CyberBeast VIN#29 – Complete Power Loss, Tow Experience, and Lessons Learned

[UTECHPIA]

I wanted to share a recent experience with my Early VIN Foundation Series CyberBeast in case it helps other owners.

This was definitely a stressful situation, but also a learning experience, and I wanted to document what happened and some key takeaways.

Questions for the community:

1. Would an incident like this potentially qualify for a Lemon Law buyback?
2. For those familiar with Cybertruck towing procedures, was the truck towed correctly?

Key Takeaways from This Experience:

1. Tesla Roadside Assistance was very helpful and responsive, regardless of time of day. I was very impressed with their support and coordination.
2. I wish I had a 12V jump starter with me. If the low-voltage system is dead, you may not be able to put the truck into Tow Mode, which makes towing more complicated.
3. I later learned that the truck should likely be towed using the tow hitch rather than attaching to the rear axle (please correct me if this is incorrect). My tow driver had never towed a Cybertruck before, so this is something owners may want to be aware of.
4. One important thing I discovered is that if the Cybertruck loses all electrical power, the emergency hazard lights will not function.
5. Also important: Make sure you know how to manually open the doors in case the vehicle loses all power.
6. At the moment, Tesla Service still has the truck and is waiting for parts to arrive before completing the repair. I do not yet know the exact root cause of the failure.

Overall, this was a pretty wild experience, and I’m hoping sharing this helps other Cybertruck owners be better prepared in case something similar happens.

I documented the entire experience and recorded 14 videos covering the breakdown, towing process, and service experience.

Note: The videos are presented in a high-energy style, which may not be for everyone. I appreciate the community keeping the discussion focused on the Cybertruck incident, towing process, and lessons learned. Thank you.

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[BengalBoy]

Sorry for your road trauma and CyberTruck failure. Watched your early videos back during the early CyberTruck delivery excitement. What I've learned from your experience is not to absolutely drain battery after failure. Pull over immediately where safe vs most convenient. Have not watched all videos, skipped to your conclusion. Great documentary video about overall experience.

 

[UTECHPIA]

Sorry for your road trauma and CyberTruck failure. Watched your early videos back during the early CyberTruck delivery excitement. What I've learned from your experience is not to absolutely drain battery after failure. Pull over immediately where safe vs most convenient. Have not watched all videos, skipped to your conclusion. Great documentary video about overall experience.

Thanks! Wow, I didn't realize the battery simply drained, I thought the issue cause all my electrical system to malfunction, which cut off all electronics. Good to know! Thanks again!

 

[REM]

Someone else ran into this same issue recently, I think. Tesla will probably have a firmware update to prevent fairly soon.

I think it was a BMS calibration issue.

 

[BlueLightning]

Flat bed recovery is not towing. But for the flatbed recovery truck person it’s probably ok to use the tires to pull the truck onto the bed but yes way better to use the tow hitch.

The Tesla manual doesn’t show this, it shows power posts in the frunk. But no power equals no open frunk and you will need to connect 12 volt wires located in front left fender.

There is a post in this forum with someone asking what the wire was hanging out from their fender.

**To open the Cybertruck doors with no power, use a 12V power source to connect to the jump posts under the front-left fender.

Always carry a 12v battery. Halo is good, but you can go with cheap auto store too.

 

[Merc_s55]

I wanted to share a recent experience with my Early VIN Foundation Series CyberBeast in case it helps other owners.

This was definitely a stressful situation, but also a learning experience, and I wanted to document what happened and some key takeaways.

Questions for the community:

1. Would an incident like this potentially qualify for a Lemon Law buyback?
2. For those familiar with Cybertruck towing procedures, was the truck towed correctly?

Key Takeaways from This Experience:

1. Tesla Roadside Assistance was very helpful and responsive, regardless of time of day. I was very impressed with their support and coordination.
2. I wish I had a 12V jump starter with me. If the low-voltage system is dead, you may not be able to put the truck into Tow Mode, which makes towing more complicated.
3. I later learned that the truck should likely be towed using the tow hitch rather than attaching to the rear axle (please correct me if this is incorrect). My tow driver had never towed a Cybertruck before, so this is something owners may want to be aware of.
4. One important thing I discovered is that if the Cybertruck loses all electrical power, the emergency hazard lights will not function.
5. Also important: Make sure you know how to manually open the doors in case the vehicle loses all power.
6. At the moment, Tesla Service still has the truck and is waiting for parts to arrive before completing the repair. I do not yet know the exact root cause of the failure.

Overall, this was a pretty wild experience, and I’m hoping sharing this helps other Cybertruck owners be better prepared in case something similar happens.

I documented the entire experience and recorded 14 videos covering the breakdown, towing process, and service experience.

Note: The videos are presented in a high-energy style, which may not be for everyone. I appreciate the community keeping the discussion focused on the Cybertruck incident, towing process, and lessons learned. Thank you.

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Lemon buy back because you had to have your vehicle towed??? Seriously??? If that was the case there would be tens of thousands of vehicles getting a lemon buy back every day on the planet.
It broke down. Tow it. End of story. It happens. I'm 66 and I've had many vehicles towed. It's just life. Just deal with it and move on.

 

[Sposborn]

I would read lemon law documenation for your area, but under no corcumstance would this qualify immediatley for lemon law. Buyback possibly if Tesla determined that this was going to qualify for lemon law due to length of time required for service, or more uncovered when repair was initated - however, that is Tesla voluntarily offering to purchase your vehicle back from you.

 

[EVnewbie]

Lemon buy back because you had to have your vehicle towed??? Seriously??? If that was the case there would be tens of thousands of vehicles getting a lemon buy back every day on the planet.
It broke down. Tow it. End of story. It happens. I'm 66 and I've had many vehicles towed. It's just life. Just deal with it and move on.

While obviously this case is not lemon law eligible yet, it’s not normal to have new vehicles “break down” this day and age. I have bought/leased brand new vehicles every 2-3 years for the last 20+ years, and have not once, EVER, been stuck anywhere because one “broke down”. Ford, Jeep, Dodge, Lincoln, never have I had a 4 year old or newer car break down ever.

All of these stories give me more and more concern that one day I’m going to be left high and dry with some software or electrical problem with my Cybertruck on the side of the road or some parking lot somewhere.

 

[petercyber]

Thank you for sharing your experience, I'm sorry for all the troubles you had, I thought I was the only one getting to service twice a month, but it's real. Really unfortunate.

 

[BJRys]

I had a similar experience yesterday. Was at the supercharger and had difficulty getting the charger plug to release. After a couple presses of the button on the charger it did release. Upon entering the truck, I had all sorts of low voltage errors. The truck had to be towed and is currently at the service center. Good luck with your repair.

 

[Pops]

Thanks for sharing your experience, it was interesting to see it happen in real-time.

In my personal experience when a car breaks down it happens almost instantly. At least way quicker than what I saw for your Cybertruck. On one hand its nice to see it slowly ramp down, on the other hand that ramp down is clearly programmed in and it could go further if they wanted it to.

To me it looks like the failure caused a lost of redundancy, not a loss of capability.

 

[JackCypher]

Lemon buy back because you had to have your vehicle towed??? Seriously??? If that was the case there would be tens of thousands of vehicles getting a lemon buy back every day on the planet.
It broke down. Tow it. End of story. It happens. I'm 66 and I've had many vehicles towed. It's just life. Just deal with it and move on.

Agree, Lemon Law in CA at least is 3x incidents or in repair for weeks of time. This single incident is not a Lemonable offense.

That said, it IS a concern as it was unusually traumatic. I find it very, very odd that the hazard lights fail, and are not an an alternative system. How can DOT not require this?. IMO, the drive train and hazard lighting system should not be connected. They are not in an ICE vehicle.

A friend's wife had the brakes completely fail on a new 'German' car. She absolutely refused to ever drive it again. They worked out a deal to buy it back.

 

[CyberGus]

I find it very, very odd that the hazard lights fail, and are not on an alternative system. How can DOT not require this?

The hazard flashers do not work on any car with a dead battery.

When the MV battery fails, the contactors will open on the HV pack, and there will be no power. (The manual suggests that the HV pack will stay active until the vehicle turns off, but it cannot start again without MV power.)

When the HV pack fails, the MV battery will operate pretty much everything other than the drive motors, but it will not last long.

IMHO, when the HV pack has failed, the vehicle should drop into a "power conservation" mode (no climate, infotainment, outlets, lights, cameras, GPS, WiFi, etc.) so that the MV battery will have maximum runtime. Once exhausted, the truck cannot be placed into Tow Mode, nor can the doors be opened. It must be jump-started at that point.

 

[REM]

I have bought/leased brand new vehicles every 2-3 years for the last 20+ years, and have not once, EVER, been stuck anywhere because one “broke down”. Ford, Jeep, Dodge, Lincoln, never have I had a 4 year old or newer car break down ever.

Go ask people who work in dealership service what the current rate is. It will shock you.

Tesla is the most reliable automotive brand on the planet right now.

 

[CyberTrk]

I am sorry but @UTECHPIA you speak so much like in panic mode.
You should try to relax and do some search on the Internet.

I'm surprised that the tow truck driver didn't tried to use a 12V battery, like a Jump Start, to provide some juice to power the screen allowing then going to Towing Mode to release the parking brake.

Another possibility would be also to find a way to access directly the connector plug of the electric wires connected to the parking brake to release the parking brake. So the vehicle would be then in Neutral, making it easy to get tow.

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