A bizarre incident at a popular North Texas recreation spot has resulted in an arrest after a man deliberately submerged his Tesla Cybertruck in Grapevine Lake to test the electric pickup’s advertised off-road wading capability. The Grapevine Police Department reported that first responders were dispatched to the lakeshore on Monday following reports of a submerged, abandoned vehicle that had become trapped after taking on significant water. The driver and any passengers had fled the scene before officers arrived, leaving the partially flooded Cybertruck stuck near the south shoreline.
Tesla’s official owner documentation for the angular stainless-steel pickup explicitly names wade mode as a feature designed to let drivers traverse shallow bodies of water like creeks and small rivers, with a rated maximum depth of 32 inches (81.5 centimeters) measured from the base of the vehicle’s tires. According to police statements, the driver admitted to intentionally entering the lake solely to test out this factory-included feature, despite the area of the lake where he entered being closed to vehicle traffic. After the truck filled with water and became immobilized, he and his companions left it half-submerged for emergency crews to extract.
The recovery operation required joint work between Grapevine police and the Grapevine Fire Department’s specialized water rescue team, who pulled the damaged electric vehicle from the shallow near-shore waters. In addition to the charge of operating a vehicle in a closed section of the lake, the driver faces multiple misdemeanor citations for violations of state water safety equipment regulations. Law enforcement has emphasized that even though the Cybertruck is engineered to handle limited shallow water crossings, testing that capability in a public lake carries both legal and life-safety risks under Texas state law.
“We wouldn’t encourage willingly driving your vehicle into the water,” Grapevine Police Department spokesperson Katharina Gamboa told CBS News, the US partner of the BBC. “Not only that, it’s a safety concern, but it’s also a legal concern as well.”
First unveiled to public fanfare in 2019, Tesla’s futuristic Cybertruck — built with ultra-hard 30X cold-rolled stainless steel marketed as bullet-resistant against small arms fire — only began full customer deliveries in 2023. Tesla’s owner manual includes clear warnings that go beyond just depth limits: the manufacturer explicitly warns drivers against attempting to cross deep, fast-moving water such as rapids or flood-swollen channels, and notes that it is the driver’s sole responsibility to confirm water depth before attempting any crossing. Critically, the automaker also specifies that any damage or water intrusion caused by driving the vehicle through bodies of water is not covered under the vehicle’s factory warranty, leaving owners liable for all repair costs if something goes wrong.