Clearly one of Elon Musk’s pet features (among many) for the Tesla Cybertruck was some level of bullet resistance. It was one of the lead features touted at the infamous reveal in 2019, and it survived to the production model. As shown in official videos, the truck’s panels would stop 9-mm and .45-caliber pistol ammunition (“Tommy Guns” are chambered for .45 ACP; put simply, it’s a machine pistol -Hurd). But of course, as we noted, there are many other kinds of ammunition fired from different weapons; larger and faster kinds of ammunition. So what’s the limit on what a Cybertruck can stop? Electric wheelchair builder and YouTube phone durability tester JerryRigEverything found out, and you can see the results in the video at top.
The video starts off with repeated testing of 9mm rounds, which the truck’s panels shrug off pretty handily. They leave severe dents, but nothing gets through. From there, testing escalates to .22-, .17-, .223- and finally .50-caliber rifle rounds. We won’t tell you where the limit is because that would spoil the video, but it should come as no surprise that the .50-caliber round manages to punch through both sides of the door and do a number on the interior trim. In a fairly prudent move for a not-very-prudent activity, the group opened the door to shoot at when moving up to the rifle ammo, so that if anything got through, it wouldn’t tear up more of the cabin. And of course, this was all done at an official shooting range with sufficient safety precautions.
As noted both by us and JerryRigEverything, this feature is performative more than anything, since the glass on the Cybertruck is pretty normal automotive glass. So that won’t stop any kind of bullet. If you want or need actual protection from guns, you should go to an armored-vehicle upfitter that can provide a vehicle with actual armored glass in addition to panels. Still, this does show that the Cybertruck can stop many common handgun bullets and your garden-variety .22LR — provided they aren’t pointed at the glass. Make sure you don’t end up on Hans Gruber’s bad side.