Tesla Live Streams 1280-Mile Baja Desert Cybertruck Off-Road Durability Test Using a Starlink Mobility Unit

Back in April 2020, talking about the Cybertruck, Elon Musk said: “We’re working on increasing dynamic air suspension travel for better off-roading.” And Musk said the reason for the improved air suspension is that the Cybertruck “Needs to kick butt in Baja.”

If you happen to be unfamiliar with what Musk is referring to, Baja 1000 is a Mexican off-road motorsport race held each year on the Baja California Peninsula. The Baja 1000 rally is one of the most challenging off-road races in the world covering up to 900 miles and attracts competitors from all parts of the globe.

We’re working on increasing dynamic air suspension travel for better off-roading. Needs to kick butt in Baja.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 16, 2020

Musk’s promise to build a truck capable of finishing the Baja 1000 rally stock from the factory is now a few years old. However, after the frustrating wait, the Cybertruck is now only weeks away from beginning customer deliveries.

Related News: Breaking: An Early VIN Tesla Cybertruck Sells For $400,000 at an Auction Predicting Incredible Demand

And now, as Tesla finishes up final testing ahead of Cybertruck volume production, the EV maker has kept its CEO’s promise and taken two release candidate Cybertrucks on a harrowing 1280-mile journey across the Baja peninsula. The journey began in San Deigo and ended at the tip of Cabo bordering the Pacific Ocean.

This on its own if reported is exciting however, Tesla has upped the ante by not only announcing that the Cybertruck has completed this feat but, the EV maker also hoped on X and streamed live the Cybertruck completing this journey.

During the live stream, a Tesla engineer gave us several interesting facts about not only the 2 release candidate Cybertrucks that completed this journey but also about the different types of terrain they traversed in the week-long journey, the Starlink mobility unit the trucks were fitted with, the overall performance of the release candidate Cybertrucks, the success and issues throughout the trip and so on.

Cybertruck in Bajahttps://t.co/v6pBnoQHPu
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 9, 2023

Below is some of the interesting commentary from the Tesla engineer during the livestream…

We’re coming to you live from Baja, California in Mexico. We’re shooting this from Starlink

We’re down here in Mexico, and we’ve got two release candidate Cybertrucks doing off-road durability testing because we wanted to see firsthand how these trucks handle one of the most challenging routes in the world

These two trucks are straight out of the factory except for some special race seats we’ve got installed as you can see we’re getting jostled pretty hard. We’ve got 5-point harnesses for our safety otherwise, this is off the factory floor.

We’ve obviously also attached a Starlink mobility unit and that’s what we’re using for this livestream. We’ve been out on this route for about a week now. We started up at San Diego and we’ve taken the whole Baja peninsula down. We’re nearly to the bottom in Cabo, 1280 miles later.

This trip was pretty awesome and was made possible by the Tesla destination charging network. The team had chargers set up at hotels all along the route. So anyone with a Tesla can follow along with the route we did. 

The terrain we’ve been on has been unbelievably varied as well. Of course, we’ve got the Baja desert but we’ve also hit sand wash, that’s what we’re in right now. We’ve got rocky ridges we had to climb through. We’ve forests of giant cactus we made it through. We went through a salt flat that had salt ponds, pretty sweet, up and over a ton of mountains, and of course, it’s Baja there was a washboard.

I’m sure everybody is wondering how did the trucks do. Well, you can kind of see for yourself these trucks are hardcore they’re super fun super durable. The only issue we’ve had is two flat tires so far. We’re still a few miles from the ocean but we’ll make it. 

The ability of these trucks is super impressive. You can get on the road driving super comfortably on the road, turn off into the trailhead and suddenly switch to off-road mode. We’ve got air suspension and active dumpers so we can totally change the ride and handling characteristics of the vehicle and of course, it’s not just capable but it’s super fun as you can see from our viewpoint here.

This has been a super fun trip really successful overall as far as the off-road durability trip. We’ve got lots of sit time tuning all the firmware all the variables, testing out all the hardware, and taking it to the extreme. It’s been great. Really excited for everybody to get a chance to experience this product as we have.

Overall I’m super impressed and I want to give a shoutout to the whole team everybody involved, everybody from the studio team who made this iconic design to the engineering team that took great pride in the details of every part and especially the factory team that has made it a reality. 

It’s been great working with everyone in this process. And the end product of this super capable product is super fun. It’s hard to put into words. Here you go you can see the ocean up ahead that’s the Pacific Ocean the tip of Cabo. That’s all for now we’ll be signing off. Have a good one everyone.

From the Tesla engineer's accounts, it appears that the release candidate Cybertrucks were able to complete the entire trail without any issue except for a couple of flat tires. This makes the Cybertruck perhaps the most durable mass-produced vehicle in the world.

Currently, this is all the information we’ve regarding the Cybertruck’s off-road durability testing however, we’ll be sure to keep you posted once we get further information. Until then, make sure to visit our site torquenews.com/Tesla regularly for the latest updates.

So what do you think? Excited to learn that a stock Cybertruck was able to complete a journey through the Baja peninsula? Do you think the Cybertruck will be the vehicle of choice for off-road enthusiasts? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.

Image: Courtesy of Tesla, Inc.

For more information check out: Hundreds of Cybertruck Giga Castings Spotted at Giga Texas as Tesla Tests Sub Systems Ahead Volume Production

Tinsae Aregay has been following Tesla and The evolution of the EV space on a daily basis 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.