Gary Zhou 
Key Points
- 🚗 The Tesla Cybertruck introduces a new feature called “Wade Mode.”
- 🌊 Wade Mode is designed to help the electric pickup navigate through water and prevent potential damage.
- 📅 CEO Elon Musk had previously expressed the desire for the Cybertruck to travel across small bodies of water, proposing a “Boat Mode.”
- ⬆️ Wade Mode raises the vehicle’s ride height and pressurizes the battery when driving through water, and it is featured in the Off-Road Baja settings.
- 🏞️ While the Cybertruck has been seen navigating through ocean tides, skepticism remains about its capability to handle more challenging water obstacles like ponds or channels.
- 🚤 Musk suggested in October 2022 that effective water travel might require an electric propeller mounted on the tow hitch, but Tesla has not provided details or mentioned it in recent accessory releases.
- 🎥 Despite showcasing the Cybertruck’s speed, acceleration, and towing capabilities in videos, Tesla has not demonstrated its water travel capabilities, suggesting the feature may be more focused on dealing with standing water on roadways.
Tesla Cybertruck has a new feature called “Wade Mode” that will help the all-electric pickup navigate through water and avoid damage that could come from doing so.
CEO Elon Musk has maintained through the past four years that the Cybertruck would be able to travel through water, and the Tesla community has asked for “Boat Mode” as an available feature.
Last year, Musk even stated that he wants the Cybertruck to have the capability to travel across small bodies of water, including a channel between Starbase and South Padre Island.
While we have yet to see if the truck is capable of that sort of water travel, Tesla has already added something called “Wade Mode” to help with large amounts of standing water, which can happen during major storms.
Wade Mode is featured in the Off-Road Baja settings of the vehicle and is described as:
“Raises ride height and pressurizes battery when driving through water.”
We have seen the Cybertruck travel through the tide of the ocean, which happened just days before the delivery event last week.
However, we are still skeptical that it would be able to adequately travel through anything that is truly challenging, like a pond or a channel, as Musk previously aimed for.
Musk said in October 2022 that, in order for the Cybertruck to be an effective water travel vehicle, “You’d need an electric propeller mounted on the tow hitch to go faster than a few knots.”
Tesla has not talked about this propeller, nor did it mention it on the recently-released page of Cybertruck accessories, which launched just a few hours after the first units went into customer hands last Thursday.
There is certainly the chance that Tesla could develop something along these lines in the future, but the capabilities need to be tested extensively before it would even be close to recommended as a potential option for those who want to cross over small bodies of water.
Given that the automaker used several videos during its initial presentation to display the Cybertruck’s speed, acceleration, and towing capabilities, if it was capable of traveling through water at this point, Tesla would have certainly included that footage.
Perhaps this feature is more aimed toward standing water that can accumulate on roadways in an effort to protect the vehicle and its battery pack.
