The rumor machine took off following the distribution of short, out-of-context clips pulled from Detwiler’s multi-part durability test on a $100,000+ Tesla Cybertruck. In the original series, Detwiler pushed the electric pickup to catastrophic structural failure. He drove it over concrete culverts, slammed heavy exterior panels, detonated small charges nearby, and subjected the frame to extreme shock loads. The viral climax occurred when the truck's cast-aluminum rear hitch and bumper assembly snapped clean off while attempting to pull an F-150 out of a ditch.
Clickbait channels seized on the resulting wreckage. Unverified creators on TikTok and Instagram Reels extracted clips showing Detwiler reacting to sudden mechanical breaks, then stitched them alongside generic footage of flashing red sirens, police cordons, and black-and-white portraits with "Rest in Peace" captions. Within 48 hours, these deceptive clips accumulated over 14 million combined views. Because the Cybertruck test involved genuine structural violence, viewers who only saw isolated snippets assumed a fatal wreck had occurred during production.
