It was meant to be a triumph of engineering, a showcase of Elon Musk’s latest off-road marvel. Instead, a Cybertruck driver’s attempt to ‘wade’ across a Scottish loch has ended in arrest, a submerged truck, and a fresh wave of scrutiny over Tesla’s marketing claims. The scene at Loch Shin in Sutherland resembled an absurdist art installation more than a rescue operation: a hulking stainless-steel wedge, half-sunk in peat-brown water, while police and recovery teams looked on.
The driver, a 34-year-old man from Inverness, now faces charges of reckless driving and causing a hazard. But the real spectacle lies in the question that has dogged the Cybertruck since its launch: can it actually do what Tesla says it can? The ‘wade mode’ function, which raises the suspension and pressurises the battery pack, is advertised as allowing the truck to ford water up to 32 inches deep.
The loch at the point of entry is shallow by local standards, barely 2 feet at the shore. Yet the Cybertruck veered off course, hit a drop-off, and began to sink. Eyewitnesses described a ‘surreal’ few minutes as the driver tried to reverse, only for the wheels to spin uselessly.
‘It wasn’t wading. It was drowning,’ said a fisherman who watched from the bank. The driver, he added, ‘seemed more concerned about his phone than the truck.
’ This is not a one-off mishap. In the US, amateur videos show Cybertrucks struggling in sand and snow, and Tesla has issued recalls for accelerator pedals and windscreen wipers. But the UK has been slower to confront the Cybertruck’s quirks, partly because it is not sold here officially.
The vehicle is imported as a private ‘show and display’ or through grey-market dealers. The Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency (DVSA) now says it will investigate whether Tesla’s wade mode claims breach the Trade Descriptions Act. ‘If a product is marketed as able to do something, and it cannot, that is misleading,’ a spokesperson told me.
‘We are looking into the specific technical claims.’ For the residents of Lairg, the nearest village, the incident has become a cautionary tale about tech hubris. ‘We have been pulling cars out of this loch for fifty years.
Mostly drunk tourists. But this was different,’ said a local recovery operator. ‘This was arrogance.
He believed the computer would save him.’ The driver has been released on bail pending further inquiries. His Tesla, now a very expensive paperweight, sits in a police compound.
The water has damaged the battery and electronics beyond simple repair. Meanwhile, the social media timeline fills with memes: the Cybertruck, it seems, has become the perfect symbol for our age of overpromised technology. But beneath the laughter lies a serious point.
As we outsource trust to algorithms and automated systems, when does a feature become a fairytale? And who pays the price when reality submerges the hype? The lakeside spectators have already moved on, but the ripples from this sinking will spread.
The DVSA’s ruling, expected in weeks, could set a precedent for how the UK treats tech companies’ marketing. And perhaps, for once, we might see a regulatory framework that puts consumer safety before Silicon Valley sales pitches. In the meantime, avoid using wade mode on anything deeper than a puddle.
Or better still, as the locals say, just don’t drive into a loch.
