The 2024 Tesla Cybertruck takes an off-road performance test

From the day we first set eyes on Tesla’s Cybertruck, the company has been keen to tout the vehicle’s unstoppable off-road performance. Elon Musk’s team says it’s durable and rugged enough to go anywhere, on any planet. And that it’s the vehicle best suited to take on the apocalypse. It has been tested in Baja and has driven up Hell’s Gate. But we’ve also witnessed the truck stuck in the snow, and we’ve watched it struggle to get up what would otherwise be rather trivial obstacles. With so much hype surrounding Musk's stainless-steel polygon, it has proven difficult to separate fact from fiction.

Hoping to sort the claims out for ourselves, we grabbed a 2024 Tesla Cybertruck Dual Motor Foundation Series and headed out to a local off-road hotspot featuring terrain from mild graded roads to wild climbs and crawls. As soon our tires hit dirt, it became apparent that Tesla’s marketing might have been embellished.

All the makings of greatness

On paper, the Cybertruck makes bold claims and boasts impressive hardware and stats that rival much of its competition. These include front and rear locking differentials, 35-inch mud tires, 12 inches of suspension travel, up to 16 inches of ground clearance, Bilstein shocks with adaptive damping and a robust suite of electronic aids. 

Enabling the electronic aids are two off-road driving modes: Overland and Baja. Within the Overland setting drivers can customize the terrain modes to fit either sand, gravel, rock, or all-purpose driving. Each of these offers differing levels of wheel slip based on the road surface and lifts the truck to a taller ride height. Rock mode is the most aggressive, with ride height being set to the maximum level of Very High and the air springs pneumatically linked for better articulation.

2024 Tesla Cybertruck:The Dual Motor Foundation Series first drive

Also available while in Overland mode is the ability to alter the truck’s stopping mode by swapping between Hold and Roll. With Hold enabled, the truck will automatically apply the brakes and come to a stop without needing to depress the brake pedal. And it will hold on both flat ground and grades so long as the driver keeps their feet off the pedals. Roll does the opposite by allowing the truck to roll freely, as if it were in neutral, when it slows below a certain threshold.

In the Baja drive mode, the Cybertruck is raised to the optimal height for suspension compression and rebound travel and allows for the choice between standard or high deceleration modes along with standard, reduced, or minimal stability control. In Baja mode, Tesla’s Cybertruck offers a function not found on other electric pickups: the ability to manually adjust power distribution fore and aft. Moving a slider left or right on the screen allows the driver to fine-tune the front-wheel or rear-wheel bias, rather than its standard fixed all-wheel drive. This allows drivers to manipulate the truck in a more lively and agile manner, easily sliding the rear end on command.

Placing the truck in Wade mode allows the Cybertruck to ford up to 32 inches of water by lifting into the Very High suspension mode. In addition, the high-voltage battery pressurizes itself to prevent the entry of water, mud, or other debris.

Extract mode is another helpful feature that works by raising the truck to its very tallest suspension setting to get unstuck from or to clear a large obstacle. In this mode the Cybertruck offers an approach angle of 39.9 degrees, a 26.0-degree breakover angle and 27.6-degree departure angle, along with the full 16 inches of available ground clearance. Speed is limited to just 10 mph while in Extract mode, and motor torque might be limited, as well.

Not quite ready for prime time

At first glance the Cybertruck’s off-road specs are quite robust. However, it’s when rubber meets dirt that the façade begins to fall. A prime example of this is found in the truck’s differentials. Months after customer deliveries began, Tesla has yet to make the truck’s electronic lockers functional. On dual-motor Cybertrucks such as our Foundation Series test vehicle, the locking diffs are mechanical units that are either off or on and require little in the way of programming. Still, the switches remain grayed out while they await an over-the-air update for activation.

Parts of Pilot Rock Traill were still covered by a thin layer of sticky mud from overnight rain when we rolled up in the Cybertruck. Normally this wouldn’t be an issue for a 35-inch mud-terrain tire. However, as the tire treads quickly packed with slop, we began to suspect something was amiss with the Goodyear Wrangler Territory RT tires fit on the Cybertruck. Checking our support Chevy Silverado ZR2, which was fit with Goodyear Wrangler Territory MT tires, we found the Tesla-spec tires have a similar tread pattern but 4/32 of an inch less tread depth. This equates not only to thousands of miles of lost wear but also to far less traction when it’s needed the most.

Despite the enormous panes of glass that encase the passenger compartment, outward visibility is not one of the truck’s strong suites. With its high beltline, low seating position and massive dashboard, we often found ourselves needing to lean up and out of the seat to get a visual on the trail ahead. Tesla’s cameras, though copious, prove largely useless. The forward-facing camera is aimed too high and focuses too far in front of the truck. And strangely, the rear-facing side cameras become active while in the off-road modes instead of the forward-facing units. They provide nothing useful to the driver, and there’s no obvious way to change this.

2024 Best Trucks:Tesla Cybertruck vs. Rivian R1T vs. Ford F-150 Lightning

We also ran into the rather unique issue of needing to be experts in Tesla’s screen-based vehicle control system to operate the complex collection of drive modes. On several occasions we found ourselves in the wrong setting for the terrain, which caused the truck to act in seemingly erratic ways. For instance, having the drive modes set to Overland, All Purpose, with a stopping mode of Roll meant the truck would slow itself with regenerative braking when approaching an obstacle while letting out of the throttle then suddenly let go of the brakes and lurch forward freely. Had we been better versed in the controls, we would have known to ensure the truck was in the Hold stopping mode. Similarly, we experienced far more wheel slip than should be necessary from a well-calibrated traction control system. Putting the system into the Rock terrain mode would have in theory reined in the wheel slip, though we still contend the traction control system as it exists today is half-baked, at best.

The questionable decisions

Our Cybertruck inexperience and Tesla’s lack of information aside, we are still dumbfounded by the fact that in no situation does the truck allow for brake and accelerator overlap, which is a very common way that people maneuver vehicles smoothly over large obstacles. And although Tesla recommends in its owner’s manual to remove the front and rear wheel fairings before going off-road, there was no outward sign that these were in fact removable until a rock attempted the act for us. We also have our doubts about the location of the charge port in the driver-side rear fender arch. As we dragged the side of the truck through thick brush, we imagined what a rock might do to our charging abilities.

Range and charging infrastructure are still a hindrance to serious off-road expeditions. Pushing hard off-road uses energy at a greater rate than sailing along the highway. During our time on the trail, we were seeing usage at a rate near that of towing, which can cut range almost in half. Of course, that is entirely dependent on the terrain type, grade and speed traveled. Still, if the plan is to spend a day in the dirt covering more than about 150 to 200 miles, you’d better have a solid charging strategy and time to spare.

All of these quibbles aside, we find it difficult to take the Cybertruck serious as a legitimate off-road vehicle for one simple reason: It has no standard spare tire or provision for one other than dropping it into the bed. That's amateur hour.

It can only get better

Despite being in development for the better part of a decade, when it comes to off-road ability, the Cybertruck still feels like a decent first draft. We are confident that with time the truck will get better. Simple improvements to the traction control system, activating the locking differentials via OTA, allowing for brake and throttle overlap, removing some of the low-hanging trim pieces and giving the tires meatier tread would bring the truck up to a standard that would be acceptable for most occasions. Let’s just hope Tesla is working on all of this.