The rise and fall of the controversial Cybertruck, from a shattered window to celeb spottings to protests

The Cybertruck was revealed to the world on a cloud-filled stage at Tesla's design center in Hawthorne, California, in November 2019.

The "Blade Runner" inspired truck was supposed to start at $39,900, Musk predicted. He said the truck would start production in late 2021 — and that Tesla was hoping for three trims with 250-, 300-, and 500-mile ranges.

At the reveal event, Musk said the car's steel skin could shrug off bullets from a 9mm handgun. Then, Franz von Holzhausen, Tesla's chief designer, threw a metal ball at the driver's window to test its ruggedness.

The driver's window shattered on contact.

"Well, maybe that was a little too hard," Musk said before they decided to throw the ball at the rear-seat window — which also shattered. "It didn't go through!"

Musk said that 146,000 paid $100 to reserve a Cybertruck after the event.

Days after the Cybertruck's 2019 unveiling, Musk posted a tug-of-war video on X (then called Twitter) between the Tesla and America's best-selling pickup, the Ford F-150.

The stunt was meant to demonstrate the Cybertruck's brute strength — but critics questioned whether it was a fair matchup: The F-150's rear tires spin in the footage, and some suggested Tesla had pitted an all-wheel-drive Cybertruck against a two-wheel-drive Ford.

Tesla's original plan to deliver the Cybertruck to customers by late 2021 was delayed by pandemic-related supply chain snags.

The EV maker still captured attention by displaying the truck's prototype at its dealerships — including in May 2021, when one landed at Tesla's New York City retail store in the Meatpacking District.

After two years of delays, production Cybertrucks started rolling off Tesla's assembly lines in mid-2023.

Tesla started delivering the Cybertruck to the first batch of customers in November 2023.

During the delivery event, Tesla showed a video of the Cybertruck in a drag race with a Porsche. The pickup reached the finish line before the German sports car — while it was towing a Porsche.

Tesla didn't specify which Porsche model it raced against.

Multiple people picked up their Cybertruck during a livestreamed delivery event — the biggest name was Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian.

In the months after the Cybertruck's release, several A-list celebrities were spotted with the electric pickup — including Lady Gaga, Kim Kardashian, and Justin Bieber.

No celeb spotting was more consequential than Pharrell Williams's.

The singer-songwriter and Louis Vuitton creative director was pictured struggling to parallel park the giant truck in Miami in January 2024. Eventually, a valet driver took over.

"That truck was never going to fit," Roxana Gonzalez, a bystander who watched the parking attempts, told Business Insider at the time.

Despite Musk's statements about the Cybertruck's ruggedness, viral videos after the truck's launch painted a very different picture.

In late 2023 and early 2024, social media lit up with videos of Cybertrucks struggling to traverse snow.

So far, the Cybertruck has been recalled 11 times.

In April 2024, Tesla recalled nearly 3,900 early trucks because a loose accelerator pedal pad could cause the car to accelerate rapidly.

More recalls followed, including windshield wiper issues, loose exterior trim, delayed rear-camera images, potential power loss, and body panels that could detach while driving.

As President Donald Trump reclaimed the White House — with the strong backing of Musk — the Cybertruck became a political object, fused with MAGA.

In early 2025, as Musk began his government role as the public face of DOGE, protests outside Tesla dealerships began. The Cybertruck was common poster board material.

On March 11, 2025, Trump turned the White House South Lawn into a Tesla showroom.

He and Musk held a press conference in front of five models — including a Cybertruck — as the president praised the cars and planned to buy a red Model S.

"Everything's computer," the president famously said as he got into the sedan.

The photo op made the political association surrounding Tesla impossible to miss.

SpaceX, Musk's space exploration and AI company, reported in its S-1 in May that it spent $131 million to buy Cybertrucks from Tesla in 2025.

Depending on the unit price, that amounts to roughly 1,200 to 1,800 vehicles.