The pedal’s cover can supposedly slide off and get wedged under the plastic bulkhead, leading to unintended acceleration.
Many soon-to-be Cybertruck customers are facing delivery delays due to unintended acceleration issues that existing owners are facing. While some customers with deliveries slated didn’t get any explanations—just emails from Tesla informing them of a delay—others have been told that it’s due to a faulty accelerator pedal that can cause sudden full-throttle acceleration.
TikTok user el.chapito1985 posted a video explaining what happened to their Cybertruck, clarifying the delays that other owners have posted about on Cybertruck forums and Reddit. The issue stems not from the pedal exactly but its aluminum plate cover, which can slide up while driving and wedge itself in between the pedal and the plastic bulkhead. When that happens, the cover pins the throttle nearly flat to the floor and keeps it there even after you lift your foot off. Holding the brake pedal down fully will override the throttle position and allow the truck to stop, but once you let off the brake, it’s back to full throttle. So drivers will have to shut the truck down once they get it stopped.
At that point, you can remove the pedal cover and everything is back to normal. But even one sudden, unexpected burst of wide-open throttle in a vehicle with up to 845 horsepower and weighing up to 6,600 pounds can be disastrous, especially if the driver panics.
To remedy the issue on new trucks, Tesla seems to have put a stop sale on Cybertrucks, according to an X post from Tesla influencer @WholeMarsBlog. “Tesla has stopped all Cybertruck deliveries for 7 days due to an issue with the accelerator pedal,” it reads.
There’s no word on exactly how many Cybertrucks are already on the road with faulty pedal covers, so owners may want to preemptively remove them to be safe. Of course, customers can also bring their trucks to their local Tesla service centers to have the pedals checked, fixed, or replaced, to prevent any future crashes. The remedy shouldn’t be too complicated; if the Cybertruck’s pedal covers really are merely snapped into place out of the factory, some adhesive or fasteners should do the trick. Nevertheless, owners have reportedly gone without their trucks while getting repaired, and and one said they were offered only an Uber credit to get home from the service center.
Tesla is far from the only company to face unintended acceleration issues. Audi had a controversy in the ’80s (although, it turned out to be a farce and was caused by driver error) and Toyota infamously dealt with one more recently. However, as cars get heavier and more powerful, defects like these become even bigger problems. And when they’re caused by easily avoidable quality control issues, like flimsy pedal covers on very expensive pickups, they’re especially frustrating.
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