear, according to this video, that the Cybertruck is able to fend off an immobile plastic fence no problem, and for the segment of the market that seeks to destroy plastic fencing with impunity, this is crucial information.
But! New information has come to light that completely changes the tone and outcome of this video! The video that was posted in June up there was not the full video! The full video has only been up since yesterday, and it has a dramatic ending. Watch! But first, perhaps stand over a dropcloth in case you unwittingly soil yourself from the shock!
????♂️ Social media 'influencers' planned to showcase a Cybertruck's prowess by having it demolish various objects.
However, the tables turned when the truck itself was defeated on its very first challenge: taking on a fence. pic.twitter.com/YNRHaPIWDT
— PiQ (@PiQSuite) September 8, 2024
Well, damn. Look at that. The Cybertruck sure looks a lot less tough when its vomiting out coolant from its exposed heat exchangers and radiators, which have been pretty severely damaged from chunks of plastic fence fake wooden planks being jammed up into the exposed intake. This is a pretty significant damage, as it would keep the truck from actually being driven, which I think qualifies as a significant detriment.
So, aside from the inherent betrayal of hiding the actual outcome of the fence-crushing which could severely impact those looking to purchase fleets of Cybertrucks for large-scale plastic fence-crushing businesses, likely a major market segment.
Now the question is what can be done about this? Luckily, we tasked the Autopian Labs Engineering Squad, along with Crapo, our new AI running on the Autopian Mainframe (recently upgraded to a Coleco Adam) to come up with a solution to this problem, and here’s what they came up with:
Just a nice sheet of hardware cloth or chicken wire or some similar sort of fencing, easily secured via washers and sheet metal screws! Problem solved, and, as a bonus, it looks fantastic!
So, spend $25 bucks at the hardware store and all you Cybertruck owners can mow down as many plastic fences as you want!
Anyone quoted plastic fences lately?
That fence is worth more than the truck.
I think the CT was a half-asp attempt to get something vaguely similar to his promised indestructible truck out before he had to start issuing deposit refunds. As stupid as I find these brainless destruction videos, this actually highlights a real vulnerability in these trucks. Just driving over a knee high shrub or tree off road could brick this thing. You really have to be careful what you’re driving over in this. I often have to push over mesquites and jojobas here on the ranch when I’m repairing fencing and rounding up livestock. I couldn’t do that with any sense of confidence in this “truck”. Yeah, the future is stupid and I’ll keep driving my Rams for decades to come.
All the looks with none of the substance. You’d think when fabricating that bumper they would have thought to incorporate a skid plate as well.
Remember when Elon said this truck will be “real tough, not fake tough”?
Elon and reality have a tangential relationship at best.
Indeed
I bet you could save even more money by just taking self-tappers and woodscrews from other parts of the truck
People would probably be less interested in demolishing these things if whats his name hadn’t spent the entire production cycle bragging about how indestructible it was going to be.
Yep. As soon as he self-owned on stage with that broken window, it was on. Everyone was knew it wasn’t indestructible and wanted their turn at proving it.
I love this place but I gotta be honest. Articles like this are one step away from AI junk. This is a Yahoo News article, not an Autopian article. Some moron caused thousands of dollars in damage for the clicks, and you reported on it so you can get clicks. That neither informs nor entertains. I can think of three new or refreshed cars that you still haven’t reported on, but “Truck Runs Over Fence, Breaks” somehow makes the cut.
Now get off my lawn.
On the contrary, I would rather read a recap of some moron causing thousands of dollars in damage for clicks with some smartassitude thrown in for good measure by Torch. New or refreshed cars are the generic articles that can be found just about anywhere and mean nothing to me.
Agree. Would rather read about it here (with the aforementioned smartassitude thrown in) that waste my time watching videos like this.
Why do either? It’s brainrot nonsense either way. Garbage in, garbage out. Not even Torch’s wit and humor can make this palatable because at its core it is dreadful.
True! It’s garbage and a waste of time. However I choose to waste my time on Torch’s writing versus choosing to waste my time watching the video.
If you don’t like the content, don’t click on the link. I don’t read everything on this site, just what interests me, and Torch’s writings interest me.
Yeah next time I’ll wait for the article reaction vid so I’ll know how the article will read before I read it, then I’ll know if I should click on it and read it or not.
Personally, I would read pretty much any subject Torch chooses to write on because it always feels like dudes horsing around or talking shit around the grill or during the stupid pregame shows or whatever
During my mid day boredom, I may click on this video. Now that I have read this, I don’t need to. So this article prevented at least one click of encouragement on the video.
Well, I hope you don’t reboot the Coleco Adam with Crapo in the tape drive; bye bye Crapo, you’ve been flushed.
Let him try that with my aluminum fence with spikey tops 🙂
Spears going all the way into the cabin
I love my spikey-topped aluminum fence! On the day it was being installed, my then-neighbor accosted the installation crew and started ranting about how unsafe it would be for her kids (yes, really). She stomped back to her house when the crew pretended that they couldn’t understand English.
So many people seem keenly aware of how toxic social media is, Yet when I point out that I have no social media people always look at me like I have two heads. Their response is so predictable I can answer their next question before they even ask: “No, not even Facebook.”
This is technically social media, you’re just not engaging with the unhealthy SV model of algo-fuck-outrage-ad machine.
Which is commendable! I’m the same way. The sooner we re-align to something other than letting facebook dictate our information diet and thus our reality, the sooner we can actually function as a nation again.
I would say this is more of an online community than social media but that’s probably splitting hairs.
I’m with you, Rusty! I have an Instagram and a Facebook and both of them exist largely to post pictures of cars, trains, and the very rare personal update. I would have deleted my Facebook years ago if it weren’t for the Gambler 500 (which is organized through Facebook) and Marketplace.
I maintain a Twitter account purely for professional reasons. That’s another one I would have deleted years ago.
Between social media and politics our differences have been highlighted, put under a microscope and weaponized against us to such an extent that any common ground just passes by, unnoticed.
I’m not sure where the GarageJournal forum falls. That’s the most I get out there into the world anymore.
And this calm comments section.
There’s something peak 2020s America about vinyl fencing being torn down by a cybertruck for the lulz and both being ruined for no real (besides social media clout, I guess?) profit by anyone. It’s not good or flattering but it’s very symbolic.
We live in the worst timeline…
Today I learned: Plastic fences are a thing! What a time to be alive!
Also, I am no expert on the placement of radiators and heat exchangers, but isn’t the placement of said devices on the Cybertruck pretty bad if you plan to take it off-roading?
I was going to question that also? Wheeling in my FJ (which is best stock besides a life and tires) I have all matters or sort smash up the underside of it even have had giant branches lodged in places and have ripped off skid plates but I have never had it puncture any radiators, gas tank, oil pan and so on. This video is dumb to be promoting but it does make me wonder why this isn’t something, which Tesla markets as an off road vehicle, wouldn’t be protected much better? I am sure if you took a new Wrangler or 4runner that has some sort of off road package (ie came with stock skid plates) and did the same thing they wouldn’t of had smashed radiators/coolant lines or other precious bits.
The fence is tall enough that it would just punch through the grill and damage the radiator higher up.
I have a ZR2 that I replaced most of the factory skids with better aftermarket ones, and even I wouldn’t do this dumb shit.
Your mistake is thinking the Cybertruck is actually built to do any of the things it is marketed as doing. In actuality, it only exists to post on social media and get stares while driving around suburbia.
I first discovered plastic fences way back in college, when I attempted to climb one. To be fair, it really did look like rustic painted wood.
Wait? You build fences out of plastic in the USA?
Yes and it looks silly. Fake white plastic fences are popular in rural horse-y areas for road-facing parts of the property to project that critical “tacky suburbanite dream of rurality” image.
And now I have The Kinks’ Shangri La running though my head.
I wouldn’t say it looks silly all the time, it depends on its usage. My 1950s cottage style house came with a picket fence and it fits the general look of the garden and house. It would looks silly in an 80s subdivision.
Also the wood is rotten and falling apart and held together with random brackets at this point. My wife and I are debating if we are going to replace it and if so with what material. If we decide to replace it vinyl is a leader due to how long it should last and the styles available. Also my company has a fencing division and I could get the project done for cheap.
Any chance you’ve considered cedar? Lightweight, lasts a very long time if treated well, looks great painted or natural. Yes, it’s more expensive than vinyl, but it has a look and quality that vinyl cannot match.
Might see if you can find a home that has that vinyl fencing style you like and see if it’s comparable. It’s a big investment in one’s home.
Best of luck on the project!
I estimate fencing as part of my job so I’m looking at all available options. Honestly I’d probably go metal over cedar. On a per linear meter price I’ll be ahead and it’ll probably outlast me. We are leaning towards vinyl if we can closely match the style there now, otherwise likely pressure treated as it’ll be less than half the price. With 6×6 posts it’ll last.
Picture here: https://ibb.co/jvHyR2x
That is a great house – love the trees and the look! Looking forward to seeing the end result of your work, if you share it.
Oh yeah, properly done and in context it’s just right, and picket fences are pretty. I’m talking about the cheap vinyl 2-rail stuff that’s basically just a property-line (and propriety) marker.
All the horsey places here have wooden fences. Very old town, though. The colonial homes were literally built during the colonial period.
All of suburbia in the US probably has vinyl/PVC/plastic fences. Some areas actually have building codes that do no longer allow new metal chain link fences. Decades ago, it was standard practice to get your house fenced in with a 3ft high metal chain link fence purchased from Sears. Nowadays if they are still around, they are rusted hulks that no longer meet height codes, especially if you have a swimming pool. And before you think “plastic” fences are cheap nonsense, it can easily cost $10k to fence around a suburban house. Wood is maybe a couple of thousand less, but the cost of removing all the existing cemented in posts, digging new ones, and installing gates to code is really where all the money is at.
Way too much information it would seem about PVC fences, but unless you are in the suburbs of the US, you have no idea how expensive and prevalent they are.
Pro tip: If you want a free fence, just park an absolutely unhinged amount of project vehicles/parts in your backyard and your surrounding neighbors will all build privacy fences for the sides of their yard that face yours. You can then move the project vehicles back to the front yard where they belong.
Are you my neighbor? If so, we’ve never met, but I really don’t appreciate the junk yard and fences are expensive, so…
It’s so bad that the people who bought my parents house replaced a very expensive Aluminium fence with a cheap shitty white plastic picket fence.
Well, we probably don’t. They probably come from China now. But yes.
Yes! We also make our houses out of balsa wood and chalk, then wonder why the lifespan of the average new build is <40 years and home insurance is $40000 a month.
Houses are not made of balsa wood and chalk, and the lifespan of the average new build is not less than 40 years.
Internet misinformation go brrrrr
My wife and I had a PVC fence installed a couple years ago. Given our busy schedules and our general lack of anything resembling handiness with fences, it was a choice that will last much longer than the rotten wood fence that was there when we moved in.
No regerts.
Same – I have no interest in having anything in my yard that needs to be maintained or painted that I can’t drive.
I forgot to mention that we’re currently having the old, crappy dilapidated deck with warped wood replaced with…you guessed it!…Trex decking and PVC rails. About the only negative is having to be careful where I place the grill so I don’t melt shit.
Good call – I rebuilt the back porch on my place in Maine with Trex and PVC 15 years ago to replace the rotten original wood. Looks like brand-new today – and all I ever have to do to it is pressure wash it every few years. No staining, no painting, no muss, no fuss, no bother. Cost 2X as much but worth every single penny.
a couple decades ago these were marketed to stables as safer than wood plank fencing: the plastic planks would flex more, or pop out of the posts before snapping, thus not creating stakes to puncture the stock.
Unfortunately this feature doesn’t have a long lifespan, and they do shatter, especially in subfreezing temps, leaving your pastures littered with bits of plastic. Wide, tensioned tape is more common now. So the tape is white, and is hoped to resemble the plastic planking, which was hoped to resemble whitewashed wood planking, which was hoped to be more visible than wire, which was more easily strung than stone piled…stock-keeping is expensive.
Most areas still use standard 6ft wood fences; I don’t like the white plastic/vinyl since it’s hard to weedeat around and eventually it gets holes in it even weedeating at slow throttle
Might be more effective to wrap the owner/driver in hardware cloth and made immobile, then leave them on a red ant nest.
Too bad they didn’t mount a camera down there so we could see those PVC planks ripped into sharp spikes that are braced into the ground piercing through the radiators.
It’s like one of those traps the Viet Cong were really good at.
Punji sticks.
That’s the ones.
The world would be better off with fewer Wank Panzers AND less vinyl fencing.
This seems like a step in the right direction.
eta: I’d like to see an incEl Camino with a chunk of snow fence screwed to the front end like the illustration above! I’ve only seen a few in the wild, and three of them were a few days ago around Milwaukee (in West Allis & Wauwatosa, and on I-94). One was wrapped in a dark bluish-green, and it looked even worse than the original.
What’s wrong with vinyl fencing?
Be honest, are you a termite?
Why would/should anyone use plastic as a fence material in the first place?
Wood rot for one. Then there’s termites and other wood destroying creatures to worry about. Squirrels love to chew on wood fences.
Add to that deforestation concerns (out west we like Redwood for fencing and the best old growth trees are long gone), lower maintainence since color infused plastic doesn’t need paint, cost, splinters, fire, ease of construction, etc.
There are lots of reasons to think plastic is fantastic.
Let me assure you squirrels will chew vinyl fencing, wood fencing, aluminum fence ties and cable ties. Fuck all the squirrels.
Yes, yes, let the hate flow through you.
And their little burrowing chipmunk cousins too. Little rat bastards.
Ever built a fence? Wood lasts longer, and ages far more gracefully in sunlight than plastic or vinyl does. It doesn’t have to be redwood, and it’s a hell of a lot more sustainable to keep growing trees than it is to keep making things out of oil.
Are you a plastic fence salescritter? Because that’s about the only good reason to defend that shit.
Ever built a fence?
Yes, I have built a fence. Also decks. I’ve never gotten a splinter from plastic. I’ve yet to see a plastic anything ruined by termites or rot.
Wood lasts longer, and ages far more gracefully in sunlight than plastic or vinyl does.
Wood used outdoors can only last with constant maintenance. Plastic can be immersed water, even salt and heavily chlorinated pool water and ignored for decades with no ill effects. Wood soaked in water or buried in dirt will quickly be chewed by termites.
It doesn’t have to be redwood, and it’s a hell of a lot more sustainable to keep growing trees than it is to keep making things out of oil.
I’d rather use those trees to make housing. Wood is fine as long as its kept under a roof. Plastic fences need not be made out of oil, vinyl can be melted down and recycled so make new plastic fences out of old plastic fences, water pipes or other discarded plastics.
The best you can do with an old termite chewed wood fence is turn the best bits into birdhouses and burn the rest.
Are you a plastic fence salescritter? Because that’s about the only good reason to defend that shit.
No, just someone who patched up a wood fence yesterday because it has rotted.
Nonsense. I have a wood deck and wood trim on part of my house and they both look like garbage about one season after being restained (which they need at least once a year or they look really bad). The vinyl trim I put up on my barn five years ago still looks like the day it was installed and has required zero maintenance. I’ll never use real wood for anything outdoors ever again if I can possibly help it.
You must live in the mildest and dryest of climates. Wood sucks.We used it because there were no other alternatives – today there are.
You can’t even use the GOOD wood preservatives anymore “it’s bad for the environment”. I think termites actually like the taste of the modern crap.
Yeah, southern Vermont & Seattle – two of the mildest, dryest places to be found.
Neither place known for termites, and Seattle is the definition of mild. Try again in Florida and get back to me. I bought the nastiest treated wood post I could legally get for a mailbox, and it didn’t last five years. The plastic replacement is like new at the same age, as is my plastic fence after 10. Zero maintenance, set and forget.
Keep moving those plastic goalposts.
I don’t need to move them, they last forever. <shrug>
“plastic is fantastic”
So you know the Barbie Girl?
Intimately.
At least with the AMC Hornet, the rusted out muffler would tear off and that would make it even cooler.
It’s the fight club thing about repressed masculinity, consumerism, violence and identity in modern culture. You aren’t what you buy, so you show off your independence by blowing money on something nice to break.
Honestly, that movie was made twenty five years too early. Would be fantastic social commentary today.
(And I’ll throw in the /s for anyone who points out it’s a book. Yes, it’s a book. None of those idiots can read.)
It was spot-on when it was written. Far too many bros (and others, to be fair) missed entirely that it was satire, and not a guidebook for life.
That always struck me as weird, because Chuck Palahniuk is not a subtle writer.
A lot of people still think Starship Troopers is just about people fighting giant bugs too. You can lead a horse to water, and all that.
Though I do think the commentary would be slightly different if it were made today – for these guys, it’s about creating an ersatz society filled with aptly-named followers. If it weren’t for social media, most of the destruction wouldn’t take place at all.
It’d be a mashup of Palahniuk and Andy Warhol sensibilities now.
“You aren’t what you buy, so you show off your independence by blowing money on something nice to break.”
In a real world fight club the “something nice” would be teeth.
At least the fence is recyclable. The truck, not so much. Maybe Tesla should have built it out of plastic.
I bet it would survive regular washing better if it were plastic.
I was always intrigued by Bricklin’s idea of a plastic body with the color molded in, so scratches could just be buffed out and a faded finish could be restored with a heat gun. Maybe that would have been a better failed gullwing sports car scam to emulate
That’s what makes the Barbie Jeep a classic!
Making a Teslero? A Tesaturn? A Teslabant?
Yay the internet, peak of human achievement and technology…
Friend of mine upstate New York had some problems with people doing that with fences, which is a thing apparently dating back to the 1980s at least. When he rebuild it, he buried a couple pieces of railroad rail so that they were about 5 feet underground and 3 feet above ground mixed in with the regular fence posts. Plucked the rear axle clean off the next time.
U-posts or rebar will help reinforce those plastic fence posts lol
Landmines.
Perhaps this fix can be incorporated in the wrap a Cybertruck is bound to get to cover up it’s cheap surface rusting stainless steel.
Ooooh, look at Mr. Fancy-Pants with his “washers”!!
And the rich guy sheet metal screws!
Drywall screws would be the proper fix here.
Going viral is hard.
Staying hard is even viraler.
Why, no, I don’t always like the things I say and post, why do you ask?
Let’s talk about rust-proofing. These Colecos will rust up on you like that.
Shut up, Gil! Close the deal, close the deal!
I’m learnding