this post was submitted on 02 Jan 2025
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Summary

Matthew Livelsberger, a 37-year-old Army veteran from Colorado Springs, has been identified as the driver of the Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day.

Livelsberger died in the blast, which injured seven people with minor injuries.

Authorities are investigating the explosion as a potential act of terror, noting Livelsberger's military connection to Shamsud Din Jabbar, the suspect in the deadly New Orleans attack hours earlier.

Firework mortars and fuel canisters were found in the truck, with no confirmed motive yet.

top 33 comments
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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 41 points 2 days ago (4 children)

Musk took the opportunity to praise Tesla’s Cybertruck for being so sturdy that he said it helped contain the blast.

“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” he wrote in a post on X.

So, they're bad for carbombs, because the body traps the explosion and the weak point is the roof.

This also makes them very very bad for anyone inside if there's any type of accident.

[–] Rhaedas@fedia.io 26 points 2 days ago

Not a great time for a marketing spiel, genius. Btw, even if you were right, everyone is still making fun of you because of the connection.

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

So, shitty truck sorta manages an even shittier car bomb.

Weird flex, but thanks for the distillation, Musk.

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

The car bomb seems to have been assembled by throwing a bunch of sorta-burny-stuff in the back and thinking "that'll probably do." This may be the most incompetent "terrorist" we've heard about in a while.

Has anything been said about the guy's motives? The choice of vehicle and target suggest this may not be another MAGA attack.

EDIT: Turns out the guy was a Trump fan after all, so this doesn't really break the pattern of right-wing political violence:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/cybertruck-explosion-suspect-matthew-livelsberger-vegas-b2672940.html?

“He used to have all patriotic stuff on Facebook, he was 100 percent loving the country,” he continued. “He loved Trump, and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American...."

People are so confused to think that love of country and love of Trump naturally go together.

[–] Hayduke@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Terribly gullible, misguided people. I would almost feel bad for them if they didn't literally have all of the worlds public facing information, accessible at any time, within thier pocket to separate fact from fiction.

But then again he assembled the terrorist equivalent to soda and pop-rocks, so perhaps research wasn't his strong suit.

I really believe half of the country should reacquaint themselves with the word "patriot"

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

And the only person he managed to kill was himself. The perfect terrorist!

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 8 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

No, it doesn't, cars don't usually explode from internal sources that would ricochet off the walls.

Occupants usually die from external things crumpling / penetrating the shell, or just from the internal forces of coming to a stop too fast.

I hate Musk as much as the next person but this an absurd reach. Not every possible factor of everything he's ever touched has to be bad in every way.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

No, it doesn’t, cars don’t usually explode from internal sources that would ricochet off the walls

Where do you think the battery is located?

If a cyber truck catches fire or explodes, it's built like an oven and contains the forces whether thats an explosion or heat from a fire.

When you couple with issues exiting the vehicle in an emergency it's a valid safety concern.

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You have literally zero data or source to back that up. You made up bullshit because you're salty about Musk.

Batteries catch fire, they don't explode, and the batteries are located beneath the steel floor.

[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 0 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I have a fried who's elementary age child acts like this with musk.

It's weird if yout parents let you on social media alone, it's weird if this is actually an adult

Either way, have a nice life. If you're nicer to others, they may help you understand things, no one will help you when you act lol kentgis tho

[–] masterspace@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Bruh, Musk is a low life piece of shit with more than enough valid reasons to shit on him.

So when you flat out make up reaching bullshit like this, it just gives his fans reason to think his haters are rabid and irrational.

Don't project your childishness onto others, and don't make up baseless bullshit about automotive safety. You wanna talk about the, imho, flat out criminally negligent placement of Tesla's emergency door releases, I'm all there. You wanna talk about how having a strong roll cage around the car makes it more dangerous and I'm gonna need to see something backing that up. Spreading misinformation is still spreading misinformation.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 1 day ago

The parts that failed were:

  1. The "armoured glass" (remember the steel ball demo?) between the cargo area and the cabin
  2. The other windows, so everything vented though the cabin
  3. The tonneau cover over the cargo area

So don't carry armed explosives and pyrotechnics in a closed cybertruck

I wonder if both soldiers expected their hired electric trucks to suffer battery fires with the way they treated them. If they did they were disappointed

[–] kittehx@lemmy.blahaj.zone 21 points 2 days ago (1 children)

why do they need a suspect? cybertrucks just kinda do that

[–] adhocfungus@midwest.social 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Up until this article I legitimately assumed that's what was happening in the image. I don't understand what message the suspect was trying to send, but the investigators seem confident it was intentional, I guess.

Another article says the body had an apparent self-inflicted gunshot to the head, which resolved any doubt I had.

[–] ATDA@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

What do they mean links has anyone explained that or is anyone retired from the army a terrorist suspect now?

Edit reread it, same mitary base.

[–] psud@aussie.zone 4 points 2 days ago

Also they served in Afghanistan at the same time

There's every chance they knew each other, the a good chance it wasn't widely known that they knew each other

FBI want us to believe the two soldiers each individually decided to hire an electric truck and use it to try and kill people and do damage

Awfully coincidental

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

They were both at Fort Bragg, now re-branded as "Fort Liberty".

Has anyone checked the water supply in our military bases?

Fort Bragg Mass shooter:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Kreutzer_Jr.

Fort Hood Mass shooter #1:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Fort_Hood_shooting

Fort Hood Mass shooter #2:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2014_Fort_Hood_shootings

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 7 points 2 days ago

I don't think it's the water supply, more likely that being part of an organisation that trains you to take lives devalues said lives for you. Also, military training is effectively inflicting trauma on you, and forcing you to adopt doing disciplined soldier stuff as a coping strategy. You know, the whole break down and build it back up thing.

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 days ago (1 children)

If the man inside was truly trying to cause physical damage, why not drive it through the doors and into the lobby before detonating? The image of a burning truck in front of a Trump hotel is perfect, but that kind of damage doesn't do anything against specimens like Trump or Musk who don't just seem to thrive IN SPITE OF bad press, but thrive BECAUSE of bad press. If they were connected, Bourbon Street guy definitely was the more effective "terrorist".

[–] psud@aussie.zone 1 points 2 days ago

I think he thought he had a fuel/air bomb. They just need a blast to atomise the fuel and then another to detonate the fuel and air mix, fireworks might have been enough for both, with the launch charge doing the first step and the star burst doing the second

A fuel air blast would have seriously damaged the building

[–] technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

Don't worry it's a white bro. Definitely not terrorism. \s

[–] Hideakikarate@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 days ago (6 children)

Luigi is white. Didn't stop prosecutors there. Or is Italian not white enough anymore, suddenly?

[–] Chip_Rat@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Don't know how much you are joking, but Italians were not considered "white" until fairly recently. I had an instructor (who I thought was an old sexist racist pos) who started telling a story about going to a hunt camp where he was the only white guy. I perked up, like "wait, what? Have I misread this 80 year old German man? Am I just blind?"

Then as he carried on in the story. "Yeah they were all a bunch of drunk Italians, but some of them were ok!"

....

[–] very_well_lost@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

Everyone knows Italians are criminals! Didn't you watch the Sopranos??

[–] floofloof@lemmy.ca 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

It's only terrorism if it's done by brown people or directly affects rich people.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Race war? 🤔

Class war. 😎

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Why not both at the same time? I want to see middle class mixed race people having a CRISIS on the battlefield.

[–] foggy@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Because we don't judge people on superficial characteristics such as race.

That, by definition, makes you racist.

[–] SkyezOpen@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's a hypothetical war in which the sides are so granular and arbitrary that nobody knows who to fight for. It's silly.

[–] HK65@sopuli.xyz 1 points 2 days ago

The point is, class war is simpler. Let's say income taxes doubled, while capital gains become completely untaxed. Are you sad or happy? That's your class sympathies.

[–] Drusas@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago

not white enough ~~anymore~~ again