Tesla Cybertruck’s “Bulletproof” Fail That Made Elon Musk Go Viral

Benzinga

In 2019, Tesla’s big Cybertruck reveal turned into instant meme history when a live demo of its “armor glass” went hilariously wrong. Chief designer Franz von Holzhausen threw steel balls at the truck’s windows — and both shattered on stage. Elon Musk laughed it off, Tesla leaned into the chaos with merch and tweets, and over 200,000 preorders rolled in within days. Nearly six years later, Franz calls it “marketing gold.” Sometimes, the best pitch is a broken window and a sense of humor.

Transcript

00:00Ever seen a truck marketed as bulletproof go full meme material on stage? That was the

00:04Cybertruck debut, more viral than visionary. Back in 2019, during Tesla's grand unveiling,

00:11chief designer Franz von Holzhausen hurled not one, but two steel balls at the so-called armor

00:16glass. Both windows shattered on live TV. Elon Musk laughed it off, quipping, well,

00:21maybe that was a little too hard. And after the second hit added, it didn't go through.

00:25The audience laughed along. Fast forward nearly six years, and von Holzhausen isn't calling it a flop.

00:30In a recent interview with Tesla Club Austria, he called that moment a great meme, and said it

00:35actually worked in Tesla's favor, even though the glass cracked. He insists, the ball didn't go through

00:40the window, so you're still safe. They doubled down on the chaos. Tesla even made t-shirts featuring

00:45the shattered window silhouette, while Musk played into it on X, tweeting, guess we have some

00:50improvements to make before production. Orders poured in, with over 200,000 Cybertruck reservations

00:56materializing within days. So, what started as a demo fail turned into marketing gold. Proof that

01:02sometimes the best safety pitch is a shattered window, plus a sense of humor.

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