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Tesla Cybertruck Owner in Canada Says the Truck is “Dangerous” After Experiencing First Drive in the Snow; Forced to Slow Down to 25 Mph on the Highway & Stop Multiple Times to Clean the Headlights

A new Tesla Cybertruck owner in Canada describes his horrifying experience following his first drive in the snow. He says he was forced to lower his speed to 25 mph & also had to stop multiple times on the highway to clear the snow off the headlights.

Brock Nanson is a new Cybertruck owner from Canada, and after experiencing his first drive in the snow, Brock says the Cybertruck “is not just inconvenient but dangerous.”

Brock also adds that he can’t believe Tesla wasn’t able to catch all the cold weather issues during testing and says the last vehicle he drove, which was this bad in the snow, was built in 1976.

The issue with the Cybertruck’s recessed headlights and snow accumulation has been covered extensively, and during his drive, Brock had to deal with this design oversight; however, surprisingly, according to the Canadian Cybertruck owner, the most frustrating part of driving a Cybertruck while it’s snowing isn’t the headlights but the light bar.

These are the large daytime running lights on the Cybertruck hood extending from end to end. Although seemingly large and impressive, the light bar is only there for aesthetic purposes and the real headlights are situated recessed between where the hood meets the front bumper.

Brock says the diffuse light coming off the light bar reflects light from the falling snow and completely shrouds what’s going on the road.

Couple this issue with the headlights that let snow accumulate in front of them, and Brock says he had to slow down to 25 mph on the highway because of bad visibility.

The frustrated Cybertruck owner describes all the issues he uncovered while driving his truck on the snow during the night time.

Here is what he wrote…

“Well, I had my first night drive in the snow tonight. Admittedly, it is probably the worst combination of conditions. The temperature was right at zero, and the snow was coming down in big chunks.

The first problem, which I consider to be a complete fail that absolutely needs to be addressed, is the light bar across the front of the frunk. It's a giant frosted bulb that doesn't focus the light anywhere. Instead, it lights up the falling snow as you drive down the highway as if you have your high beams on. Actually, it's worse than high beams because they at least have a cut-off line.

I was down to 40 or 50 km/h (24 mph) because all I could see was snow. It felt as if I was jumping to warp speed. This was not just difficult—it was actually dangerous.

The second problem was the snow sticking to the headlights themselves. I was forced to stop every few kilometers to wipe it off the lenses so the headlights could form an actual pattern and not just add to the frunk light bar light pollution.

Sure, I've had this sort of problem with cars in the past, but the last one that did this was built in 1976. Seriously!  The aerodynamics of the Cybertruck plaster the snow on the lights instead of blowing it by. Maybe I hit the worst-case set of conditions tonight, but those conditions are far from rare.

I've been living with only Tesla vehicles since the beginning of 2015, so believe me, I've put up with growing pains along the way. I've been willing to forgive Tesla for everything through those 10 years. But this is not just inconvenient - it's dangerous. And I can't believe that winter testing didn't reveal it to be a problem.

At the very least (VERY LEAST), there needs to be a toggle in the lighting settings that allows you to have that band of light automatically go off when the headlights go on, and it's obviously getting dark.

I'm incredibly disappointed. I expected better from Tesla, especially at this price point. I would have been much safer in my 2015 Model S 85D. I've never had this sort of issue with it. Photos from when I got home. It was worse on the highway, but I wasn't going to stand next to the traffic to take a photo.”

Below his post, Brock included a picture of his Cybertruck with the headlights occluded by the snow that has frosted over them.

A brand new $165,990 CAD truck that can’t handle the snow is certainly frustrating, especially when the truck is being sold in Canada.

However, fellow Cybertruck owners say that the truck is fine, and Brock seems like the kind of person who could never be pleased by anything and shouldn’t have bought the truck if he can’t handle these minor issues.

Fellow Cybertruck owner Doug Lukinuk writes…

“I live in Canada and drive regularly through all kinds of snow. The Cybertruck works fantastic. Some people are just very picky. The people who when you look online at a resort or reviews, you see hundreds of 4 or 5-star reviews and a handful of people you will just never please as they can't be pleased and find fault in everything.

Cybertruck is a new build with steer-by-wire and 48-volt architecture, etc, so if you didn't expect a few small detail issues, then you shouldn't have been an early adopter.

Yes, a bit of snow accumulation on the headlights can happen, but it's not like it makes you blind yourself or others. Driving in snow is easy in the cybertruck.”

Personally, I would categorize being forced to lower your speed to 25 mph on the highway and having to stop multiple times to clear the snow off the headlights as major problems.

However, please let me know if you disagree. 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 Now You Know YouTube channel

For more information, check out: I Ordered a Cybertruck Today and Was Assigned a VIN Immediately; Now I’m Afraid Tesla Has Matched Me With a Rejected Truck

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.

Comments

Mansplain (not verified)    December 29, 2024 - 9:27PM

Someone should start selling some magnetic attached blocks of plexiglass that go over the headlights to keep the snow off.... can make an opaque one to cover the light bar too while you're at it...

Richard L Jones (not verified)    December 29, 2024 - 9:34PM

Let the fools who 1-support Musk and his cronies now messing with Americans political system and 2-would pay and insane amount for what's obviously not a "real" working man's truck deserve whatever faults the "vehicle" brings upon them. I'll take a Silverado, F150 or Ram any day. Just stay the h**l away from me.

Chris (not verified)    December 29, 2024 - 10:22PM

I live in Buffalo. We get SNOW. "Heavy" and "snow" don't mix. Snow compromises your traction, and weight adds to your momentum. That's stopping and turning - that's bad.
High horsepower is potentially bad - the more horsepower, the more gentle you have to be with the throttle or you'll spin the tires.
Even AWD is only an advantage to get moving from a stop.

So here you have this high horsepower, uber-heavy truck with headlights in a recessed cavity above a snow-collecting shelf of a bumper, and a daytime running light bar at the upper edge of the front end -
On top of the weight -
On top of the fact that lithium batteries lose capacity in freezing temperatures -
Of COURSE this is an going to be terrible in a winter climate.

The result is not only predictable, but inevitable. Not sorry that the result was exactly what you should have expected!

Peter (not verified)    January 1, 2025 - 9:44PM

In reply to by Chris (not verified)

I live around Montreal, we get snow also... It should also be recognized that a some weight, particularly when well distributed, is beneficial to traction. In my childhood filled with rear-wheel drive (& front engined) cars, people always put sand bags in the back to improve traction. Most EV's (either RWD or AWD) have great traction because of the near perfect weight distribution, and Teslas are better than most because they are usually lighter than what comes from the big American brands. You should know that the cybertruck is lighter than the electric Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado, and GMC Hummer.

Rudi Klein (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 5:51AM

Doug is the type of guy who doesn't let safety get in the way of some fun, and doesn't care for fellow drivers in normal cars anyway.
At the other hand: Brock is the guy that bought a design nightmare from a South African psycho who has no interest in humans.
There are no winners in this discussion.

sam smith (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 8:48AM

Any new car or truck is going to have "growing pains", And I would not let that stop me from buying one,,, In about ten years, after they are grown up a bit.

Justana Mericun (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 9:49AM

I’ll stick with my ‘95 F150. It handles snowy conditions just fine and I never have to stop and clean my headlights to see the road. Going 25 in snow/icy conditions is much safer for everyone. I haven’t had a wreck or even a close call by being conservative and courteous to others. And I don’t see ANY justifiable reason to invest that amount of money is a vehicle that frankly is highly overrated and severely lacking in quality. Poor engineering and a rush to production, without proper safety testing, produces low quality results.

Bob McDonnold (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 10:47AM

Interesting article. However you need to do a better job of fact checking and especially editing. The picture of the young man standing next to the cybertruck is not Brock Nanson. I googled his name. The person in the picture is Jesse, a well known YouTuber from Massachusetts. He co hosts the Now You Know you tube channel.
It seems you were more interested in slamming the cybertruck then anything else. You did mention at the end of the article that other people thought Mr Nanson was overreacting. You could have done a better job. Also Mr Nanson owns a red model S that he seems to like alot considering all the pictures he posted of it. Of the hundreds of pictures he posted on line none are of the cybertruck. Curious.
Thank you for reading to the end.
Bob McDonnold

Brock Nanson (not verified)    December 31, 2024 - 2:21PM

In reply to by Bob McDonnold (not verified)

Well, at least you did your research. Yes, I've had the Model S since early 2015. It's a great car and has been essentially trouble free all these years. The Cybertruck arrived at the beginning of December. The only photos of it are in the Cybertruck Canada group (where the story was harvested by TorqueNews) and the local EV group. Both are not viewable by non-members.

I love the truck otherwise and it's great in adverse conditions. The problem is the perfect storm of darkness and a wet snow blizzard. I think the DRL can be solved through a firmware fix that turns it off at night... could be a user-selectable option.

The truck is otherwise amazing, but as is typical, people judge a book by its cover.

Jonny Questla (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 11:54AM

Tape the light bar with duct tape. Put saran wrap over the headlights. Get a rebate from Trumpla until they update the software to turn off the light bar, and sell clip on plastic headlamp covers.
Word.

Evard (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 12:49PM

I wonder if a length of clear tubing at the right diameter wouldn't fit snugly in that channel to keep the snow from accumulating inside of it? Might be a temporary fix until Tesla can design a snow shield that can be put on the vehicle whenever the winter tires go on.

Lucifer (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 4:26PM

If i paid almost 165,000.00 I would not expect to have to get out every few miles in a Canadians winter to clear the snow from headlights! These people saying he is just complaining need to remove their heads from musks rear end!!

Jason (not verified)    December 30, 2024 - 5:52PM

I agree that it can be dangerous for the headlights to get blocked off. But what the real danger is being out out the vehicle on the side of busy highway. You absolutely need light to drive at night.

CM (not verified)    January 2, 2025 - 4:33PM

In reply to by Wayne Burch (not verified)

Yeah, he should stay in the U.S. where good old patriotic AMERICAN snow won't stick to the headlights like that Canadian snow does. Totally different snow the moment you cross that imaginary line. Affects the truck differently.

Justin (not verified)    December 31, 2024 - 4:19AM

Any vehicle with led headlights has the issue of snow build up on the headlights if they are not aerodynamic. This happens to guys in the Jeeps groups all the time. The owners buy led headlights with heating elements on the lens or run auxiliary lights.

The article should read Experiencing "Her" Cybertruck. That's how I read it anyway. Probably had her summer tires on to.

Chas Reay (not verified)    December 31, 2024 - 10:36PM

Not just Telsa, but every auto maker uses led bulbs in tail/stop lamps. Nice in the summer but no heat there to melt snow on the rear of vehicle.

Harry M. Stone (not verified)    January 1, 2025 - 7:11AM

Why would you buy a tonka toy truck in the first place?
Ive been a mechanic for over 40 years and have driven several tesla's.
I've come to the conclusion they are a cheaply made vehicle and i would never own one