My New Cybertruck Got Me Flipped Off 7 Times In One Day, 'I Felt I Needed To Go Home And Hide My Truck From The Insanity Around Me'

There was a time, not all that long ago, when driving something weird merely marked you as eccentric, maybe even adventurous. You were the guy with the Citroën or the DeLorean at the cruise night, and people leaned in with curiosity, not contempt.

These days, roll through your hometown in a Tesla Cybertruck and you’re liable to get a middle finger from a minivan and a death stare from a Corolla. We’ve gone from the age of automotive admiration to one of ideological warfare, and the stainless steel wedge from Austin is the front line.

Why the Tesla Cybertruck’s Sparks Unprecedented Road Rage

The Cybertruck was never going to be subtle. From its vaporwave silhouette to its unapologetically unpainted body, it's the vehicular equivalent of wearing mirrored sunglasses indoors. But somewhere between Elon Musk’s Twitter escapades and the truck’s final production reality, public discourse took a turn off a cliff. What once was a conversation about design and innovation has devolved into road rage, online harassment, and genuine concern from owners like Zak Auten, who took to Facebook to recount what should have been a celebratory moment: 

“Question for the group, I picked up my new CyberBeast yesterday after purchasing and having it wrapped and tinted. Never driven my truck since purchase, and as I get into the town I live in, I get flicked off 7 times and road raged twice. Really took the wind out of my sails, the excitement, and how much I love this truck.

Anyone else deal with this on a regular basis? I knew there would be some, but going through town on a few-mile stretch to get home this many times was mind-blowing. I felt I needed to go home and hide my truck from the insanity around me.” 

How the ‘Tesla Effect’ Turns Cybertruck Owners into Political Punching Bags

• Across the U.S. and internationally, Tesla vehicles and facilities have been subjected to acts of vandalism, including spray-painted swastikas, slashed tires, and Molotov cocktail attacks. These incidents often carry anti-Musk or anti-Trump messages.
• The website DogeQuest emerged as a platform publishing personal information of Tesla owners, including names and addresses, under the guise of a protest against Musk's leadership. This doxing has raised serious privacy concerns and fears of targeted harassment among Tesla owners, some of whom have reported receiving threats or hate mail at their homes. 
• Individual Tesla owners have reported direct harassment. In Worcester, Massachusetts, the owner of a gold Tesla Cybertruck received a profane sticker on his vehicle and faced online abuse after sharing the incident. In Santa Barbara, California, a Tesla investor received hate mail at her residence, which she reported to the FBI.

Auten’s experience, raw and unfiltered, wasn’t some isolated case of bad timing or an unusually aggressive commute. It reflects a broader social phenomenon, where the Cybertruck has become a lightning rod for cultural anxiety.

Seven middle fingers. Two road rage incidents. And this wasn’t Los Angeles at rush hour, it was a few miles of suburban America. The truck didn't honk, cut anyone off, or roll coal, it merely existed. And that was enough.

The Global Backlash Against Cybertruck Owners

Part of the venom can be chalked up to the Tesla Effect: a brand as polarizing as its founder. Elon Musk has, for better or worse, turned every Tesla product into a stand-in for larger debates about wealth, tech, politics, and environmentalism. The Cybertruck, with its video game profile and moon-crater price tag, became an easy effigy.

But blaming Musk alone misses the deeper issue: we’ve turned car enthusiasm into tribal warfare. This isn’t just Mustang vs. Camaro. This is contempt at the cellular level.

Even within the Cybertruck community, there's a tension between celebration and defensiveness. Howard Butler, another owner, offered Auten words of calm: 

“I’ve had my truck since February. I got flipped off once, but I get way more thumbs up. Don’t let someone influence how u feel about your purchasing decision.”

It’s good advice, the kind of perspective that belonged to an older, more civilized form of car culture.

But it also points to the necessity of reassurance in a space that used to be about joy and engineering, not self-preservation and social backlash.

The Problem With Teslas

The problem extends well beyond Facebook groups. In a piece by 404 Media, a Cybertruck was pelted with American cheese slices, a bizarre act of protest that quickly escalated into attempts to dox the offender. Elsewhere, on the Cybertruck Owners Club forum, users debate the vehicle’s safety, sometimes earnestly, sometimes weaponized as talking points to justify the growing hostility. 

Tesla Cybertruck Cyberbeast Specifications 

• The top-tier "Cyberbeast" trim, featuring a tri-motor all-wheel-drive setup, accelerates from 0 to 60 mph in just 2.6 seconds, placing it among the fastest production trucks available. 
• Both the dual-motor and tri-motor variants offer a maximum towing capacity of 11,000 pounds, making the Cybertruck suitable for heavy-duty tasks like hauling trailers or boats. 
• The dual-motor all-wheel-drive model provides an estimated range of 325 miles on a full charge, while the tri-motor "Cyberbeast" offers approximately 301 miles, ensuring ample distance coverage for various driving needs.

What we’re seeing is a breakdown of civility in the public square, where what you drive can now invite ridicule, harassment, or worse.

It’s one thing to critique the Cybertruck’s aesthetics or the company’s quality control (both fair game). It’s another to create an environment where owners feel unsafe or unwelcome.

We've replaced car spotting with car shaming, and the result is a culture that punishes enthusiasm and curiosity.

Make no mistake, the Cybertruck is a ridiculous machine.

It’s absurd, overengineered, and at times laughably impractical. But so was the Countach. So was the Hummer.

So was the Dodge Daytona. And all of them helped define their era. Whether the Cybertruck ends up as a historic game-changer or a stainless-steel misfire remains to be seen.

But if we can't share the road with it, or with the people who drive it, then the problem isn’t the truck. It’s us.

Have you witnessed this kind of backlash firsthand, or is the Cybertruck getting a raw deal?

Noah Washington is an automotive journalist based in Atlanta, Georgia. He enjoys covering the latest news in the automotive industry and conducting reviews on the latest cars. He has been in the automotive industry since 15 years old and has been featured in prominent automotive news sites. You can reach him on X and LinkedIn for tips and to follow his automotive coverage.