All eyes remain on the Tesla Cybertruck. It hasn’t been all smooth sailing for the silvery wedge since finally making its long-overdue debut on the market, with glitches including videos depicting difficulty in dealing with snow, corrosion worries despite its stainless-steel skin, and sidewall-eating wheel covers marring its positive press.
The latest Cyber-bug, however, could be a showstopper – and literally a sales-stopper, as Tesla has allegedly halted deliveries of the pickup as customer complaints about scary stuck-throttle incidents have begun to appear.
News of halted deliveries hit the Cybertruck Owners Forum this past weekend. Reservation holders have reported being told their deliveries had been canceled due to an “unexpected delay.” Affected customers weren’t directly notified as to the reason for the cancellations.
At this time, it’s widely believed that an accelerator-pedal issue is behind Tesla’s decision to temporarily halt deliveries. Supporting this is a TikTok video from Cybertruck owner @el.chepito1985. He describes what happened when his truck’s accelerator pedal came apart in a way that prevented the pedal from lifting and disengaging the throttle. Thankfully the driver’s quick reactions allowed him to avoid a crash.
@el.chepito1985 serious problem with my Cybertruck and potential all Cybertrucks #tesla #cyberbeast #cybertruck #stopsale #recall
The cause of the issue appears to be the accelerator pedal’s cover. As seen in the video, the metal-trimmed plastic cover separated from the plastic pedal underneath. The cover slid up the pedal and caught in the edge of the lower dash panel, jamming the accelerator pedal in its maximum-throttle position. The driver was able to stop the Cybetruck by hitting the brake, which overrode the signal from the accelerator pedal. The vehicle was safely brought to a stop and put in park, at which point the issue became obvious.
It’s a simple problem, but one that could absolutely explain why Tesla has stopped delivering Cybertrucks. In the video, we can see the cover appears to merely clip onto the actual pedal. There’s no obvious adhesives or other fasteners helping to hold it in place.
As we’ve seen in previous cases of unintended acceleration, all it takes is a poorly designed floor mat or piece of trim to jam the throttle wide open. In such a situation, a driver can easily lose control of the vehicle. Outcomes are typically worse if the driver panics due to sudden acceleration. Thus, rectifying the issue before more trucks ship out to customers makes perfect sense. Failure to do so could lead to dangerous crashes, injuries, or worse.
This could be an easy fix for Tesla. The company could arrange for manual rework of existing trucks by riveting or gluing the accelerator pedal covers in place if they are, indeed, not already glued or riveted together. A good epoxy would do the job well, though Tesla may elect to install a fastener for additional peace of mind.
At this stage, we can’t be 100% certain that the accelerator pedal cover is the root cause behind the delivery halt or even if deliveries are halted. In part, this is because Tesla does not provide a press contact to advise us on these issues. The Autopian has contacted the NHTSA for comment on whether a stop-sale order is in place, and we will update this story as more information becomes available.
Since we’re talking about it, this is also a great time to educate yourself on what to do in a stuck-throttle situation. It’s good to remember that modern vehicles have powerful brakes which are often capable of stopping the vehicle even under such conditions. Some modern drive-by-wire vehicles will also cancel the throttle command when the brake is applied. You can also shift into neutral to disconnect the engine from the transmission in an ICE-powered vehicle. In vehicles with a pushbutton starter, holding the engine start button down will kill the engine or cut drive power. In a key-start vehicle, you can use the key to turn the engine off, but you may lose power steering and power braking, and you may lock the steering wheel if you’re not careful.
Fundamentally, though, the video above is a bad look for Tesla. A vehicle’s basic controls should be stout and properly manufactured. It’s poor form to see pedals falling apart on a brand-new vehicle. Here’s hoping the problem can be sorted quickly and no injuries or crashes result from this flaw.
Image credits: Tesla, el.chepito1985 via TikTok screenshot