Join the conversation You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account. Article content The Tesla Cybertruck. The five-year reigning champ of memes. It was conceived of as a spur-of-the-moment idea from the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, a man able to turn every impulsive Tweet into reality. Ever since it debuted with a window-breaking smash in late 2019, the Cybertruck has set Internet comment sections ablaze with debate. It’s been featured on multiple Joe Rogan podcasts, and is the first vehicle to ever be reviewed by former Fox News host and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson. Advertisement 2 Photo by Clayton Seams In short, my Turo booking meant I had an extended test drive of the Cybertruck in Houston across four days, to let me find out what it was really like to live with a meme car. I’ll start by saying the strangest part of the driving experience is something you notice immediately: the steering. The Tesla Cybertruck has steer-by-wire, which means there is no mechanical shaft or linkage connecting the steering wheel in the cabin to the front wheels. Infiniti was the first to do this back in 2014, but its system didn’t work very smoothly, and was almost universally panned. The Cybertruck steering wheel is a “squircle,” which is normally annoying, but actually tolerable here, because the wheel barely turns 360 degrees lock to lock, about one-half that of a normal vehicle. It also means you never have to remove your hands from the 9- and 3-o’clock positions for hand-over-hand steering. At low speeds, the Cybertruck positively jumps from side to side with merely a wiggle of the wheel. It can make your typical urban 90-degree right-hand turn with barely 35 degrees of steering-wheel input. For the first few miles, I was lurching from side to side in my lane as I grew accustomed to this level of steering response. At low speeds, the steering is as reactive as a Ferrari, and very small movements with your hands make large changes in direction. But as speeds rise, the steering becomes less responsive. At highway speeds, the wheel felt fairly normal, and I had no issues navigating lane changes and merge ramps easily. Advertisement 7