Doomsday Preppers Say the Cybertruck Is a Horrible Choice for the End of the World

Prior to its release, Elon Musk touted Tesla's futuristic-looking Cybertruck as "apocalypse-proof" — but the reality, according to those who are prepping for the actual end times, falls far from that mark.

As The Guardian reports, survivalist types have grown concerned that Musk's supposedly indestructible, fully electric truck is not only easy to damage, but also has become too negative a status symbol.

The Cybertruck's blocky aesthetic has, as Slate noted in a recent deep dive, become tied to policing and security in a similar manner to the Cassipir armored trucks that patrolled apartheid South Africa when Musk was a boy. With that evocative look — and that's putting it far too kindly — comes the kind of undue attention that, frankly, anyone looking to survive war zones simply would not want.

To the mind of Arthur Bradley, a NASA engineer and "prepper" hobbyist, the reputational damage Musk has done to Tesla and the Cybertruck specifically may make it a dangerous vehicle to drive when the world ends.

"There’s no doubt it’s a heavy-duty vehicle that can take some punishment, even from small arms fire," Bradley told The Guardian. "But you can’t weigh the pros without also asking: 'Are people shooting at me because they think I’m an idiot or a bad guy, or they don't support my political views — or they don’t support me supporting this company?'"

Beyond its optics of it all, the Cybertruck keeps proving to be really shoddily made, despite Musk's promises of its durability.

From the dad who was recently made a laughingstock at his ten-year-old's little league game when the "frunk" wouldn't open to the Wall Street Journal reporter who, alongside his teen daughter, slid off a hill when attempting to take a Cybertruck off-roading, these stainless steel behemoths appear to withstand far less than their normier-looking counterparts.

"We took it on class three and class four trails, which it is technically capable of," that WSJ reporter, Pulitzer-winner Dan Neil, wrote in early 2024. "But it’s also 2ft wider than any trail at any national park could generally accommodate. That’s the part I don't get. It’s definitely an on-road car."

When it comes to EVs that can actually handle dire scenarios, one need look no further than Rivian, one of Tesla's major competitors. After the horrible Hurricane Helene hit Western North Carolina last fall, one Rivian owner who now considers himself a "convert" from his former Tesla fanboying was not only able to survive the stormwaters himself, but also help his neighbors affected by the "worst-case scenario" storm.

To some, one of the most overlooked issues facing the Cybertruck's potential to navigate future catastrophes is its many technical bells and whistles. To professional prepper Daisy Luther, a former automotive executive who went into the doomsday biz full-time after the 2008 financial collapse, any electric car will become a liability if there's lots of tech necessary to fix it.

"I generally recommend that if someone is getting a vehicle to last them through some kind of apocalyptic situation that it have as few computer chips and electronics as possible," Luther, who herself drives an old Jeep for such purposes, told The Guardian. "I can do small repairs on something mechanical, but I can’t do anything that requires a computer flash or a satellite upgrade because I don’t have the equipment."

If you're looking for reasons not to purchase a Cybertruck, there are many — and if apocalypse-proofing is a selling point, you'd seemingly be better off buying literally anything else.

More on Cybertruck: Man Rents Cybertruck, Counts How Many Times He Gets Flipped Off in a Single Day

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