Elon Musk Shuts Down Theories Claiming Las Vegas Cybertruck Driver Was Already Shot — And the Vehicle Autopiloted to the Location
In the wake of the tragic Tesla Cybertruck explosion at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day, Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly addressed and dismissed circulating theories suggesting that the vehicle’s driver was already deceased prior to the incident and that the Cybertruck autonomously navigated to the explosion site.
The explosion resulted in the death of the driver, identified as 37-year-old Army veteran Matthew Livelsberger from Colorado, and caused injuries to seven bystanders.
The Cybertruck’s unique design appeared to limit the damage at the Trump International Hotel.
Despite the force of the explosion, the Cybertruck’s exterior remained largely intact, directing much of the blast upwards and sparing the Trump International Hotel from catastrophic damage.
Recall that Musk trolled the suspect, stating, “The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards. Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
At the Thursday press conference, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill provided chilling details about the incident.
Livelsberger’s charred remains were discovered inside the Cybertruck with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Identification was made possible only through his tattoos, as the body was severely burned in the subsequent explosion. Authorities also recovered Livelsberger’s military ID, passport, and credit cards, though DNA confirmation is still underway.
“We believe the question is, was the gunshot self-inflicted? We do believe it was since he was the only person in the vehicle, and it occurred immediately prior to the vehicle blowing up,” McMahill said.
He continued, “The question is, am I comfortable calling it a suicide mission? I’m comfortable calling it a suicide with the bombing that occurred immediately thereafter. I’m not given and any other labels.”
Preliminary investigations revealed that Livelsberger had rented the Cybertruck through the car-sharing platform Turo.
The vehicle was loaded with fireworks and gasoline canisters, and authorities suspect the blast was triggered by a detonation system controlled by Livelsberger.
“There’s lots more for us to do in this investigation. We haven’t even gotten into the phones or the computers, which are usually very instructive and informative to us as we investigate.”
“We’ve got a lot more work to do to trace him, to see the stores that he went to, to rule out anybody else. Lots of investigative work to do. We’re just trying to give you an update on what we know now that is factual,” McMahill added.
In the wake of the tragic explosion, various theories have emerged online regarding the circumstances leading up to the event.
One such theory suggests that someone shot the driver prior to the explosion, and the Cybertruck autonomously navigated to the hotel location afterward.
Conservative influencer DC Draino wrote on X, “Now that we know the Vegas suspect was found with a bullet in his head, I see 2 possible scenarios: 1. He shot himself – he was planning to commit suicide & didn’t want to risk being burned alive 2. He was shot by someone else & the Tesla was auto-pilot navigated to the Trump hotel.”
Draino added, “A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot.”
A long fuse could’ve been lit, a timer could have been set, or the bomb could have been remotely detonated
I wonder if anyone in the vicinity heard a gunshot
That would help confirm where the car was when he was shot
— DC_Draino (@DC_Draino) January 2, 2025
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has publicly refuted these claims.
In response to DC Draino’s post, Musk said that Tesla’s Autopilot system requires an attentive driver in the seat to function.
“Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat,” Musk wrote.
Autopilot will not function unless it detects an attentive person in the driver’s seat
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 3, 2025
The Tesla Cybertruck comes equipped with Autopilot as a standard feature and offers the option to upgrade to Full Self-Driving (FSD) capabilities. Autopilot includes functionalities such as Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer, which assist with speed matching and lane-keeping.
FSD provides additional features like Navigate on Autopilot, Auto Lane Change, Autopark, and Traffic and Stop Sign Control.
“Your vehicle will be able to drive itself almost anywhere with minimal driver intervention and will continuously improve,” according to Tesla’s website.
In September 2024, Tesla began rolling out FSD (Supervised) to select Cybertruck owners through an over-the-air software update, enabling hands-free highway driving using an advanced “end-to-end on highway” feature that relies on a neural network.
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