Tesla CEO Elon Musk's pride and joy CyberTruck has been plagued with problems ever since it launched in November 2023.
Now YouTuber Jeremy Judkins has found yet another alarming defect, this time with the car's "frunk," it's trunk at the front of the car, under the hood.
In a YouTube video, Judkins showed just how poorly the frunk's sensor works, even after a software update. Judkins seemed so confident it would work properly that he used his own finger as a test. It did not go well.
The car's frunk door sensor is supposed to stop the door from closing if there is an object in its way.
But several viral videos from owners showing the frunk crushing things like carrots proved this to not be true. This of course poses a major safety concern.
Tesla released a software update meant to fix the issue, so Judkins decided to put it to the test. He first used a banana and a cucumber, which worked great.
But with a carrot, the vegetable that started this whole uproar in the first place, he got similar results as before: the frunk snapped it in two.
At his viewers' request, he finally used his finger, and got terrifying results. The frunk kept right on closing, and Judkins had a moment of panic that he will not be able to get his finger out.
As he put it later in the video after he had extricated himself:
“I feared for my finger for a second, not gonna lie... “I was kind of trapped... Luckily, it detected resistance and opened.”
Judkins has since tested the frunk with his toes and gotten similar results.
DO NOT close the Tesla Cybertruck Frunk on your toesyoutu.be
the CyberTruck has been plagued with problems since its release, including leaking in the rain, rusting on its supposedly stainless steel exterior, and a terrifying gas pedal defect that can result in the pedal sticking in the fully deployed position.
And Judkins' experiment touched off a whole new round of eyerolls and mockery about the CyberTruck.
Tesla does not appear to have made any official response to the frunk controversy, but Judkins did share a snippy response he received from a Tesla engineer who basically blamed the frunk defect on Judkins himself.
@jeremyjudkins2 Replying to @SkyBanks A Cybertruck engineer at Tesla said I did this entire experiment incorrectly. #tesla #cybertruck #teslacybertruck
The engineer explained that due to the way the frunk's software algorithm works, Judkins was actually teaching the frunk to continue closing on his finger instead of teaching it not to.
With all due respect, that sounds like an engineering issue—and an extremely stupid one—that a customer shouldn't have to worry about at all, let alone in a car that starts at nearly $82,000.
Leave it to Elon Musk to hire the kind of chuckleheads who blame a potentially disfiguring defect on drivers being too dumb to know how to properly game an algorithm in a car's software.
Guess you need a software engineering degree to operate a car now. Good to know!
