Ever since it was revealed almost five years ago, the Tesla Cybertruck has been touted as being one of the safest vehicles on the road, with the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, saying at one point that Tesla is “highly confident” that the angular electric truck will be “much safer per mile than other trucks, both for occupants and pedestrians.”
But whichever way you look at things–either as a Tesla fan or otherwise–the fact is that accidents happen. In the case of Cybertruck featured in the BoostedBoiz video embedded at the top of this page, it protected its driver from being injured in a side impact. The EV also became the perfect candidate for a do-it-yourself repair project on YouTube, possibly the first recorded on camera. So get in and enjoy the ride.
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Tinkering isn't dead. It's just different
If you're into cars, you know that YouTube hosts hundreds, if not thousands of channels where home mechanics put wrecked cars back on the road or modify them to make them faster, more comfortable or just for the fun of it. In the age of EVs, the same can be done. Rich Rebuilds kicked off the revolution and now channels like BoostedBoiz are proving once again that EVs, too, can be repaired at home.
You might remember from previous posts here on InsideEVs that the BoostedBoiz YouTube channel isn’t at its first EV rodeo–the guys who run the channel brought us the delightfully insane Plaidessey, a crusty old Honda Odyssey body stuck on top of a Tesla Model S Plaid chassis.
In other words, they know a thing or two about messing around with EVs in the same way traditional tinkerers toil for hours in their garages trying to make stuff work.
The first order of business was to see what was actually wrong with the crashed Cybertruck. A quick inspection revealed that both doors on the right were damaged in the crash, as well as some light damage on the B-pillar, sill and door hinge mounts.
But the biggest issue was that the car would not move under its own power. A quick glance at the service screen indicated that the pyro fuses had gone off during the impact, preventing power from the high-voltage battery from going anywhere.
Interestingly enough, the service manual for the Cybertruck is already available for free online–although some repair procedures are still marked as drafts–so the steps needed to replace the components were not just a shot in the dark.
So, after disconnecting the 48-volt system and installing the new pyro fuses next to the battery pack, things should have gone back to normal. But they didn’t. A rather concerning clicking noise could be heard from under the car, which led the DIY-ers to think that there might be an issue with the mid-voltage system.
Lo and behold, they were right. After a quick use of a multimeter, the 48V battery was reading just a smidge over 2V. In other words, dead. After sourcing a new $400 unit from a local Tesla store, the car was finally alive and could move under its own power and without any weird noises.
However, the center screen was lit bright red and was throwing all sorts of warning messages, and the car wouldn’t drive faster than 4 miles per hour, meaning that there was still something wrong. Still, the Cybertruck went from being dead weight to driving, so we’d call that progress. We’re curious to see what happens next, particularly when it comes to sourcing spare parts–Tesla’s truck is still relatively new on the market and spare parts might be back ordered for months.
