What is Elon Musk’s Tesla Cybertruck which exploded outside Trump’s Las Vegas hotel?

A Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas owned by US President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday, leaving one person dead and seven others injured.

What is Tesla Cybertruck?

The Tesla Cybertruck is a fully electric pickup truck manufactured by Elon Musk’s US-based electric vehicle (EV) giant Tesla Inc. since November 2023. It was first introduced as a concept four years before production in November 2019.

It was known for its unique and somewhat controversial styling. Its unpainted and flat stainless steel body panels gave it a futuristic design marked by straight polygonal shapes.

Also Read: Video: Tesla Cybertruck explodes outside Trump Las Vegas hotel, killing driver

The use of bare stainless steel was partly inspired by the original DeLorean DMC-12, which became famous by appearing in the Back to the Future films.

The Cybertruck is currently only available for customers in the US and Canada, coming in two variations; one with three electric motors offering all wheel drive (AWD), called the ‘Cyberbeast’, and also another one with two motors, but still having AWD.

Tesla has since, said that a rear wheel drive (RWD) version with a single motor will be released sometime in 2025.

Tesla claims on its website that the truck has 11,000 lbs of towing capacity with a 2,500 pounds payload, 325 miles of estimated range, and can go from 0-60 mph in a staggering 2.6 seconds.

It can also recover up to 136 miles of range with 15 minutes of Supercharging.

It also comes with an electronically adaptive air suspension that offers 12 inches of travel and 16 inches of ground clearance, making it capable off-road as well.

Also Read: Elon Musk links Tesla Cybertruck, New Orleans incidents to terrorism

The Cybertruck also has ‘armor glass’ which Tesla claims can “resist the impact of a baseball at 70 mph or that of class 4 hail” and its 6’x4’ composite-based rear carry area doesn’t need a liner and is also lockable with a ‘vault’ cover.

Tesla even says that the Cybertruck can be used to power a home during an outage, providing up to 11.5 kW of power directly.

On the inside, the Cybertruck gets a 18.5” infinity touchscreen in the front and a 9.4” touchscreen in the back, along with a glass roof, allowing a direct view upwards.

However, the truck weighs a staggering 6,898 pounds (3128.88 kg).

Cybertruck explosion

President Joe Biden has said US authorities were examining links between the Las Vegas explosion and the New Orleans attack.

Also Read: Elon Musk’s lawsuit against OpenAI is now backed by the ‘godfather’ of AI: Report

Elon Musk claimed that the explosion was an act of terrorism and that “the evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack,” in a post on X.

“Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” he said. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”

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