Electronics and water aren’t exactly good friends. That’s why the high-voltage battery pack of the new Tesla Cybertruck is sealed and there’s also a Wade Mode in the car’s settings that uses air from the air suspension system to pressurize the battery pack so that any water that somehow makes its way inside will swiftly be ejected thanks to the pressure difference.
However, the Tesla Model 3, which is the American manufacturer’s most affordable car, doesn’t have Wade Mode. The high-voltage battery pack has sealant to keep moisture out, but we’d argue that Tesla or any other insurance company will think twice before forking out the money for repairs after seeing the video embedded below.
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Brave EV owner battles flooded street
Tesla advises against driving its EVs after they’ve been submerged in water. But this hasn’t stopped the Model 3 driver shown in the video below from tackling a flooded street in San Diego a couple of days ago.
Published on TikTok and then reuploaded on X by @NTFTWX and @niccruzpatane, the 16-second clip shows a gray Model 3 blasting through a flooded street in San Diego. At one point, the wave went above the windshield but the car kept moving and the video ends with the EV still moving.
To make things even more interesting (or weird), there’s a mime (yes, you read that right) in the middle of the street, somehow unfazed by all the surrounding water, who reacts in a way only a mime could (we don’t know what those moves mean, so take that as you may).
Taking both X posts into consideration, there are about 1,000 comments–some say the car would malfunction in a matter of minutes, others say that nothing will happen, while some referred to Elon Musk’s words from 2016 when he said that “the Model S floats well enough to turn it into a boat for short periods of time.”
Tesla says on its website that any EV that has been submerged in water should be treated as if it has been in an accident. It advises against driving the car until an authorized shop has inspected the potentially damaged EV.
But what do you think happened to the Model 3 in the video? Let us know in the comments below.
