One thing is clear after seeing videos of the Tesla Cybertruck driving off-road: the electric automaker has never written traction control software for anything but pavement. The stainless steel pickup was seen struggling up an obstacle that, while not the easiest in the world, was certainly something the vehicle should’ve been able to handle. Now Ford is having a little fun by breezing up the same portion of the trail in an F-150 Lightning.
We know it’s almost certainly Ford’s doing because the video was not only posted by Ford CEO Jim Farley’s Twitter account, but the F-150 has Michigan plates, which is a pretty strong indicator that the truck is owned by the manufacturer. Despite appearing to be on street tires, it has a much better time going up the obstacle than the Cybertruck, which looked like it was on all-terrains in its respective clip.
It’s worth noting that there could have been some prep on Ford’s part before the video was taken. We don’t know how many takes there were, if there’s a spotter behind the camera, etc. Also, the Tesla is a development vehicle while the F-150 Lightning is a production model. The Cybertruck was probably out there, at least in part, to work out kinks with the all-wheel-drive system among other things. So this isn’t exactly an apples-to-apples comparison.
That being said, Tesla has pulled similar shenanigans in the past, and at this point, it doesn’t really matter if either company is getting a fair shake. Wherever one is seen as lacking, the other will try to take advantage.
What this really speaks to is the electric pickup war to come, with the Cybertruck at the center of attention. Tesla and Elon Musk by extension have made some bold claims about the machine’s performance, and once production units are out in the wild, they will be put to the test. Legacy players are also new to building electric trucks, but they have a lot more experience building pickups period, which is likely the more relevant bit of knowledge as shown by the Ford’s effortless climb.
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