News
I took a Tesla Cybertruck Demo Drive — Here’s what I learned
Upon learning that Tesla was offering Cybertruck Demo Drives across the United States, I decided to sign up for one. I have not gotten my hands on what is inarguably the most unorthodox vehicle on the market right now (and likely ever), but I’ve been lucky enough to see plenty of them in Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Florida, where I took a vacation in April.
I went in with a very open mind. I love to drive a larger vehicle, and a pickup truck, while I’ve never owned one due to lack of necessity, is probably my favorite thing to journey around in.
I decided to book the Demo Drive at the West Chester, Pennsylvania, Showroom just outside of Philadelphia. I took the roughly 90-minute ride out to Chester County on Tuesday. Here’s what I learned from my 30-minute ride:
First things first, it’s a modern marvel of vehicle engineering
While I’ve seen a lot of Cybertrucks, I’ve never gotten up close and personal with one. I don’t necessarily feel super comfortable walking up to anyone’s car and doing a deep examination, so I waited for the right opportunity.
The Cybertruck is obviously eye-catching, but I was really impressed with how this one looked in terms of build quality.
I know that there were some issues early on with Cybertrucks, but it’s no surprise that something like this would be relatively difficult to put together early on. I didn’t see many inadequacies in how these units were built.
There were two parked out front and so many readying for customer deliveries in the back. According to the employee I took my Demo Drive with, they had delivered 300 units so far.
You don’t really feel like you’re driving a pickup
I’ve driven a lot of trucks in my life: F-150s, F-250s, Dodge Rams, Toyota Tundras, and Tacomas.
One thing I noticed getting into the Cybertruck, it doesn’t really feel like you’re driving a truck. It feels sporty, fast, and agile. I was impressed by that, I am not sure what it was about it; perhaps it was the standard ride height or just the overall design of the pickup. I feel like I sit up much higher in a traditional pickup.
The F-150 Lightning, for example, feels like you’re sitting in a regular truck: you’re up high, it feels wide and bulky. It’s in no way sporty. It’s fast, because it’s an EV, but it’s a completely different feel.
It truly captures what Tesla meant when it said it wanted to redesign the pickup.
Steer-by-Wire is incredible
The showroom employee I spoke to said that they have trouble turning a Model 3 around through their narrow parking lots. If they need to swing it around, they can do it, but it requires a multiple-point turn.
He then told me that thanks to the steer-by-wire on the Cybertruck, this wasn’t as much of a task. “We actually have less of a hassle getting the Cybertruck turned around. It’s amazing.”
I had to make a U-turn during a portion of my drive, and I was also told that a traditional pickup truck driver had to back their vehicle up to make the turn. When they were tasked to do the same turn in the Cybertruck, they didn’t trust that it would make it.
It did without any issues.
I felt like it was a very easy adjustment. It took all of 30 seconds to get used to the more advanced turning system in the Cybertruck compared to a regular vehicle. It is probably my favorite part about the whole truck.
It’s fun to drive on open routes and backroads
I remember writing about how much fun the Model 3 Highland was to drive on backroads. The Cybertruck is probably just as fun.
But it also is really fun to drive out in the open on state routes that are busy and have multiple lanes. Some cars get kind of monotonous on the straightforward streets. I wasn’t really ever bored with it (maybe I would be after more than 30 minutes).
It was smooth and fast and hugged corners really well. I never questioned taking turns in it, even sharp ones when I was at a stop sign. It just handled and drove really well, and I do think the steer-by-wire was a big reason for that.
I would get it wrapped
One thing that stood out to me a lot was the overwhelming amount of fingerprints on the door.
This was pretty much a non-negotiable argument that I would absolutely get my Cybertruck wrapped if I ever decide to snag one. I wouldn’t want to constantly be wiping these things off, even though I really love the stainless steel. Matte black would be my choice.
So … will we see each other again?
— Cybertruck (@cybertruck) August 14, 2024
Final Thoughts
I really enjoyed my drive. I have been a fan of the Cybertruck since it was unveiled in 2019. It’s hard to believe I was only with Teslarati for a few months at that point, and here I am five years later, and this truck is now being seen pretty frequently.
Whether you’re a fan of it or not, I would really recommend you go see it and check out all the awesome features. Even if you have no intention of buying one, go take a drive and feel the steer-by-wire, the unique size, and agility of such a large truck, and take in what is one of the coolest cars out on the market right now.
I’d love to hear from you! If you have any comments, concerns, or questions, please email me at joey@teslarati.com. You can also reach me on Twitter @KlenderJoey, or if you have news tips, you can email us at tips@teslarati.com.
Elon Musk
SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know
SpaceX priced its historic IPO at $135 per share today, raising a record $75 billion.
SpaceX officially priced its initial public offering at $135 per share, offering 555,555,555 shares of Class A common stock and raising $75 billion in what is the largest IPO in stock market history. Shares are set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Global Select Market on Friday, June 12, under the ticker symbol SPCX. The previous record holder was Saudi Aramco’s 2019 offering at $29 billion, followed by Alibaba’s $22 billion offering in 2014.
At $135 per share and roughly 555.6 million shares, the implied valuation sits near $1.75 trillion, which would make SpaceX roughly the seventh largest company in the United States, just above Tesla’s current market cap. Regular investors can request shares at the IPO price through Robinhood, Fidelity, Charles Schwab, SoFi, and E*TRADE, though the deal is heavily oversubscribed and most retail allocations will be partial or unfilled. Once trading opens June 12, anyone with a brokerage account can buy SPCX on the open market.
SpaceX’s amended S-1 is sparking a major Tesla merger conversation
The valuation is anchored primarily by Starlink. Starlink crossed 10 million subscribers as of February 2026 and is adding 750,000 to 1.5 million new users per month, with the connectivity segment already posting a $1.19 billion profit last quarter. The offering also bundles in xAI following SpaceX’s all-stock merger earlier this year, adding Grok and the Colossus supercomputer to the investment thesis. As Teslarati reported, Starlink ended 2025 with $10 billion in revenue, a figure analysts project could reach $24 billion by end of 2026.
Wedbush analyst Dan Ives has been vocal in his support. “I think the time is right,” Ives said, adding that the offering expands the Elon Musk ecosystem rather than competing with Tesla. An average 12-month price target of $165 per share represents roughly 22% upside from the IPO price. Not everyone agrees – Motley Fool noted xAI is spending $1 billion per month playing catch-up to OpenAI and Anthropic.
Musk founded SpaceX in 2002 with a single stated purpose. “Elon founded SpaceX with a goal to change humanity, to make us a multi-planet species,” CFO Bret Johnsen said in the company’s retail roadshow video this week. Musk himself has been more direct: “We are building the systems and technologies necessary to provide global connectivity on Earth and beyond, to understand the true nature of the universe, and to extend the light of consciousness to the stars.”
Investor's Corner
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
Tesla’s folding Supercharger just arrived in Europe and it changes how fast charging expands.
Tesla’s Folding Unit Supercharger has officially landed in Europe, with the company teasing a new installation in its effort for a broader rollout targeting major motorway rest stops across the European continent in Q3 2026. The arrival marks a notable shift in how Tesla is thinking about network expansion, moving from hardware performance alone to engineering the logistics chain itself.
While Tesla did not reveal the exact location for the new folding Supercharger in Europe, the photo shared on X heavily suggests that this maybe somewhere in Norway. Historically, whenever Tesla rolls out an entirely new infrastructure architecture in Europe, whether it was the original Supercharger stalls years ago or these brand-new modular V4 “Folding Units”, Norway is almost always the designated launch pad because of its unmatched EV adoption rate and supportive infrastructure
The Folding Unit, introduced in March 2026, is a factory pre-assembled V4 charging station built on an industrial hinge system mounted to a heavy-duty concrete base. The entire assembly arrives on site ready to unfold and connect. Tesla confirmed the units feature telescopic light poles specifically designed for easy transportation and fast on-site deployment, a detail that signals how carefully the logistics chain has been engineered alongside the hardware itself. The design allows 33% more stalls per delivery truck, cuts installation time roughly in half, and reduces overall deployment costs by more than 20% compared to traditional installations.
Tesla’s newest “Folding V4 Superchargers” are key to its most aggressive expansion yet
Tesla also noted telescopic light poles which provide benefits over traditional Supercharger installations that require fixed-height poles that are awkward to ship, slow to position on site, and often require separate crews and equipment to erect before charging hardware can even be staged. By engineering poles that compress for transit and extend on arrival, Tesla has removed one of the quieter bottlenecks in the physical deployment process. Every hour saved on a light pole installation is an hour redirected toward getting stalls energized. At scale, across dozens of new sites per quarter, those hours add up to a meaningful acceleration in how quickly a location goes from approved permit to serving its first customer.
Each Folding Unit pairs a single V4 power cabinet with eight charging posts. The V4 cabinet delivers up to 500 kW per stall for passenger vehicles and up to 1.2 MW for the Tesla Semi, supporting twice the stalls per cabinet at three times the power density of its predecessor. Longer cables make every new station immediately usable by non-Tesla vehicles, a priority as Tesla continues opening its network to Ford, GM, Rivian, Hyundai, Stellantis, and others.
As Teslarati reported when the Folding Unit was first unveiled, Tesla’s Gigafactory New York produced its final V3 Supercharger cabinet in March 2026 after more than seven years and 15,000 units, completing a full pivot to V4 production. The European arrival of the folding design is the next chapter in that transition.
Faster and cheaper deployment means Tesla can justify building in markets and corridors that were previously too expensive to serve, filling the coverage gaps that have slowed EV adoption outside major urban centers.
First Folding Unit Superchargers in Europe 🇪🇺 https://t.co/KNfYWJukkL pic.twitter.com/YR1udIpH1i
— Tesla Charging (@TeslaCharging) June 10, 2026
Tesla has stunned by gaining yet another approval for its Full Self-Driving suite in Europe, its second in two days and its fifth overall.
Belgium will be the latest country to allow Tesla owners to utilize FSD on public roads in Europe, joining a quickly growing list that started with the Netherlands, Lithuania, and Estonia.
On Tuesday, Denmark announced its approval of the FSD suite, which has now been followed by Belgium just one day later.
The country’s Minister of Mobility, Annick De Ridder, announced the approval on her X account, stating that she had just signed the approval of Tesla FSD. It now goes to the country’s homologation department for the last step of the approval process.
De @Tesla community houdt hier al geruime tijd de vinger aan de pols over de toelating voor de FSD-technologie op onze Vlaamse en Belgische wegen.
Uit waardering voor jullie niet-aflatende interesse (en aanmoediging 😉), krijgen jullie hierbij de primeur: ik heb net de toelating… pic.twitter.com/Yrps4OHTj8— Annick De Ridder (@AnnickDeRidder) June 10, 2026
The Belgian approval is one of mighty importance because it truly shows how quickly countries in Europe could greenlight the FSD suite consecutively. Approvals are already coming in relatively quickly, which is a great sign.
Perhaps the next big development that could come from FSD approvals in Europe is an approval from a country like England, Italy, France, Spain, or Germany. It would be something to see how FSD would perform in a major European metro, such as London, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris, Rome, or Berlin.
Getting Full Self-Driving in Spain and England will be such huge milestones for Tesla. I am so excited to see how FSD performs in Madrid, Barcelona, and London, specifically.
The ultimate test will always be Mumbai or New Delhi. Excited for India’s eventual approval! https://t.co/paw9Ch1qmL pic.twitter.com/9RdDERVSSJ
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 9, 2026
Full Self-Driving does an excellent job of roaming around major U.S. cities like New York and Los Angeles, but other high-profile international cities of significance would truly mark a line in the sand for Tesla, which can simply enable any vehicle in its customer-owned fleet to run FSD with the correct approvals.
SpaceX (SPCX) IPO is live today at $135: Here’s exactly what you need to know
Tesla unfolded its first European “folding Supercharger”
