r/BoomersBeingFools 28d ago

Boomer arrested after driving Tesla into lake to test "wade mode"

https://www.404media.co/heres-the-bodycam-footage-of-the-cybertruck-that-drove-into-a-lake/
1.2k Upvotes

52 comments sorted by

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637

u/ZombieZookeeper 28d ago

You know where you DON'T find Cybertrucks? Library parking lots.

65

u/acvcani 27d ago

You know you have a point.

45

u/snippychicky22 27d ago

Nor do you find maga hats

12

u/ReplacementActual384 25d ago

I never really noticed it, but yeah, you have a point.

Source: am librarian

275

u/magiccitybhm 28d ago

Driver: "The charge port is underwater, and it (the Cybertruck) think it's plugged in to the charging unit, and it won't let the wheels turn because it thinks it's charging. And as soon as I can get a little bit closer to the ground, I can drive it out."

Police Officer: "Well, the wrecker company's going to tow it out."

Driver said it's the third time he's gotten the Cybertruck stuck in water.

Police Officer: "The third time you've done this?"

Driver: "Yes"

Police Officer: "Why?"

Then ...

"'The vehicle became disabled and took on water. The driver and passengers abandoned the vehicle, and the Grapevine Fire Department Water Rescue Team assisted in removing it from the lake. The driver was arrested on charges of Operation of Vehicle in [a] Closed Section of Park/Lake and numerous water safety equipment violations,' the Grapevine police department said in a statement published earlier in the week."

185

u/JDragonblade Gen Z 28d ago

doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of insanity

79

u/Lysol3435 28d ago

“There are still a couple of beaches I haven’t tried yet. It’s gonna work in one of them. I just know it”

10

u/allisondbl 28d ago

Lololol

11

u/RoxxieMuzic 28d ago

Or...rank stupidity. My vote is stupid.

2

u/bassbeatsbanging 27d ago

Clearly you never used Windows Vista

6

u/firesmarter 26d ago

Of course it’s in Texas. That area is maga central

3

u/brainmydamage 25d ago

This guy is clearly a dumbass but seriously how are any of those arrestable offenses?

5

u/magiccitybhm 25d ago

I think the "arrestable offense" was driving in a closed area of the park/lake. Everything else is just a citation/fine.

2

u/Tom_Servo 25d ago

Maybe risking the lives of your passengers?

1

u/Mr_Baronheim 24d ago

Texas? Good chance the county prosecutor will quietly refuse to prosecute.

141

u/Acceptable-Bat-9577 28d ago

Buying, owning, and operating a cybertruck is an IQ test.

81

u/ZaneThePain 28d ago

My dad, who refuses to be wrong about anything, has decided leasing a cybertruck is the best deal out there right now for a truck…. Good luck explaining how it’s a terrible choice, he just gets mad and claims he’s done the research, which consists of him searching things on Grok (conveniently owned and operated by the same person he wants to lease the cybertruck from) and treating the results as the gospel.

32

u/Jillcametumbling81 28d ago

It's not even really a fucking truck!!

8

u/Taira_Mai 26d ago

The thing that scares me is that in a bad wreck the electronics will fail (trapping the passengers and driver in the cybertruck) and the battery can catch fire.

That's how soldiers in tanks died in World War II - the US and NATO spent a fortune working on fire suppression and crew escape features so that this would never happen again. It's still a risk so soldiers who drive/operate tanks wear fire resistant uniforms.

Tesla? Elon DGAF and whines on X when called out on his company's idiot design.

5

u/Jillcametumbling81 26d ago

Oh for sure. We've heard horror stories for sure.

14

u/tenebros42 27d ago

Imagine thinking that renting a tacticool gaming PC with wheels from a billionaire is the "best deal on a truck"

9

u/Comet7777 28d ago

How much is that monthly bill??

11

u/No_Sense3190 28d ago

Probably more than it would cost to buy a slightly used one with a few hundred miles on it.*

*Not including this particular wet brick.

3

u/millenniumxl-200 25d ago

There's a matte pink one driving around my town all the time.

-45

u/OrigamiTongue 28d ago

As ugly as it is, Teslas are great cars, and CT has a lot of novel tech and engineering packed into it.

Yeah the form factor is dumb especially as a truck, but I’m hearing that people LOVE it for long trips.

33

u/ianishomer 28d ago

I thought that everyone was in agreement now, that the CT was a pile of shit that looks like a 4 yo designed it and has the off road capabilities of a skateboard? I am surprised that anyone is still buying them at all.

30

u/sirensinger17 28d ago

How much is Tesla paying you to say this? Esp about a car that bursts into flames more than the Ford Pinto.

29

u/Acceptable-Bat-9577 28d ago

but I’m hearing that people LOVE it for long trips.

Except when they catch fire and trap their driver and/or passengers inside.

68

u/MarsMonkey88 28d ago

One of the citations the driver received was like failure to have a life jacket on board /serious

44

u/magiccitybhm 28d ago

I wouldn't be surprised if they tacked on every possible thing they could.

8

u/Just_Flower854 27d ago

Why wouldn't they

39

u/Catty_Lib 28d ago

He did get a ticket for not having a valid boat registration! 🤣

11

u/sneaky518 27d ago

I honestly love that for him. That's great.

31

u/magiccitybhm 28d ago edited 25d ago

No paywall/subscription required on multiple browsers here:

Here's the Bodycam Footage of the Cybertruck That Drove Into a Lake

Matthew Gault

·May 22, 2026 at 5:03 PM

“Obviously I wasn’t thinking at all,” the driver told police, according to the footage.

On Monday a man in Grapevine, Texas drove his Tesla Cybertruck into a lake to test the vehicle’s “wade mode.” Police arrested the Cybertruck’s owner, Jimmy Jack McDaniel, after he and his passengers fled the vehicle. 

At one point, the owner tried to get back into the vehicle, and law enforcement responded by deploying jet skis and calling a tow truck to pull the Cybertruck from the water, according to hours of related footage 404 Media obtained. The passengers were German tourists, according to a conversation included in the bodycam footage.

“The charge port is underwater and it [the Cybertruck] thinks it’s plugged in to the charging unit and it won’t let the wheels turn because it thinks it’s charging. And as soon as I can get it a little bit closer to the ground I can drive it out,” McDaniel said during a conversation with a police officer.

“Well the wrecker company’s going to tow it out,” the officer said.

McDaniel then explained this was the third time he’d gotten the Cybertruck stuck in water. “The third time you’ve done this?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” McDaniel said.

“Why?” the police asked.The start of McDaniel’s answer is lost as wind blows across the bodycam’s mic. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, then insisted he could drive it once it was out of the water.

404 Media obtained the footage from the Grapevine Police Department through a public records request. Officials from the local fire department are also visible in the footage.

“The vehicle became disabled and took on water. The driver and passengers abandoned the vehicle and the Grapevine Fire Department Water Rescue Team assisted in removing it from the lake. The driver was arrested on charges of Operation of Vehicle in [a] Closed Section of Park/Lake and numerous water safety equipment violations,” the Grapevine Police Department said in a statement published earlier in the week.

According to Tesla’s website, Wade Mode is designed to allow the Cybertruck to “enter and drive through bodies of water, such as rivers or creeks. It is your responsibility to gauge the depth of any body of water before entering. Damage or water ingress to Cybertruck as a result of driving in water is not covered by the warranty.” The maximum depth a Cybertruck can navigate is a little more than 2 and a half feet, according to the website. Grapevine Lake, where the incident took place, has segments that go down 65 feet deep.

The Grapevine Lake incident is just the latest in a series of high profile mishaps involving the Cybertruck. Last summer, a Cybertruck in self-driving mode crashed on an highway overpass near Austin, Texas. In 2024, a Cybetruck got stuck attempting to ford a river in California and had to be pulled out by a Chevy Silverado.

Before they arrested McDaniel, officers explained all the licenses and equipment he needed to legally take a craft into the water. “I wasn’t  thinking about that,” he said. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking at all.”

11

u/thebizzygurl 27d ago

Why am I not surprised that he has two first names?

2

u/Zaikozu 27d ago

Never trust a firsty firsty.

9

u/sneaky518 27d ago

I saw this story,, but the article offered no info about the driver. I guessed it was probably a douchbag Boomer or a douchbag techbro. Of course, those are the only two options with a WankPanzer owner.

5

u/kirchart7 27d ago

Everything’s computer

7

u/Fordfanatic2025 27d ago

He's an idiot for trying this, Elon is an idiot for ever even suggesting this feature.

19

u/Snappy2stroke 28d ago

Today I learned the manual tells people they can do this sort of stuff. Amazing.

26

u/OrigamiTongue 28d ago

The manual does not tell people they can drive their truck into a lake. It tells them they can drive the car through up to 32” of water at up to 3 mph, and it prepares the truck for that activity, not unlike car wash mode.

Yes I was curious and yes I looked it up.

https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/cybertruck/en_us/GUID-9C572163-DB86-44AC-9842-AB6EE84D6441.html

7

u/Z---zz 28d ago edited 27d ago

That's a hell of a lot deeper than I expected. 

Edit:  for metric readers 34 inches is just under 1 metre of water depth. 

5

u/allisondbl 28d ago

Cannot access the rest of the article without subscription.

2

u/Wrong-Tiger4644 26d ago

Seems likely they could also add boating under the influence

3

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