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Tesla Cybertruck A/C Stops Working in the Middle of Canadian Cold – To Stop Himself From Freezing, The Cybertruck Owner Had to Drive on the Highway With Insulated Coat On

A Cybertruck owner details his harrowing journey from Montreal to Toronto when his truck’s A/C suddenly stopped working. The owner says he wasn’t able to defrost or defog his Cybertruck and had to put on a down jacket to prevent himself from freezing.
Tesla Cybertruck

Chuanrui Wu is a brand new Cybertruck owner from Ontario, Canada, and says his life was at risk when his truck’s A/C stopped working in the middle of the cold while he was driving on the highway.

Chuanrui was returning from a trip from Montreal back to Toronto when his Cybertruck heater failed. In this icy environment, the Cybertruck owner says he was forced to wear insulated clothes to keep himself from freezing.

Not only that but without the A/C working, Chuanrui was unable to defrost or defog his windshield, making his trip that much more perilous.

Chuanrui shared his predicament on the Cybertruck Canada Facebook group, and the story was later reposted on Reddit.

Here is what he wrote…

“I recently drove my Cybertruck from Toronto to Montreal for a skiing trip. During the initial leg of the trip, everything worked perfectly, and using FSD (Full Self-Driving) made the journey very convenient. However, after a few days, the heater in my Cybertruck started malfunctioning—it worked sometimes and then stopped completely. This caused serious issues as I could no longer defog or defrost the windows.

On the way back to Toronto, the heater wasn’t working at all, and I had to wear a down jacket inside the truck just to stay warm. The windows were fogged up the entire time, and I couldn’t find any effective solution. Driving on the highway in such conditions felt extremely unsafe.”

It’s bad enough when the A/C stops working on a hot day; however, not working while driving on the highway in the middle of snow is not only inconvenient but downright dangerous.

I wonder, if Chuanruai’s trip had ended in a crash, would Tesla have taken responsibility for the accident?

Continuing his post, Chanraui says he was only able to keep driving with the aid of Tesla’s FSD software. According to the Toronto resident, this has increased his confidence in the software, but he says he feels let down by the Cybertruck’s performance in the cold.

 Here is what he wrote…

“Without FSD, this would have been even more dangerous. While I think FSD performs well in icy and snowy conditions, the Cybertruck itself does not. This experience has left me very frustrated and concerned about the Cybertruck’s reliability in winter conditions.”

Finally, Chuanrui concludes his post by sharing several pictures of his Cybertruck’s center touchscreen, showing the error message he received and that the A/C function was unavailable.

Listening to Chuanrui’s story, the situation looks bad for Tesla; however, fellow Cybertruck owners believe that Chuanrui should have expected this would happen in a first-generation vehicle and that he shouldn’t complain.

For example, Dan GL writes, “It is to be expected for the 1st generation to have some issues. They will fix it for you.”

Sass Peress adds, “You bought a first-year vehicle. Let that be your worst issue. Get it fixed at the showroom.”

Bob Newby agrees, "Don’t buy Gen 1 of any new product. Thankfully, the early adopters will show what needs to be improved.”

Thomas Hekl writes, “Well if you have to be the first macho guy in Canada to buy a brand new Cybertruck, you are buying it with a developer package. You didn’t know that?”

Overall, the sentiment amongst Cybertruck owners and Tesla fans is that these kinds of failures are to be expected in a first-generation vehicle. However, I would counter that the vehicle has been out for a year, and Tesla should have worked out these issues already.

Please let me know what you think in the comments. Share your ideas by clicking the red “Add new comment” button below. Also, visit our site, torquenews.com/Tesla, regularly for the latest updates.

Image: Screenshot from Dirty Tesla YouTube channel

For more information, check out: My Tesla Cybertruck Just Died in The Middle of the Road, No Power & I’m Locked Out; How Do I Get Back in?

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and the evolution of the EV space daily for several years. He covers everything about Tesla, from the cars to Elon Musk, the energy business, and autonomy. Follow Tinsae on Twitter at @TinsaeAregay for daily Tesla news.

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Comments

JC (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 8:44AM

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New cars have problems too, especially a brand new model. Thats what warrantys are for. I'm sure this isnt the first car under warranty to have heater problems in canada, and any canadian making a winter trip knows to bring warm clothes in case of a breakdown or accident. How many other vehicles can help by driving themselves? Having problems with a new product is frustrating but there is a positive story here of you chose to see it.

Cari (not verified)    December 10, 2024 - 3:08AM

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I agree with the last comment. And “Oh WHAAAA!! I had to wear an insulated coat or I would freeze to death.” “I couldn’t see out the window!” Maybe he had brain freeze. He could have used the window scraper inside. A credit card works great for scraping ice and leaves cute little curls on your dash. I agree it’s not comfortable, but he said after a few days(?) he had to put on his coat? This means he’s stopped more than a couple times at places that have EV charging & probably a room to rent for the night. And cellular service or at least a land line. PLUS he had Self Driving capability. He was set. Get the truck fixed and carry on.

Frank M (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 2:47PM

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Having owned several evs and driven across Canada in them several times, you have to be prepared for road and weather conditions. You are ultimately responsible and you can't blame faulty equipment. Having driven over 3000 KMs in -35 C, recently in a Tesla, you need to prepare for Canadian conditions. Unfortunately , I see far too many drivers that are not prepared for the drive and blame everything but themselves for their misfortune. It's better to be late in this world than early in the next. If it's not safe then don't go.
It's that simple.

Amy Amburgey (not verified)    December 10, 2024 - 6:15AM

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Teslas are junk why would you want something that look like a rolling dumpster? Everything that I've read about them from being in Florida to Canada nobody ever has good luck with them they're either ruined due to salt or they're ruined because the AC isn't kicking on like they're supposed to what is the purpose of this truck? I'm genuinely asking a question what is the purpose of this truck because they're not pretty they look like somebody just took a bunch of metal and glued it together That's honestly what it looks like why would you want one why would you waste your hard earned money on something that look like that ridiculous? I can think of a million other things that I would spend my hard earned money on that is not one of them If I want to drive around a scrap of metal I'll go to the junkyard and grab a bunch of car frames and glue them together that way because that's honestly what it looks like Tesla not very well thought out guy not really thought out try again making it look a little bit more realistic. Cyber truck or not it looks stupid

Mark Blain (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 6:05PM

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If you can afford a Cyber Truck, you can afford AMA. This vehicle should have been towed, not driven. Towed straight to a Tesla Service Center.

jonReremy (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 6:12PM

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HVAC.
it was the HVAC system that failed. NOT the A/C. if it was just the A/C that failed in winter then the heater would have still worked. unless the A/C would have failed to turn off at all. and stayed permanently on & running. that would have actually been an A/C malfunction. its still not what happened in this case.

a SHITsla driver, still driving on the highway for hours without being able to see properly, is exactly what would be expected of a piece of shit:
1) sibretrukkk buyer
2) SHITsla buyer.
average SHITsla driver, endangering all of society for their vanity & cult behavior.

"stILl l0Ve tH3 trUKkk TH⁰u6H"

Nick B (not verified)    December 9, 2024 - 9:25AM

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Semantics... A/C by itself stands for air conditioner, not ...and cooling, like in HVAC. Heating the air is most definitely a conditioning of the air. Air conditioning does not inherently imply cooling only.

John (not verified)    December 9, 2024 - 9:55AM

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Air Conditioning is exactly that! The air in the car is conditioned to be either hot or cold. Heating of the air is conditioning of the air to make it hot as opposed to whatever temp the air was in the first place. You can call it whatever you want because anybody reading his problem knows what he’s talking about! But he should have CAA coverage and then that’s what he should have done. He should have called CAA and have it towed back to Toronto instead of driving dangerously with no defrost working!!! Some people!!!!!!!

Curtis Murphy (not verified)    December 10, 2024 - 5:50PM

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I believe the Cybertruck (and a lot of other EV's) use a heat pump system for heating instead of resistive heaters as they are much more efficient. A heat pump is simply a reversible A/C unit. Unfortunately, as owners of home heat pumps in cold climates know well, heat pumps stop working at extremely cold temperatures. That's likely what happened here, I'm guessing the Cybertruck doesn't have a backup resistive heater.

Andy B (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 6:57PM

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Also, if Mr. Chuanrui felt it was unsafe, why did he continue to operate the vehicle? That unnecessary creates a dangerous situation for himself and others on the motorway.

James (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 7:30PM

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Fun fact about ICE:

No matter how cold, unless you're heater core is clogged all the way, you will always have heat.

Kevin (not verified)    December 9, 2024 - 2:47PM

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You can't follow a negative fact with an always statement. Equipment will fail eventually. I've driven a few cars before where the heater stops working, so it's possible in any vehicle at any time.

Shawn Blake (not verified)    December 9, 2024 - 8:12PM

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This is the thing that ppl are not realizing, these vehicles don't have a combustion engine to produce heat so you are relying on a battery to heat your cabin. Not only does this drain the battery prematurely, bit it does not get as hot as a combustion engine does. There are limits to what these batteries can do. I live in northeastern Texas, coldest we get is an occasional 30-50 degree weather. Canada, gets far far much colder. Stick with the combustion engine until Elon figures out how to make a quality "truck" before rushing out to get one.

Matt (not verified)    December 8, 2024 - 7:42PM

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Hit piece article. Author says the drivers life was in danger (at risk) but that's not true. The truck never put him at risk. Moreover he's blaming the AC/Heater going out on Tesla without any evidence. He says these problems should be "worked out" after about a year... but please show me a single car manufacturer that has made perfect cars for an entire year - you won't find one. The issue isn't that the Cybertruck isn't perfect because no car is perfect. The issue is whether or not the Cybertruck is a good vehicle compared to other trucks. When you do that comparison then that article will be worth reading.

Nick B (not verified)    December 9, 2024 - 9:23AM

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Ohh stop it. In the original post, there's literally pictures of the console showing that the HVAC system was not working. And no, no new vehicle is perfect, but the cybertruck has had 4 recalls in just one year. Countless people reporting sudden power loss.. At least two where the subframe literally snapped in half. And numerous other things that just straight up don't work. It's a bad product. You don't have to keep Staning for Musk. He doesn't know who you are and he's not going to do anything for you.