Sometimes the universe writes its own punchlines. Tesla is recalling 173 Cybertrucks because the wheels - the round things the whole car depends on - can fall off while the vehicle is in motion. This is a real recall. About real wheels. Falling off a real truck that costs six figures.
As Fast Company put it, it sounds like a pun. It is not a pun.
So what exactly is happening here?
The recall covers Cybertrucks equipped with 18-inch steel wheels, built between March 21, 2024, and November 2024. Somewhere in that production window, someone apparently forgot that wheels are kind of a non-negotiable feature of a vehicle meant to travel on roads.
Picture it: you're cruising in your angular, stainless-steel monument to disruption. You make a right turn. One of your wheels simply... leaves. It has somewhere else to be. Your $100,000 truck is now a very expensive sled.
The figurative part isn't great either
The Cybertruck has had a rough go of it since launch - a vehicle plagued by delays, design compromises, and a steady drumbeat of recalls that would make any quality control manager weep into their clipboard. The literal-wheels-falling-off situation feels less like a bug and more like a greatest-hits compilation.
There's something almost poetic about a truck marketed on toughness and futurism struggling to keep its wheels attached. The Cybertruck was supposed to be the vehicle of tomorrow. Turns out tomorrow has some alignment issues.
Should Cybertruck owners panic?
If your Cybertruck falls within the affected build window and has those 18-inch steel wheels, probably worth checking in with Tesla before your next Costco run. Losing a wheel mid-turn is the kind of experience that really puts a dent in your afternoon - and potentially a few other things.
Tesla has not commented on whether future models will come with wheels that stay on. One would hope that's the baseline expectation, but here we are.
