Photo: Wade Vandervort/AFP via Getty Images
On the morning of New Year’s Day in Las Vegas, a Tesla Cybertruck blew up while parked in front of the Trump International Hotel. Police say the truck’s bed was loaded with gas canisters and fireworks and that the driver died and seven people were injured. The driver’s motive is not yet clear, and investigators aren’t yet sure if the apparent car bombing attempt is linked to the terrorist attack hours earlier in New Orleans which killed at least 15 people. Below are some quick answers to the big questions about the Vegas incident thus far.
What happened?
Video of Tesla Cybertruck explosion at Las Vegas Trump International Hotel. @8NewsNow pic.twitter.com/lrDDV7z2pI
— Vanessa_Murphy (@Vanessa_Murphy) January 1, 2025
Around 8:40 a.m. local time, a Tesla Cybertruck stopped in front the entrance to the Trump International Hotel — and then suddenly exploded and became engulfed in flames. The still unidentified driver, who was still inside the vehicle, was killed and seven people nearby suffered minor injuries. CNN reports that surveillance footage shows the driver passing the hotel a hour before, then returning and stopping in front of the hotel seconds before the explosion.
Cybertruck blew up in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Those are our luggage by the door and that’s where we were when it happened. pic.twitter.com/KaVZXfGLNK
— ayackle (@kaaaassuu) January 1, 2025
In videos shared from the hotel after the blast, people could be seen being carefully escorted out of the building.
Police later said that the truck’s bed had been filled with gas canisters, camping fuel canisters, and large fireworks. Authorities believe the cargo was connected to some kind of detonation system controlled by the driver.
UPDATE: Las Vegas police said the back of the Tesla Cybertruck contained gas canisters, mortars and camping fuel canisters.
WATCH LIVE: https://t.co/lOp0BTHtDH pic.twitter.com/1Hd8OpnERw
— Las Vegas Review-Journal (@reviewjournal) January 2, 2025
The FBI has joined the investigation into the incident, which is being investigated as potential terrorist act, a law enforcement official told CNN.
Was it an attack?
That’s not confirmed, but it was an apparently intentional explosion, possibly intended to be much bigger than it was, outside the president elect’s branded hotel in a major American city on a major holiday involving a high-profile vehicle made by the company of one of the president-elect’s most influential advisers, who is also the world’s richest man.
Who was the driver?
They haven’t been identified yet. At an afternoon press conference on Wednesday, Las Vegas Sheriff Kevin McMahill said he didn’t even know if it was a man or woman, as the body hadn’t been removed from the vehicle yet.
The Cybertruck had been rented in Colorado via the car-sharing marketplace Turo.
Is there any connection to the New Orleans attack?
Authorities are certainly investigating any possible links to the Bourbon Street truck ramming attack. The trucks in both incidents were rented via the somewhat niche car-sharing platform Turo, and obviously occurred on the same day. President Biden said on Wednesday evening that thus far there was no evidence linking the two events.
Did the explosion have anything to do with the Cybertruck itself? How have Tesla and Elon Musk responded?
As videos of the fire-engulfed Cybertruck spread across the internet, Musk said that the company was looking into the explosion, insisting the company had never seen something like that happen before. Hours later, Musk announced on X that company data indicated there was nothing wrong with the vehicle, and that the explosion resulted from combustible materials in the bed of the truck:
We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself.
All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion. https://t.co/HRjb87YbaJ
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 1, 2025
Musk has also boasted about how the design of the Cybertruck limited the damage the explosion caused.
There have been multiple incidents in which Cybertrucks caught fire following accidents, but no reported incidents in which one just randomly exploded.
How have Trump and his family responded?
Trump’s son Eric, who is the executive VP of the Trump Organization, initially responded to the incident via social media. He thanked first responders and stressed that “the safety and well-being of our guests and staff remain our top priority.”
President-elect Trump has not yet publicly responded to the Vegas incident.
This post has been updated.
