The Cybertruck failed a YouTuber's bulletproof test
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- YouTuber JerryRigEverything put Elon Musk's claims that the Cybertruck is bulletproof to the test.
- The truck could withstand shots from a handgun, but couldn't fend off faster weapons.
- Musk has hyped up the Cybertruck's rugged nature since its debut in 2019.
The Cybertruck might not be as bulletproof as Elon Musk has advertised.
Zach Nelson, known for his YouTube channel JerryRigEverything, put the vehicle to the test. In a video that was uploaded on Friday, Nelson shot the electric pickup truck with a series of guns, including an AR-15 and .50-caliber rifle.
"Nothing is actually bulletproof. There's always going to be a bigger bullet, but today we are going to see scientifically where that line gets drawn," Nelson said in the video.
The Cybertruck was able to survive shots from a 9 mm handgun and a .22-caliber rifle which left small dents in the metal. However, Nelson noted the truck's metal cracked if the shots landed too close together on the metal.
The truck took on more damage, however, when Nelson brought in some faster weapons, including a .17-caliber rifle, as well as an AR-15 and .50-caliber gun. The video from the .50-caliber gun shows the shot flying through the car door — which Nelson left open to avoid damaging the truck's interior — and taking a nickel-sized chunk out of the metal. The metal also cracked all the way through when Nelson fired the .223-caliber AR-15 at the vehicle.
While the truck didn't prove entirely bulletproof, Nelson said he was still impressed by its durability.
"The truck is still in one piece," Nelson said in the video. "There's a few ventilation holes now, but, overall, I am very satisfied with how bullet -resistant the Cybertruck is. It works on 9 millimeter, .22. Anything faster than that and there's gonna be a hole, but still slowing down a bullet is infinitely better than letting it pass through both sides of the vehicle."
Notably, a .50-caliber rifle is an incredibly high-powered weapon. A single round from a .50-caliber Browning Machine Gun could "knock down hovering helicopters, penetrate armored limousines," according to The Small Arms Review.
An auto expert previously told InsideEVs, that the Cybertruck will likely be able to deflect weapons that have a lower velocity like a pistol or a Tommy Gun, but it won't be able to withstand faster weapons, like a .223 AR-15. — which can fire bullets at a speed of around 3,000 feet per second, more than three times as fast as a Tommy Gun. (During the vehicle's delivery event in November, Tesla also shared a video of the truck surviving a round of bullets from a .45-caliber Tommy Gun.)
Nelson and a spokesperson for Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Since the Cybertruck was first announced in 2019, Musk has hyped up the rugged nature of the truck, claiming the vehicle would be entirely bulletproof.
When Musk first revealed the Cybertruck in 2019 he attempted to demonstrate the vehicle's "armor glass" windows by having Tesla's design boss throw a metal ball at the Cybertruck's window. At the time, the glass immediately broke on contact with the metal ball. Musk later said on social media that a prior test had compromised the window.
"Sledgehammer impact on door cracked base of glass, which is why steel ball didn't bounce off," Musk wrote on X. "Should have done steel ball on window, then sledgehammer the door."
During an interview with Joe Rogan in 2023, Musk said that the standard Cybertruck wouldn't have bulletproof glass, but the stainless steel doors would still be thick enough to stop a bullet. Musk said Tesla would also offer a version of the truck with thicker fixed-pane glass windows.