I Hit Another Car While Driving A Tesla Cybertruck, But In A Weird Way I Didn’t Expect

Cybertruck Backup Goof Ts3
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A full review of the Tesla Cybertruck is coming in hot. But until then, I have to give you a few nuggets from my couple of days with the stainless steel origami-truck, just to hold you over. Today’s blurb is about an incident that was entirely my fault as I’m sure Tesla fans will remind me 9,000 times even though I’m admitting it right now. It involved me backing into a parking spot, and hitting another car because of something I just didn’t account for.

I really can’t wait to tell you more about my experience driving the Cybertruck, but right now I’m in a shuttle near Palm Springs, CA, heading to the first-drive event for the 2024 Ford F-150. It’s basically a mid-cycle refresh that brings some new styling and a wacky tailgate, but it’s an important truck for America, so I gotta be here.

I guess I’ll jump the Raptor in the desert for you, dear reader. But only for you.

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Anyway, this shuttle ride is going to be short, and I’m about to lose internet in the desert, so I only have time to tell a short story, and this one — like so many of the stories I tell — involves me becoming victim of my own stupidity.

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You may have read my article “I Had A Tesla Cybertruck For The Weekend. Here’s Why I Ended Up Driving My BMW i3 Instead.” This wasn’t a comparison between the i3 and Cybertruck, it was more of a discussion about a new concept I coined “Subconscious Comfort.” Give that a read if you haven’t. Or don’t. Either way, the article involves me returning the Cybertruck to the Galpin Ford parking lot so I could instead drive my BMW i3, which I find more “subconsciously comfortable.” Unfortunately, the Cybertruck was low on charge, and I didn’t want to just return the vehicle to the dealership with no juice, so I tried backing up into an EV parking spot. It was tight.

Dt Spot 2

If you look carefully at this admittedly subpar photo I took, you can see a Kia EV6 and a Volvo (I think) behind it. Between the Kia and Volvo is a parking spot. The problem is that on the right side of that photo is another line of parked cars, so trying to back into the narrow spot without hitting the vehicles on the right side of that alley wasn’t easy.

The Cybertruck’s four-wheel steering reduces its steering radius rather dramatically, making the truck relatively nimble. Relatively. The thing is still a big truck, and no turning radius is going to change that, so as I tried squeezing between the Kia and Volvo, I had a hard time getting lined up so that I could enter the spot parallel to the lines.

The Cybertruck is outfitted with a bunch of cameras meant to help out in this type of scenario. When you back up, you can see directly behind, and you can see what’s going on on the left and ride sides behind you:

Ct Screen

 

I was looking at these cameras, and at the mirrors, which are nicely sized and work quite well, and things seemed to be going OK. “With these cameras,” I should be good, I thought as I tried inching into this spot. With my right index finger, I slid the shifter (which you can see on the top left of the screen above — it’s possibly the worst shifter in industry history, but it does function, so there’s that) forward, made adjustments, then slid it back, and slowly watched my right side as it narrowly cleared the Kia EV6 on my right.

I was staring at my right mirror intently, making sure I kept away from that Kia, as things were really tight there given the angle at which I had to back into that parking spot. I made small steering adjustments and slowly crept, inch by inch, into the spot. When my right rear tire was just next to the EV6’s front bumper, I decided I needed to adjust my heading.

So I cranked the steering wheel and put the Cybertruck into Drive. Then, just as I began to drive, I glanced in the passenger mirror…

CRAPPPPP!

My eyes widened, and my heart sank. I had somehow run into the EV6! I’d been so careful to keep a gap between the Cybertruck and it, and now I was actively running into it. What the heck?!

Ct Scuff

 

Just as I was chewing up the Kia Ev6 with the Cybertruck, a Galpin employee walked in my direction, likely saw the struggle on my face, and helped me navigate out of my predicament. I then parked, and returned to the Kia to see what you see above.

Luckily, the only part of the Cybertruck that had hit the Kia was that big 35-inch rear passenger’s side tire’s sidewall, which — luckily — someone had completely slathered in Armor All.

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The Kia EV6’s owner, also a Galpin employee, happened to grab something out of his car shortly after this incident, so I showed him what had happened. He snagged a microfiber towel and just wiped away the grease from the tire. “I don’t see any damage. Looks fine to me,” he said. I handed him my card just to be sure, but it does appear that somehow I got away with murder. And by murder, I really mean my own inability to account for the Cybertruck’s rear-wheel steering.

Ct Tire Pokeout

 

I think, intuitively, all drivers are used to accounting for their front wheels steering. If you parallel park right next to a curb, you’re probably not going to crank the wheel all the way when you drive off; otherwise, your wheel will hit. When you’re parking nose-first into a tight spot, your front tires rarely get that close to another vehicle because by the time your car’s face has cleared the vehicle next to you, it pretty much guarantees plenty of space between your wheel and the car in the other spot. But when you back up, it’s fairly typical to have a really narrow gap between your car and the car next to you — a gap that you increase as you back up and then crank the wheel to straighten up, pulling your vehicle’s front end away from the neighboring vehicle.

With the Cybertruck, you just have to be mindful of this gap. Because if, like me, you crank your wheel to straighten out, you’ll also be cranking those rear wheels. I’m not 100% sure that the truck that I drove had its rear steering angle upped from 3 degrees to 10 degrees via Tesla’s software update, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it had.

Anyway, I got away with this one, but boy did I feel like a fool accidentally “rear-steering” into another car.

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Jason Torchinsky

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143 thoughts on “I Hit Another Car While Driving A Tesla Cybertruck, But In A Weird Way I Didn’t Expect”

  1. “Danger Zone” is the perfect soundtrack for the CT, no other song oozes as much fake coolness. It’s the official song of trying look badass but not fooling anyone.

  2. I still can’t get over that people wait anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour and a half just to put a charge in the vehicle. Whatever vehicle.

    1. Pretty much the same thought process guys on horses had about their peers adding petrol and filing the points on their Model T.

      We all know how that turned out.

      1. A horse takes a lot more time to care for than filling gas, or charging an EV

        You could daily a Hummer EV with a 150 mile commute each way and it would still be better than shoveling horse shit

    2. Why do you go out of your way to fill your vehicle with fuel and breathe exhaust that causes you heart disease and other ailments? I know a few commuters that charge their car at home and it only takes them 10 seconds.

    3. When I read about how much fun people have exploring stores and such while their car charges, it sounds like someone in an abusive relationship saying that getting hit must be their fault.

      I wouldn’t want an EV unless I had a home charger. A real one. But then it would be awesome!

    4. I mean you have to drive all the way to a gas station to fuel up when I can just plug my Bolt in from my driveway. Sure my once a year road trip is less convenient, but you’re inconveniencing yourself every time you fuel up. You’re just used to it so you don’t even think about it to care

  3. “The screen isn’t working and I can’t operate my vehicle” Nobody who has a car with logical user interface systems will have this issue.

    1. They just announced FSD for the CT in a June software update. I’m actually surprised, I didn’t think they’d release any kind of autonomous driving capabilities for their class-action lawsuit on wheels. But I guess that’s what pure, unfiltered Elon management looks like.

      FSD in the hands of Cybertruck owners, can you imagine? Could well be the final nail in Tesla’s coffin. This thing with FSD screams Murdermobile.

  5. Bummer David, tight squeeze!
    I like tail in parking as it’s easier to leave but it’s not for all.. some folks struggle.
    Really I just do it to turn back and look at my truck cause she pretty and thicc too

  6. My local Tesla showroom has a CT on display. Also saw a customer CT pull in with an issue. Just a wildly impractical vehicle after sitting in it. The front seats are great. But anyone above 5’10” or so will hate life in the back seat. There’s no head room. The frunk is tiny. But the bed does have that neat tonneau cover. Which blocks the rearview mirror, BTW. And that stainless does indeed have some sharp edges on points people may contact.

    Neat idea, would have been a good limited production toy until the Roadster 2.0 comes out in 20never. But lots of compromises of function for design.

  7. I think I see the rub on the tire at about 3 o’clock on the tire? And I will now add what I am gonna ad to all my posts.
    I hate the video window that can’t be closed. Please stop.

    1. Yeah I despise that auto playing video. And it kept turning itself back on after being paused too. Luckily my adblocker was able to remove it.

  8. This is tangential, but it makes me glad to be at a place where I can confidently say that EVERYONE here would absolutely leave a note if they hit a parked car.

    I’m not an “in my day…” kinda guy (white onions notwithstanding…damn Kaiser), but the seeming lack of this among the general population these days is concerning.

    3. It obviously depends on the country or state, but there are places where leaving a note can net you a hit-and-run charge. To avoid that, you have to find the owner or contact the police before leaving the scene of the accident.

  9. I know you’re Mr Sarcastic, and there’s a good chance you’re saying this just to be funny and sarcastic.

    But it’s legitimately hard to tell, and it’s not really funny even if you’re not serious.

  12. Tangentially OT but why won’t everyone do tail-in parking? It’s so much easier to line up correctly and so much safer when leaving the parking spot.

    2. I would agree with you, but in my experience very few people can confidently reverse into a spot. I have lost days of my life waiting for idiots to creep a millimeter at a time in reverse. If you can’t back into a stall in less than 10 seconds, just pull in nose first.

    3. Some of us drive vehicles with barn doors that needs a 3ft radius. At least that’s my excuse, I can’t explain the others that don’t back in/pull through.

    4. Tail in parking sucks unless you are driving something so big it requires it to maneuver into a parking place. If you back in you have to pull past the parking place, stop, then back up… and its not always clear to cars behind you what you are doing. And backing into a narrow parking place requires being slow and very careful because both vision and control are compromised.

      Pulling in forward is much faster and easier, you can easily see both sides of the car in the parking spot, and the car is going to go where the front wheels are pointing. When you are backing out of a space, you are moving the hardest to see and control part of the car out of the narrow parking space and into more open space – which is better than doing the opposite.

      I understand the argument for better vision of cross traffic when leaving the space nose first, I just don’t think its a problem in most parking situations.

      1. Bingo. Tail in parking is way less efficient in places where time actually does matter (parking lots with lots of people), and in those cases, cross traffic isn’t moving very fast.

        I am sympathetic to how terrible rearward visibility is getting in our contemporary vehicles, but most crossovers still do have side-rear windows one can attempt to use.

      2. According to insurance data, backing up accounts for about 1 mile of annual driving and yet accounts 25-30% of all accidents. I trust the insurance people on this one.

        1. Backing into a parking space is still backing up.

          But tail-in parking means you are almost always backing into a narrow space between two cars rather than a mostly open lane area.

          1. To clarify, backing up into traffic is the dangerous part of backing and results in the bulk of backing accidents. I suspect that you understand that parking lots aren’t “mostly open lane area.”

            1. Compared to having 2 cars that are 18″ or less away from both sides of your car for the entire length of the backing maneuver, the lane behind you in a parking lot is “mostly open”.

              When a parking lot is busy, people are looking for people leaving and will stop to give you room to back out. They are not expecting the car in front of them to suddenly stop then need room to back up. There are hazards either way.

              And it would be interesting to see how those statistics are generated. Do they account for the percentage of people who back in vs. those that back out? What about parking lot hit and runs where someone backing into a parking place drags against an empty car and then leaves?

    5. How do you load the Costco 12-ct paper towel pack, et al. with your trunk backed right up to another car? There’s a reason back-in parking isn’t a big thing in the land of wholesalers and gigantic parking lots.

    7. I find people backing into parking spots absolutely infuriating. They often take way longer than anyone else, slowly inching into the spot, taking up the entire lane so they’re holding up traffic for ages.

      Maybe you’re good at it, but I have groaned and swore under my breath at so many people.

      1. One of my favorite subtle Mike Judge moments: Beavis and Butt-Head occasionally “help” an older neighbor with a southern accent, who’s the archetype of the American boomer with very traditional values and strongly held old-school opinions and behaviors. In one episode, he pulls up in his car and BACKS INTO HIS DRIVEWAY. The animators didn’t have to do that. He could have parked on the street or pulled into the driveway like a normal person. But they had him back in because he’s an uncool old-fashioned man who’s stuck in his ways.

    8. The only people that need to reverse into spots are criminals or naer-do-wells trying to hide their plate/identity. The rest of ’em are masochists.

      It’s much harder to do accurately and often times results in the ass end/truck nuts looming over an area where they have no business or permission. Which, in this day and age, will get you canceled quicker than Kevin Spacey.

      Nobody wants to be Kevin Spacey. That’s why.

      1. When im trying to get my (single cab, not even that big) F150 into the weirdy small parking spaces at my small town grocery store, I need to reverse into a parking spot. For larger vehicles in cramped parking lots, it is frequently the only option.

      2. I drive a lifted E350 van for work, and back in whenever I possibly can as I don’t know what traffic/conditions will be when leaving. It’s old and doesn’t have backup cameras.
        And, from years of DDing for friends & family, I back my personal cars in as well—usually near the entrance. I’ve learned it pays to always have an exit strategy if things get unruly. It’s not about the M badge and we have front plates here: I just want to be able to GTFO quickly if I decide it’s time to call it. This has proven helpful in the past

    10. You know I hate to admit this, but I’m 57 now and I’m just not as good at it as I was when I worked at service stations. Back then I could instantly maneuver any car to within an inch. Not no more, that’s for sure.

      But the biggest reason usually don’t back in is to preserve ready access to the tailgate or trunk.

      1. I’m the same way. I used to work as a dealership technician and customer cars were always backed in two deep. Not so much anymore is right.

    11. People just don’t get it. I went to pull through a space this week with my van and as I bobbed left to make the right turn into the space next to the cart return a Civic turns into my aisle cutting the corner and causing me to swing back to my side.

      No problem, I think to myself, I’ll just back in. So the Civic passes and I hit the right blinker, swing left and start my reverse.

      As I’m backing in a middle aged woman, we’ll call her … Carol. She whips in behind me in Ford Edge. I slow down to a respectable speed, have a backup camera and excellent mirrors.

      As I arrive at the end of the parking space (my van requires the FULL space) she lays on the horn, slams her car in reverse, and flips me off. Parks, and walks into the store without ever checking how close our cars got. There was always 3 feet or more in between the cars.

      People have no idea what size their cars are or where they end. If you don’t know that. You shouldn’t be backing in.

        1. Dad was indeed famous for leaving sporting events early. THAT is something I refuse to do. Unless it’s soccer. In that case, it’s time to go.

    14. Invariably I find my little Fit parked between two Suburbans when I come back to it. Without the back up camera, I would have lost its front end several times. No tail-in parking for me.

    15. Look, I agree. I take a lot of shit from my wife about it, but I also (for a variety of reasons I won’t go into here) daily an ’05 Escalade ESV. I’ve found that, unless I know I’m going to need access to the rear hatch, it’s well worth the extra 15 seconds it takes to reverse into a spot.

      My truck has largely useless rear parking sensors, and no backup camera at all, so it’s much less stressful to pull forward out of a space into a crowded parking area than it is to throw Big Booty Judy into reverse, cross my fingers, and start inching my way backward out of a space.

      It might be different if I could reasonably expect an approaching vehicle to pause and allow me to back out of my spot, but in the “Hooray for Me and F*ck You” world of 2024, that’s just no longer the case.

    16. Wrong. Backing out is way easier than backing in. I spend entirely too much time everyday waiting for people to inch their car backwards into a space in the parking garage. Why? Pull in forward, when you back out you’ve got an empty lane to back into instead of a tight parking space.

  14. To me, the absolutely ridiculous nature of the Cybertruck is what makes it kinda cool in a hilarious way. I can’t wait to see one lifted or better yet squatted. Just one though, wouldn’t want that to become a trend 🙂

  15. Someday, maybe, we will live in a world where car site comments sections aren’t regularly populated by people who think women are incapable of basic driving skills, like backing into a parking space.

    What a dream.

    1. “Now why not just pull in forward like the ladies”

      Your punchline is that David should have taken the easier approach to parking (pulling in instead of backing in) like women do. You are saying women can only do easier driving maneuvers that are “easier for the less experienced drivers.”

      Yes, you directly attacked women for being not as good at parking.
      No, this is not acceptable.

    2. Look, I don’t typically engage on these conversations because there isn’t much point when someone is clearly committed to not listening, but I’m going to respond because I’d like to see this site continue to be a place for diverse people, opinions, and ways of connecting with cars and the broader world. Maybe it’ll be helpful for someone else who’s ready to hear it.

      When you make fun of a dominant (or privileged) group by comparing them to harmful stereotypes of a marginalized group, you’re reinforcing those stereotypes. You aren’t punching up, or even horizontally–you’re punching down. Your joke is essentially, “David is not a ‘real man’ because, like a woman, he can’t back into a parking space”. It directly depends on your assertion that women are incapable drivers, an incredibly tired, and yes, sexist, position that really should be gone by now.

      It’s no different than the many, many car guys I have heard telling men they’re gay and not ‘real men’ because they choose to drive a small car, or a yellow car, or whatever. Again, in the same way, it depends on an assertion that gay men are necessarily feminine, and that masculinity is inherently superior. It’s misogynistic, it’s often homophobic, and I am genuinely over seeing it come up.

      I’m calling it out because shit like this is a big part of what keeps me from fully engaging in car communities. It’s constant, it’s widely prevalent, and it’s very often ignored (or worse, celebrated).

      I want this site to be better. I want people to be here and not be made to feel inferior. *I* want to be here and not feel inferior.

      I’m not white knighting for a ‘protected group’–I’m calling it out because this shit affects me. It affects how welcome I feel, it affects what opinions and thoughts I’m willing to share here. It matters.

      And fyi: it’s possible to make jokes about this stuff. I’m trans and make funny jokes about it all the time–I’m literally wearing my “Am Trans” pink and blue and white Trans Am firebird shirt right now. I just do it without shitting on trans people.

    2. You don’t shift using the touch screen in an S or 3 (and presumably the Y and X, though I haven’t driven either of those). The stalk to the right of the wheel is used for selecting gears.

      I have never driven a Cybertruck, but the Tesla products I have driven are far more normal than I think most people realize.

      1. Pretty sure the facelift (no, not the 2016 facelift, the 2021 facelift) S they also use the touchscreen shifter, along with all X’s past that point too. There are the redundant buttons up by the rearview mirror but still kind of crappy design. I hate swiping on touchscreens—probably why I’m on the computer all day instead of my phone.

        1. Ms Chao who drowned in a pond in her model X some weeks ago apparently drove into the pond partly because a shifter on a screen is pants.

        2. I have only driven older Teslas which had stalks. I just watched a few videos of new Teslas which confirm you are correct. That is very disappointing. I really like my Model 3 and find its controls to be intuitive. The new ones seem less so. I’m not sure I would like a new Model S given the control changes.

    3. This was my takeaway from this article, too.
      I mean, it was a fun read, but that’s definitely what stuck out like a sore swiping finger.

  19. Oh wow. That is a predicament with the rear-steering. I could see that happening to me … I mean, if I had such a vehicle, which I don’t and won’t. Glad you got away with one!

  21. Just in case you didn’t realize it, this is all your fault and had nothing to do with the truck!! /S/

    This is one of the issues with the shift to bigger and bigger vehicles. They need bigger parking spaces and wider aisles. This same type of thing could have happened in any vehicle based on how small those spots are compared with the vehicles wedged in there. Compound this with the fact that you have to back in because of the charging hookup and it’s just begging for this to happen.

      2. Guess it depends on where you are, around here (southern IN) most parking spaces are large enough to accommodate the biggest of vehicles. Makes parking my old Beetle a breeze, with multiple feet of clearance on either size.

        What’s fun is being in a small parking lot with small spaces, and watching people who have no idea how to handle their big vehicles try to navigate it. As I said most parking spaces around here are plenty big, so when they aren’t, some people really struggle. As long as my car isn’t near theirs, it’s usually good for a laugh. To be clear: there is a normal amount of maneuvering one has to do when navigating a space like that in a big vehicle. I’m not laughing at that, I’ve spent plenty of time driving big SUVs and trucks so I know how it is. It’s the sheer incompetence of people who have no idea what they’re doing that I find amusing.

      3. My building repainted the lot and cut everyone’s parking space down by like an inch or 2 each side so they could add in a few extra spaces ($$$). Sure cars fit in the spots but they do remember that we need to open the doors right?

        1. I once visited an insurance company’s headquarters and not only were the parking spaces nice and wide, but the stripes setting them apart were all 3′ wide as well with hash marks to let you know not to park in there. You could park next to someone and kick the doors on both sides open without worrying.

          This should be mandatory for all parking lots.

        1. Well locally it’s more about Trader Joe’s moving into the smallest existing parking lot possible, not a new small parking lot being built around Trader Joe’s.

        2. I work next to a Joe’s and my experience from frequently walking across that parking lot to grab a bag of spud crunchies or giant peruvian cornnuts is that the people shopping at Joe’s don’t have a lot of experience driving either. I always have to be quick on my feet.

        3. I think the TJ’s organization prides itself on finding retail spaces with the LEAST amount of parking possible. There is one on Market St in PHL with a comically small parking lot in which they have folks as parking attendants directing traffic to the next open spot. Never mind the fact that on a busy day, once you’re at the front door, you’re immediately in line for the register so your entire shopping trip is following the person in front of you up and down each aisle until you reach the registers

          1. AH I went to a TJs in Manhattan like that. Just one long line snaking through the entire store. Somehow kinda satisfying from an efficiency standpoint for store throughput.

                  1. Yeah, that tracks, I have a hunch that a much higher percentage of people on the UWS are completely unconcerned with frugality. Brings up an interesting question too, are NYU or Columbia students and faculty richer? For faculty it’s almost certainly Columbia, but for students I think NYU is less generous with scholarships than Columbia, so the students may skew wealthier.

              1. Yup, there are 8 in Manhattan alone. It’s pretty popular because it is one of the cheapest grocery stores in the city. Also, fun fact- Aldi and TJs are related, even though TJs is set up to have a “nicer” atmosphere and branding(at least vs US Aldi) they are similar in many ways.

          2. Is that an east coast thing? Every TJs in DC had the conga line for the registers too. I tried starting at the end of the line with an empty cart once and shopping as I advanced, but I kept losing my place in line.

            1. It’s just a factor of being one of the least expensive grocery stores in those dense and high cost of living cities. There are 8 TJs in Manhattan but that means they each still have multiple times larger customer base than most elsewhere. I’m sure the same applies for DC.

        4. Whole Foods are notorious for that as well. The one in New Orleans had frequent traffic jams and at least one situation where guns were drawn.

    1. Are forklifts as much fun to drive as they make them look in the ads for forklift certification classes? I’m burning out on IT work and so every year those ads look more and more appealing.

        1. Darn, my retirement plans are dashed. I guess what’s appealing to me is that when you leave the forklift at work you’re not laying in bed all night worried about Russians accessing your forklift.

          1. No, if my workplaces are any indication, the biggest worry you have is someone pranking you by shutting off the propane tank before you get on.

            1. See, that’s just good spirited fun but if I take down the website all of a sudden or email crashes then it’s “impacting revenue” ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

        2. It depends. An electric, rear-wheel steer forklift can be awfully fun to whip around. At least, depending on your definition of “fun”…

          (But they can also be dangerous, so know what you’re doing before zipping around in one like a Mario Kart racer…)

      3. Yes they can be fun to drive. I always enjoy when I’ve had to go outside in the rain and then come back in on the polished concrete with the non-marking slicks.

    2. Rear steer can definitely make for unintended consequences when your brain is wired for a different set of wheels to turn and how that usually works for you.

  25. Wait, I thought Tesla’s were supposed to be brilliant and warn you about these things and never hit anything because awesome and self driving and blah blah blah…..

    2. It is weird that it doesn’t have 360° cameras. I thought most high-end EVs had something like that, where you can view a virtual bird’s eye view of your car and all surrounding obstacles. Isn’t this thing $100k+‽

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