Tesla Cybertruck Completes Epic 4,500-Mile Cross-Country Journey With No Issues

A Tesla Cybertruck owner shares his thoughts about the truck after owning it for a week and driving it 4,500 miles across the country.

You are probably thinking that’s an insane amount of miles in just one week and we agree. If he maintained that weekly mileage over the course of the first year, then the Cybertruck would have 234,000 miles on it by this time next year. However, that’s unlikely to happen.

The Cybertruck featured here is owned by Kyle Conner from YouTube’s Out of Spec channel. He took delivery of the vehicle and almost immediately set out on a race across the country against some other electric pickup trucks (more details on this will be available soon).

Ahead of the big cross-country electric pickup truck race news comes this one-week ownership review of the Cybertruck Cyberbeast. Typically, one week behind the wheel might provide you with a few hundred miles of new truck experience, but here we are talking about 4,500 miles, so what does Kyle think of his new Cybertruck?

He took delivery of the truck in Jacksonville, Florida and drove it to San Diego, California and then back to Colorado. Here are some of the key takeaways in bullet point form:

• Eye-catching and unique but draws way too much attention
• Not a good-looking vehicle
• Very quick. Faster than Kyle’s own quad-motor Rivian R1T
• Tesla’s estimated 300 or so miles of range is way over-exaggerated
• The real-world highway range is just over 200 miles
• 250-260 miles estimated combined range
• Claimed to be the world’s toughest truck, but Tesla says don’t leave bugs on it. What!?!?
• The stainless steel’s finish looks very uneven. It gets both hot and cold, depending on outdoor conditions.
• Looks better dirty than clean.
• The rear camera gets dirty easily and basically doesn’t function after accumulating too much grime. Lacks a washer.
• The power tonneau and vault (truck bed) are some of the truck’s best features. Power tonneau operates much better than the one on the Rivian R1T.
• The tonneau cover can only be operated a certain amount of times (3 to 4) within a given time period or it might overheat and stop working. The vehicle warns you of this.
• Can’t CCS charge unless you remove the rear cladding around the wheel well
• Love that you can charge other electric cars right from the truck bed with the proper NEMA 14-50 connector
• No spare tire, while most other electric trucks do have a spare tire
• The single wiper blade works well but it’s ugly and there isn’t enough windshield washer fluid dispensed
• Headlights are not bright enough and snow can completely cover the lights
• Frunk is small but its low-access height is convenient
• Access into and out of the trunk is great
• Really amazing software with zero glitches/faults
• Steer-by-wire is incredible in normal driving but it’s not good for sporty driving.
• The phone charger is a terrible design that doesn’t charge the phone well
• The ride is too firm
• Stability control can’t be turned off or down
• The sound system is amazing
• Interior quality is great
• There’s that tonneau cover/rearview mirror issue
• Averaging under 2 miles per kW
• Fast charging speeds should be improved (not as strong of a charging curve as other electric vehicles out there)

We can’t say that Kyle is overly impressed by the Cybertruck but he doesn’t seem to view it very negatively either. Aside from its range falling quite short of what’s advertised and fast charging not where it needs to be, the Cybertruck seems to be about average.

It needs some improvements, which it will probably get over time (the charging has already been improved since the truck launched), to be as good as the other Teslas out there, but even then some issues will remain. For example, the hard-to-clean exterior that’s often either very hot or very cold can’t be fixed with a software update. And the small frunk likely won’t get bigger.

What are your thoughts on Kyle’s takeaways after driving the Cybertruck across the country?