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Tesla’s CyberTruck took an accidental swim at Ventura Port on Monday, urging multiple agencies to take action to carefully retrieve electric vehicles from the water without causing a toxic battery fire.
Tesla founder Elon Musk tweeted in 2022 that Cybertruck is “waterproof enough to function as a boat for a short period of time, allowing you to cross the uninterrupted ocean.” However, the truck quickly sank into 8 feet of water, said Carson Schevitz, captain of Touboathos Ventura, who helped coordinate the rescue.
Patrol officers for the Ventura Port District discovered the truck swinging on a boat launch ramp before 11am, Shevitz said. The driver told Schevits he was planning to drive the vehicle after firing a jet ski, but accidentally threw it backwards, causing it to slip down the ramp into the water.
The electric vehicle was carefully extracted with the help of multiple engines.
(Towboatus venture)
Schevitz jumped into the water himself and attached the front of the submerged vehicle to a tow truck carrying its land. He said he will work with Tesla and firefighters to carefully plan the mission due to the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries.
“When I first heard that was cybertruck, I immediately thought about batteries,” he said. “It wasn’t ‘Oh, cool’, it was ‘Oh, great’. Because there is a lot we need to understand. ”
Luckily, the truck’s electronics didn’t appear to have been seriously damaged by the dip. The Schevitz team did not find any bubbles or hissings. The warning signs from Tesla engineers could indicate that the battery is releasing gas.
Damaged lithium-ion batteries have a high risk of grabbing fire and releasing toxic gases such as hydrogen fluoride and carbon monoxide. Exposure to salt water can lead to battery failure and potentially cause a fire.
Once these batteries are ignited, they cannot be used to release water and must be left in a safe area to gradually release gas.
“Tesla advised that the best thing to do is to set up a boundary of approximately 45 feet of defensive space around the vehicle,” Schevitz said. “They sent some field engineers who were able to make sure the trucks were in sufficient safety to be transported to the service center.”
Cybertrucks are seen submerged during Monday’s incident in Ventura County.
(Towboatus venture)
The entire mission took two hours and attracted great responses from local agencies, including the Ventura City Fire Department, Ventura Harbor Patrol, the U.S. Coast Guard and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
“It’s rare to see, so I think everyone just wants to see what’s going on,” he said.
Schevitz said Towboatus Ventura frequently responds to calls to rescue damaged boats and in rare cases vehicles are frequently. This is the third submerged vehicle his team has helped retrieve it in the last 12 months, and is undoubtedly the first cybertruck.
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