When Is a Vandalized Cybertruck Not a Vandalized Cybertruck?

As Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become both more politically outspoken and politically extreme, his companies have faced criticism and protests from people opposed to his recent stances. In a handful of cases, that has gone further, involving vandalism at Tesla dealerships and of Tesla vehicles. (It’s also led to the popularity of stickers in the vein of the “Anti Elon Tesla Club” slogan.)

So when a number of Cybertruck owners discovered what looked like messages on the exterior of their vehicles, it wasn’t surprising that they assumed someone had been taking out their frustrations with Musk on their trucks. As Fred Lambert reports at Electrek, the strange messages were very real — but their origin had nothing to do with anti-Musk sentiment. Instead, as the saying goes, the call was coming from inside the house, albeit in a vehicluar manufacturing way.

As Lambert recounts, a Cybertruck owner took to a Facebook group to report that their vehicle’s window had odd writing on it, which they believed was due to an irate anti-Tesla vandal, and asked for tips on removing it. A few other Cybertruck owners chimed in with the solution: this was not actually the result of someone writing initials on a truck; instead, it was the result of a Tesla process gone awry.

According to a service report that one Cybertruck owner posted, the initials were actually the result of “residue from factory protective film.” This is not something that’s supposed to happen, and it’s something that Tesla will rectify if it is brought to their attention.

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One of the other people in the Cybertruck forum suggested that the initials at the heart of this issue referred to Tesla’s delivery centers around the world. This would explain why different Cybertruck owners were seeing different sets of codes on their vehicles. It’s certainly grounds for frustration, but at least it’s a known issue, and one that the automaker can easily address.

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Tobias Carroll

Tobias Carroll lives and writes in New York City, and has been covering a wide variety of subjects — including (but not limited to) books, soccer and drinks — for many years. His writing has been published by the likes of the Los Angeles Times, Pitchfork, Literary Hub, Vulture, Punch, the New York Times and Men’s Journal. At InsideHook, he has…