Kids Love the Tesla Cybertruck — Even If Elon Musk Is Controversial

The Cybertruck has become a nexus point of public opinion about Elon Musk and DOGE, a 4-wheeled emblem of our divided country. Cybertrucks are being vandalized, and drivers are being flipped off. Owners who just thought it was a cool car are stuck with making some sort of political statement — whether they wanted to or not.

For kids, it’s a different story. Kids love Cybertrucks.

This makes sense. First of all, kids love trucks! For a preschooler, passing by an active construction site is like being a VIP at Coachella.

The Cybertruck is big, it’s distinctive. It’s rare. Seeing one on the road or even in a parking lot is a head-turner. It looks like it was made in Minecraft or out of Legos. It’s absolutely aesthetically thrilling for a demographic that can’t yet tie shoes.

“My 6-year-old loves Teslas but has no idea who Musk is, and that’s intentional,” said Mandy Shobar, a parent of two boys in Castro Valley, California. Shobar herself is not a fan of Telsa’s CEO for reasons that would make sense to other adults but not a kindergartener. Her older son, 9, is less excited about the Cybertruck. “He says they look ‘glitchy.'”

Around the Business Insider office, parents also noted their kids were obsessed with Cybertrucks. My boss’s first grader recently brought home a piece of art from school dedicated to the EV.

My own kids get excited when they see a Cybertruck. My son went through a phase when he was around 6 or 7 when he was fascinated by Elon Musk as a character, and even brought home a book from the school library about Teslas. (The book, from 2018, didn’t include too much about Musk himself.)

Imagine this through a child’s eyes: Elon Musk is the richest man in the world who makes rockets and cool-looking cars. How could you not be intrigued? Kids are obsessed with superlatives: the fastest, the biggest, the most. It’s why everyone knows the blue whale is the biggest, and the cheetah is the fastest. Kids talk about Usain Bolt’s speed with reverence and compare heights to the Burj Khalifa (which, to be honest, I only learned is the world’s tallest building from my own kid).

Elon Musk is becoming less popular with adults

Meanwhile, the idea that Musk is controversial because of his political opinions and role in DOGE is not really something that is easily explained to a small child.

It wasn’t too many years ago that Musk seemed like an unproblematic aspirational STEM figure for young kids. But with his involvement in the 2024 election and now DOGE, the public’s perception of Musk has changed. According to Nate Silver’s The Silver Bulletin, Musk’s favorability polling switched from positive to negative last summer, and he’s now less popular than ever — with 53.5% “unfavorable” ratings.

Tom Cook (no relation to Tim) isn’t some Telsa hater — he previously owned a Model 3. He thinks the Cybertruck, however, is aesthetically unpleasing. “There are some technical aspects of it that are good (electrical components where Tesla does good engineering), but the nexus of cost/practicality/looks/association with [Musk] make it just impossible to ever take seriously,” Cook told Business Insider.

Still, he was surprised when his 3-year-old daughter made a piece of Cybertruck art.

There exists a world of Cybertruck paraphrenia for kids. Mattel’s Hot Wheels makes a classic pocket-sized Cybertruck (my kids have one) and a larger die-cast light-up Cybertruck for about $20.

On Amazon and other online stores, you can find a variety of other remote-controlled Cybertruck-shaped toys from various no-name brands. (It is unclear if some of these actually have licensing deals with Tesla as Mattel does.)

Tesla sells a $1,500 battery-operated ride-on Cybertruck for kids, similar to Power Wheels. It can fit two kids, suggested age range of 6 to 12. Telsa also makes a “Cyberquad” for kids ages 9 to 12, which is an ATV-style ride-on toy, selling for $1,650.

There’s even a world of media about Cybertrucks for kids. One person told me her 5-year-old truck-loving kid has discovered a song on YouTube Kids he plays on repeat. (I dare anyone to try to not tap your toes to this banger.)

There are non-fiction books for kids about the Cybertruck, not unlike the one on Telsa my son once brought home.

There’s also a picture book, The Ugly Truckling: The Story of My Cybertruck.” The Amazon summary reads:

When a dad brings home a Cybertruck, his daughter is less than impressed. With its unconventional and futuristic appearance, the truck seems like an ugly duckling in a world of familiar cars. But as the little girl begins to learn more about the Cybertruck’s capabilities and its potential to help the world, she begins to see it in a whole new light.

For the parents who find the Cybertruck to be a totem of something they disagree with politically, it may be slightly jarring to see their kids squeal with glee when they see one cruising down the street.

But there are lots of things that kids love that can make parents cringe: room-temperature apple juice, “Baby Shark,” the idea that being asked to put on shoes and coat in a timely manner is an affront to human dignity.

None of the parents I heard from who don’t always share the same opinions about the Cybertruck put too much worry into it. To them, it was an amusing passing phase that reminded them of the vast gulf between how a child sees the world and how we see it.

Admittedly, I spend a lot of my day thinking about Elon Musk, and I wish I could have the free wonder to see a cool-looking car and just go, “Wow!”