- A man has died in the first fatal accident involving a Tesla Cybertruck.
- The EV apparently lost control, crashed into a concrete culvert and burst into flames.
- Emergency services declared the driver dead and are investigating the crash.
The Tesla Cybertruck has passed another milestone, but this one is nothing to celebrate. On Sunday night in Texas one man become the first person to die in an accident involving the angular EV.
News reports say an unnamed Cybertruck owner was driving his electric pickup near Beach City in Chambers County, Texas, on Sunday night when he lost control. Why he lost control isn’t known, but the truck veered off the road and crashed into a concrete culvert before bursting into flames, ABC13 reports.
Related: Whistlin Diesel Snaps Tesla Cybertruck Frame In Viral “Durability” Test
Images showing the aftermath of the fire reveal nothing but a charred wreck, and sadly the driver appears to have been caught up in the inferno. He was declared dead at the scene, though we don’t yet know if he died before the fire, or even before the impact, perhaps as the result of a medical episode. Emergency services have also so far refused to release the name of the driver.
Most conversations following a Tesla crash revolve around whether or not the driver had Autopilot or Full Self Driving engaged, but neither is relevant here because the Cybertruck isn’t currently available with either technology. There is no Auto Steer function of the kind offered on other Teslas, meaning the nearest Cybertrucks get to autonomy is an adaptive cruise control system.
Did the driver engage this at the time of the crash thinking it could also steer? Or was there some kind of technical malfunction? In April Tesla recalled thousands of Cybertrucks because of a risk of the accelerator pads becoming dislodged and potentially interfering with the pedals.
Police investigators haven’t indicated a possible cause for the crash yet and are still carrying out their investigation. No doubt Tesla will also be working hard to get to the bottom of why the Cybertruck left the road and then burst into flames.
Though this is the first fatal crash involving a Cybertruck it’s by far the first time one of the EVs has been wrecked. The truck’s maiden crash happened in December 2023 when only a few of the EVs had made their way into owners hands, and last month alone we reported on two different accident in which Cybertrucks had rolled over.
