Aside from a MAGA hat, there is likely no object that feels more emblematic of US president Donald Trump’s return to the White House than the Tesla Cybertruck. The blunt angles and steel doors look futuristic, for sure, but only if the future looks a lot like RoboCop. To some, it’s a metallic status symbol. To others, it’s fascism on wheels. Either way, heads turn.
Cybertruck owners see things differently. “To me, it’s just a vehicle that I love,” says Andrew Castillo, a stock trader from Los Angeles. “It has no political affiliations at all to me.”
We’re standing in the parking lot of McCormick’s Palm Springs Classic Car Auctions. All around us, a dozen Cybertruck owners—and their cars—bake in the 100 degree heat. They’ve arrived for a meetup organized by Michael Goldman, who runs the 53,000-person Facebook group Cybertruck Owners Only. Though suspicious of the media, they’re eager to set the record straight about the car that they love. WIRED is here to learn how it feels to be out in public in such a politically charged vehicle. Has the past year or so changed anyone’s minds about owning the truck? Do owners like the attention—or are they adding bumper stickers decrying Elon Musk?
As we’re talking, a woman drives by in a small sedan. “Your cars are fucking ugly!” she screams before peeling off. Castillo smiles. “Some people just aren’t playing with a full deck of cards,” he says serenely.
there’s some real deadpan gold in this one, such as the immaculate:
How do you feel about becoming a political lightning rod?
People occasionally just flip [me] off or whatever, but nobody’s come up to me and tried to make a statement about anything. Personally, it’s kind of dumb. It’s just a vehicle. So it’s ironic that it would even become a political statement, but nonetheless it is. [Editor’s note: Taylor was arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding in the January 6 attack on the Capitol. He was later pardoned by President Trump.]
its on the owner of a ct, IF THEY bought after he bought X and turned into a nazi platform.
And are you married?
I was married, but I’m not married anymore. Women don’t like the vehicle.
In July, Tesla rolled out a software update to integrate Grok into many of its vehicles. Do you use it?
Her name is Aura, and I use her as a therapist. When I’m driving, I’ll ask questions, and it actually gives really good therapy advice.
Tragic, hilarious, somewhat disturbing all in one.
Her name is Aura, and I use her as a therapist.
Wait, are we talking Tesla named the AI therapist Aura and added it to the car? Or that he personalized his Grok to be called Aura? I’m leaning towards the latter, and I’m laughing at how pathetic it is.
MAGA chuds can’t respect a living, breathing queer person, even if it was their own flesh and blood, but will name change their fucking clown car AI, inform people on its pronouns, and praise the damn thing for regurgitating Reddit threads. A car. Can socially transition. Meanwhile Muskrat shits on his trans kid every day.
Her name is Aura, and I use her as a therapist.
The lengths men go to instead of going to actual therapy 🤣
I assumed you made this up and checked. He really exchanged his marriage for a swasticar. WTF.
Looks like somebody’s backpedaling on a definite political statement after it became personally inconvenient.
The blunt angles and steel doors look futuristic, for sure
Do they, though? It’s always looked to me like something from the background of a PS1 game, intended to give the impression of a moving vehicle but never seen close up.
I was irritated by this statement too, but the sentence continues with “but only if it looks like Robocop”.
I don’t know about the Robocop reference, but the author seems to agree that it’s merely pseudo futuristic. IMO in the worst, most absurd way possible.
Nah, it’s futuristic. It’s the embodiment of the future where car manufacturers sell you rust buckets full of tracking and make you pay way too much for it.
I’ve seen some wrapped ones that look neat though, and anyone who owns a Cybertruck and isn’t wrapping it is just wasting more money than they already did buying it.
In 1980, sure.
Boohoohoo, I’m a conservative and I’m so oppressed!
There’s a cube truck in my small town driven by the douchiest lawyer. They drive like a lunatic. Cutting people off, running reds, laying on the horn if people don’t move immediately after the red light turns green or if they slow down for a crossing pedestrian.
I gave this idiot a thumbs down while I was out riding my motorcycle and they did an illegal u turn on the road and started tailing me for over 10 minutes. Followed me into the police station parking lot as well for a 15 minute stare down. I genuinely thought they were going to follow me home.
These people are deranged and unfit for society.
says Andrew Castillo, a stock trader from Los Angeles. “It has no political affiliations at all to me.”
He’s getting a head start distancing himself…
In contrast, my car stands for high mileage, oil changes, and having a trusted local mechanic.
Anyone can tell just by a quick look at it.
I’m not really interested in oil changes, but my Chevy bolt is chugging along just fine. Anything but Tesla.
Aside from a MAGA hat, there is likely no object that feels more emblematic of US president Donald Trump’s return to the White House than the Tesla Cybertruck.
If Musk had been able to attract the typical F-150 owner to the Cybertruck, then the Cybertruck wouldn’t have flopped, and I bet that the F-150 is a whole lot more correlated with voting Trump than the Cybertruck is.
IIRC from past reading, in terms of voting correlation by party, the Toyota Prius is the “most Democratic” vehicle and the Ford F-150 is the “most Republican” vehicle.
kagis
Nope (or at least, not by the metrics chosen here), but I’m close.
To get a sense of how our rides reflect our political leanings, we compared 1.7 million vehicles listed on CarGurus with the results from the 2020 presidential election. We included only counties that were strongly red or blue — those where either Donald Trump or Joe Biden won by at least 19 percentage points. Then we placed every car on a political spectrum from reddest to bluest.
According to this, which excludes more-politically-mixed counties from the dataset, the vehicle most-correlated with voting Trump in 2020 at a county level is the Jeep Wrangler, followed by the Jeep Gladiator, followed by the Chevrolet Silverado 1500 (which I assume is the Chevy analog of the F-150), followed by the Ford F-150.
The vehicle most-correlated with voting Biden (at a county level) was indeed the Toyota Prius.
EDIT: To be fair, the article author is probably partly talking about Musk’s association with Trump and the Cybertruck coming out about that time, and he’s talking about the 2024 election specifically, but I think that the Cybertruck is maybe high-media-visibility, but doesn’t have all that much to actually do with voting Trump.
It’s a Jeep thing.
I have a problem with their methodology, although I concede that better metrics would be hard to find.
I’ve known a number of right-wing people that own and love their Prius. They are the “cheap bastard” type, and it’s hard to argue with the value (albeit not the styling nor associations) of a Prius.
Like, libertarians? I have to think anyone seriously down the chud rabbithole would be embarrassed to even ride in one. Symbols of tribal loyalty are as big as ever in fascist land.
That’s where the “cheap bastard” part kicks in. The desire to spend less money outweighs things like social acceptance.
Toyota has quality on their side. “Cheap” can be over-priced, but sometimes "less expensive” can be “better quality.”
although I concede that better metrics would be hard to find.
Maybe get ALPRs to start logging bumper stickers. :-)
I guess people just associate Nazis with swastikars.
@alyaza boo hoo
