Aside from a MAGA hat, there is likely no object that feels more emblematic of US president Donald Trump’s return to the White House than the Tesla Cybertruck. The blunt angles and steel doors look futuristic, for sure, but only if the future looks a lot like RoboCop. To some, it’s a metallic status symbol. To others, it’s fascism on wheels. Either way, heads turn.
Cybertruck owners see things differently. “To me, it’s just a vehicle that I love,” says Andrew Castillo, a stock trader from Los Angeles. “It has no political affiliations at all to me.”
We’re standing in the parking lot of McCormick’s Palm Springs Classic Car Auctions. All around us, a dozen Cybertruck owners—and their cars—bake in the 100 degree heat. They’ve arrived for a meetup organized by Michael Goldman, who runs the 53,000-person Facebook group Cybertruck Owners Only. Though suspicious of the media, they’re eager to set the record straight about the car that they love. WIRED is here to learn how it feels to be out in public in such a politically charged vehicle. Has the past year or so changed anyone’s minds about owning the truck? Do owners like the attention—or are they adding bumper stickers decrying Elon Musk?
As we’re talking, a woman drives by in a small sedan. “Your cars are fucking ugly!” she screams before peeling off. Castillo smiles. “Some people just aren’t playing with a full deck of cards,” he says serenely.
Do they, though? It’s always looked to me like something from the background of a PS1 game, intended to give the impression of a moving vehicle but never seen close up.
I was irritated by this statement too, but the sentence continues with “but only if it looks like Robocop”.
I don’t know about the Robocop reference, but the author seems to agree that it’s merely pseudo futuristic. IMO in the worst, most absurd way possible.
Nah, it’s futuristic. It’s the embodiment of the future where car manufacturers sell you rust buckets full of tracking and make you pay way too much for it.
I’ve seen some wrapped ones that look neat though, and anyone who owns a Cybertruck and isn’t wrapping it is just wasting more money than they already did buying it.
In 1980, sure.