With thousands of Floridians trapped or missing as Hurricane Ian devastates Florida, Elon Musk took to Twitter to suggest the Tesla Cybertruck could offer respite from future natural disasters.
“Cybertruck will be waterproof enough to serve briefly as a boat, so it can cross rivers, lakes and even seas that aren’t too choppy,” Mr Musk tweeted on Thursday afternoon about the yet-to-be-released electric pickup.
He further explained that the Cybertruck would need to be able to cross a channel from Starbase, the main headquarters of SpaceX in Brownsville Florida, to nearby South Padre Island.
The tweet was met with skepticism from some on the social media platform, and follows similar claims he made in 2016 that the Model S could float for a short time.
“You’re just saying literally anything to attract attention and capitalise on headlines,” wrote user VaushV. “This will literally never happen.”
Brad Freeman, who tweets under the account StockMarketNerd, wrote: “It must be fun to be able to just say whatever you want about product roadmap with seemingly no material consequences. I’m working on a time machine. Estimated arrival spring of next year.”
The account Jackaltogether wrote: “Dogg you can’t even make a car trunk rainproof I’m not drowning my family in a coffin from a (Nintendo) 64 game.”
Twitter prankster “Greg16676935420” asked: “Will I be able to waterski behind it?”
After years of delays which Mr Musk blamed on supply chain issues Tesla recently announced that its electric pickup will hit the markets in 2023.
Tsunami-like storm surges of up to 12 feet have engulfed large swathes of southwest Florida, making streets impassable and causing widespread destruction.
Officials fear hundreds may be dead in Florida’s worst hurricane in living memory.
It’s unclear whether Mr Musk was suggesting that trapped residents would be able to use the Cybertruck in such conditions.
