Here’s the Bodycam Footage of the Cybertruck That Drove Into a Lake

On Monday a man in Grapevine, Texas drove his Tesla Cybertruck into a lake to test the vehicle’s “wade mode.” Police arrested the Cybertruck’s owner, Jimmy Jack McDaniel, after he and his passengers fled the vehicle. 

At one point, the owner tried to get back into the vehicle, and law enforcement responded by deploying jet skis and calling a tow truck to pull the Cybertruck from the water, according to hours of related footage 404 Media obtained. The passengers were German tourists, according to a conversation included in the bodycam footage.

“The charge port is underwater and it [the Cybertruck] thinks it’s plugged in to the charging unit and it won’t let the wheels turn because it thinks it’s charging. And as soon as I can get it a little bit closer to the ground I can drive it out,” McDaniel said during a conversation with a police officer.

“Well the wrecker company’s going to tow it out,” the officer said.

McDaniel then explained this was the third time he’d gotten the Cybertruck stuck in water. “The third time you’ve done this?” the officer asked.

“Yes,” McDaniel said.

“Why?” the police asked.The start of McDaniel’s answer is lost as wind blows across the bodycam’s mic. “It doesn’t matter,” he said, then insisted he could drive it once it was out of the water.

404 Media obtained the footage from the Grapevine Police Department through a public records request. Officials from the local fire department are also visible in the footage.

“The vehicle became disabled and took on water. The driver and passengers abandoned the vehicle and the Grapevine Fire Department Water Rescue Team assisted in removing it from the lake. The driver was arrested on charges of Operation of Vehicle in [a] Closed Section of Park/Lake and numerous water safety equipment violations,” the Grapevine Police Department said in a statement published earlier in the week.

According to Tesla’s website, Wade Mode is designed to allow the Cybertruck to “enter and drive through bodies of water, such as rivers or creeks. It is your responsibility to gauge the depth of any body of water before entering. Damage or water ingress to Cybertruck as a result of driving in water is not covered by the warranty.” The maximum depth a Cybertruck can navigate is a little more than 2 and a half feet, according to the website. Grapevine Lake, where the incident took place, has segments that go down 65 feet deep.

The Grapevine Lake incident is just the latest in a series of high profile mishaps involving the Cybertruck. Last summer, a Cybertruck in self-driving mode crashed on an highway overpass near Austin, Texas. In 2024, a Cybetruck got stuck attempting to ford a river in California and had to be pulled out by a Chevy Silverado.

Before they arrested McDaniel, officers explained all the licenses and equipment he needed to legally take a craft into the water. “I wasn’t  thinking about that,” he said. “Obviously I wasn’t thinking at all.”

About the author

Matthew Gault is a writer covering weird tech, nuclear war, and video games. He’s worked for Reuters, Motherboard, and the New York Times.