The frunk on the new Tesla Cybertruck was under scrutiny after a viral video showed the opening ... [+]
A worrisome video was circulating social media for over the past month: A man holds a cucumber and carrot between the Tesla Cybertruck powered front trunk, or “frunk,” opening and the compartment lid crunches down on the vegetables with no hesitation.
After that, a car dealer decided to on-camera test other vehicle’s automatic tailgates (notice no other frunks were tested) including the Mercedes-Benz GLS 450 (the cucumber and carrot stick were spared), BMW X7 (also spared), Toyota Highlander (the veggies get slightly pinched before the door realizes an object is in the way) and Kia Carnival (the door immediately releases open) to give a sense of other liftgates’ response in the same situation.
Then this week, automotive culture TV show Top Gear dropped a video of the Cybertruck on a camping trip. Top Gear magazine’s editor-in-chief, Jack Rix, immediately addresses the “slightly alarming” frunk-slicing-vegetables issue and tests it out.
Around the 2.5-minute mark, Rix shows what happens when he puts a banana on the edge of the frunk: “Supposedly Tesla has improved things,” he prefaces. Sure enough, the frunk lid assuredly bounces off the banana with no sliced fruit (or fingers). It appears Top Gear was testing an updated Cybertruck with more sensitive sensors than the electric pickup from earlier this year as seen in the scary vegetable-slicing demo. “Health and safety is all in order,” Rix jokes.
Tesla investor Sawyer Merritt, a prolific X poster on all things Tesla and EV, later explained that the Cybertruck in the camping video had Tesla’s “spring” software update, known as 2024.14.3, which includes better sensing on the frunk enclosure. The release, coming to vehicles this week through an over-the-air update, also includes a new hands-free trunk opening feature. Cybertruck owners have praised the powered frunk, a first for Tesla’s EV lineup.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, has an interpretation from its chief counsel about power liftgates but no official guidance or standards about sensors on powered openings.
In a 2001 letter to Fiat, the agency responded to the automaker’s plans to equip the liftgate with obstacle sensors: “These sensors are capable of detecting the presence of an obstacle in both directions, e.g., both opening and closing, and will stop the motion of the liftgate until the obstacle is removed,” the letter stated. “We appreciate your effort to reduce the likelihood of injuries caused by the inadvertent closing of a liftgate on an occupant.”
The Top Gear video comes as the main electric pickup frunk competitor, the Ford F-150 Lightning with its spacious Mega Power Frunk, saw sales up 57% in April. Ford also reported a new monthly record for hybrid sales (up 60% from the same month last year) with the F-150 PowerBoost Hybrid and Maverick Hybrid leading the sales boost.
Tesla had its worst sales quarter since the pandemic began. Last month, all 3,878 Cybertrucks on the road were recalled because of an issue with the accelerator pedal pad that could dislodge and get stuck under the trim.
