华尔街日报 | Cybertruck卷入拉斯维加斯爆炸案，马斯克如何转危为机

How Elon Musk Made the Las Vegas Bombing About His ‘Badass Truck’


Cybertruck在马斯克的叙事中成了英雄：它非常坚固，实际上可能在这场袭击中拯救了旁观者。


一辆特斯拉Cybertruck周三在拉斯维加斯特朗普国际酒店外发生爆炸。

对于任何一位首席执行官而言，这种情形都会令人恐慌：你的标志性产品成了新年第一天刺耳的新闻头条。出现这一情况的是一辆特斯拉(Tesla) Cybertruck，这辆车在拉斯维加斯的特朗普国际酒店(Trump International Hotel)外起火爆炸。
The blaring New Year’s Day headlines would be panic-inducing for any CEO: Your signature product, in this case Tesla’s Cybertruck, caught fire and exploded outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. 
   
对于特斯拉和埃隆·马斯克(Elon Musk)来说，几乎没有什么话题比汽车起火更敏感。这家汽车制造商多年来一直向客户保证，装有数千个高度易燃电池的特斯拉电动汽车是安全的。
And for Tesla and Elon Musk, few topics are touchier than vehicle fires. The automaker has spent years assuring customers that its electric vehicles, which are loaded with thousands of highly volatile battery cells, are safe. 
  
在接下来的几个小时里，马斯克利用他的社交媒体平台X，强行介入调查，影响相关的报道，并以积极的论调描述他的最新产品。
In the hours that followed, Musk used his social-media platform X to muscle his way into the investigation, shape its coverage and portray his newest product in a positive light.
   
马斯克迅速向粉丝们爆出爆炸的关键事实，而且经常在执法部门确认之前透露关键信息。鉴于他与候任总统特朗普(Donald Trump)一起在佛罗里达州的海湖庄园(Mar-a-Lago Club)度过了新年之夜，他说的话显得更有分量。
Musk blasted out key facts about the explosion to his followers, often revealing crucial information before it had been confirmed by law-enforcement authorities. His voice carried added weight given he had spent the New Year’s evening alongside Donald Trump at the president-elect’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida. 
   
到周三结束时，Cybertruck在马斯克的叙事中成了英雄：它非常坚固，实际上可能在这场明显的袭击中拯救了旁观者。
By day’s end Wednesday, Musk was framing the Cybertruck as the story’s hero: It was built so tough that it might have actually saved bystanders from the apparent attack.  
   
“邪恶的笨蛋们选错了用来实施恐怖袭击的车辆。Cybertruck实际上控制住了爆炸，并引导爆炸冲击波向上，”这位特斯拉首席执行官周三晚间发帖称。“甚至连大厅的玻璃门都没有打破。”
“The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Cybertruck actually contained the explosion and directed the blast upwards,” the Tesla chief executive posted late Wednesday. “Not even the glass doors of the lobby were broken.”
   
马斯克与家人和特朗普在海湖庄园的一场豪华派对上庆祝新年。“我对2025年有很好的预感，”马斯克在美国东部时间周三凌晨1:31发帖，并附上了一张他和儿子的照片。
Musk celebrated the New Year with his family and Trump at a swanky party at Mar-a-Lago. “I have a good feeling about 2025,” Musk posted at 1:31 a.m. Eastern Standard Time Wednesday along with a picture of himself and his son.  
   
几个小时后，整个国家的人们一觉醒来就得知了惊人的消息：一名男子驾驶一辆福特(Ford)皮卡冲进新奥尔良的人群，造成至少14人死亡，另有多人受伤，有关部门称这是一起恐怖袭击事件。
The nation awoke hours later to alarming news: A man in a Ford pickup had plowed into a crowd in New Orleans, killing at least 14 and injuring others in what authorities were calling a terrorist attack. 
   
仅仅几个小时后，一起爆炸事件在拉斯维加斯发生。
Just hours later, an explosion rocked Las Vegas. 
   
拉斯维加斯警方在下午12:43发布消息称：“我们正在调查特朗普大厦入口处发生的一起车辆起火事件。火势已被扑灭。请避开该地区。”
“We are investigating a vehicle fire at the entrance to Trump Towers. The fire is out. Please avoid the area,” Las Vegas police posted at 12:43 p.m. 


警方封锁了拉斯维加斯爆炸案现场附近区域。

在下午的大部分时间里，人们只知道一辆2024款Cybertruck停在特朗普国际酒店前门后发生爆炸，造成1人死亡，7人受伤。此前有人看到这辆车在冒烟，但有关部门没有说明起火原因。
For much of the afternoon, all that was known was that one person was killed and seven injured after the 2024 Cybertruck pulled up to the front doors of the Trump International Hotel and exploded. Smoke had been seen coming out of the vehicle beforehand, but authorities weren’t saying what caused the fire. 
   
X平台上开始陆续出现这起爆炸事件的第一手资料。
Firsthand accounts of the explosion began popping up on X. 
   
“Cybertruck在拉斯维加斯特朗普酒店前爆炸，”X用户Kaaaassuu在下午12:22发布了这条消息，大约在当地警方接到酒店爆炸报告的40分钟后。“门口那边是我们的行李，爆炸发生时我们就在那里。”
“Cybertruck blew up in front of Trump hotel in Las Vegas,” X user Kaaaassuu posted at 12:22 p.m., roughly 40 minutes after local police say they received a report of the explosion at the hotel. “Those are our luggage by the door and that’s where we were when it happened.”
   
在“特朗普”入口标志旁，Cybertruck起火的照片在网上流传，并被做成暗指“垃圾箱火灾”的表情包。
Photographs of the Cybertruck ablaze next to the “Trump” entrance sign circulated online as memes that alluded to a “dumpster fire.” 
   
多年来，特斯拉一直在反驳外界对其汽车存在较高火灾风险的说法，这些汽车依靠数千个锂离子电池组成的电池组提供动力。
For years, Tesla has fought back against suggestions that its vehicles, which are powered by thousands of lithium-ion battery cells wired together in packs, present elevated fire risks.
   
锂离子电池很容易燃烧，特斯拉早期的技术突破就包括通过工程设计和软件来降低这种风险。
Lithium-ion cells can be quite combustible, and Tesla’s early technology breakthroughs involved figuring out ways to mitigate that risk with engineering and software. 
   
2019年，中国发生的一起火灾事件引起了全球关注，当时一个安全摄像头拍到一辆Model S轿车似乎是自燃了。该公司后来将起火原因归咎于一组电池（被称为模块），并更新了软件来解决这个问题。
A fire in 2019 in China attracted global attention when a security camera captured video of a Model S sedan appearing to spontaneously combust. The company would later attribute the blaze to a cluster of cells, known as a module, and it updated software to address the issue.
   
马斯克当时愤怒地表示：“每年有超过100万辆内燃机汽车起火（名字里就有‘内燃’二字！），导致数千人死亡，但一辆特斯拉汽车起火，无人受伤，却成了头条新闻。为什么会有这种双重标准？这是一个真正的问题。”“现实情况是，特斯拉和大多数电动汽车一样，起火的可能性比内燃机汽车低500%以上，内燃机汽车携带了大量高度易燃的燃料。为什么这一点从未被提及？”
“Over a million combustion engine (it’s right there in the name!) car fires per year & thousands of deaths, but one Tesla car fire with no injuries gets biggest headlines. Why the double standard? This is a real question,” Musk fumed at the time. “Reality is a Tesla, like most electric cars, is over 500% *less* likely to catch fire than combustion engine cars, which carry massive amounts of highly flammable fuel. Why is this never mentioned?”
    
就像当时一样，特斯拉周三急于查明拉斯维加斯发生了什么。在幕后，这家汽车制造商扮演着侦探的角色，从车辆和充电站收集数据，帮助当局追踪这辆从科罗拉多州开往拉斯维加斯的皮卡。
Just as it was then, Tesla was eager Wednesday to figure out what happened in Las Vegas. Behind the scenes, the automaker was playing detective, gathering data from the vehicle and charging stations that helped authorities track the pickup traveling to Las Vegas from Colorado.
   
马斯克在美国东部时间下午3:51发布帖子称：“整个特斯拉高管团队现在都在调查此事。”“一旦我们有任何发现，就会发布更多信息。我们以前从未见过这样的事情。”
“The whole Tesla senior team is investigating this matter right now,” Musk posted at 3:51 p.m. “Will post more information as soon as we learn anything. We’ve never seen anything like this.”


在拉斯维加斯受损的特斯拉Cybertruck。

与此同时有媒体报道称，这辆卡车装满了烟花，当局将其视为一起潜在的恐怖主义行为。
The post came as media reports emerged that the truck had been filled with fireworks and authorities were treating it as a potential act of terror.  
   
不到两个小时后，马斯克回到X平台，发布了最新消息：“我们现在已经确认，爆炸是由租来的Cybertruck货车后斗里装载的大量烟花和/或炸弹造成的，与车辆本身无关。”“爆炸发生时，所有车辆遥测数据都是正常的。”
Less than two hours later, Musk returned to X with an update: “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,” he posted. “All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion.
   
他很快补充说：“执法部门目前认为这很可能是故意的。”19分钟后，他继续说道：“这似乎是一起恐怖袭击。这辆Cybertruck和新奥尔良那辆充当自杀式炸弹的F-150皮卡都是从Turo租来的。两者之间可能存在某种联系。”
He then soon added: “Law enforcement currently believes it was most likely intentional.” Nineteen minutes later, he continued, “Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way.”
   
直到美国东部时间晚上7点左右，拉斯维加斯警方才召开新闻发布会，披露这辆卡车的车斗里装满了燃料罐和烟花弹。
It wouldn’t be until around 7 p.m. that Las Vegas police held a press conference to disclose that the truck’s bed was packed with fuel cans and fireworks mortars.
   
拉斯维加斯大都会警察局局长凯文·麦克马希尔(Kevin McMahill)告诉记者：“这是一辆Cybertruck，这一事实实际上限制了代客泊车区域内的损失，因为爆炸的大部分威力都是向上穿过卡车，然后向外扩散的。”
“The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out,” Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters. 
   
特斯拉在幕后的努力赢得了警方公开的赞誉。麦克马希尔说：“我必须特别感谢埃隆·马斯克，他向我们提供了很多额外信息。”
Tesla’s efforts behind the scenes won it public praise from the police. “I have to thank Elon Musk, specifically, he gave us quite a bit of additional information,” McMahill said.
  
警长的话很快就在X平台上传播开来，马斯克向他的2.1亿多粉丝转发了这些评论，也起到了一定的推动作用。
The sheriff’s comments immediately began swirling around X, helped by Musk’s amplification to his more than 210 million followers.  
   
特斯拉投资者索耶·梅里特(Sawyer Merritt)写道：“一枚炸弹在Cybertruck的车斗里爆炸，但轮胎没有爆胎/漏气，卡车外部完好无损，车斗门还在，1.4毫米-1.8毫米的钢制外壳（比普通卡车厚两倍）帮助控制住了爆炸。”“这是有史以来最坚固、最酷炫的卡车！”
“A bomb went off in the Cybertruck’s bed and the tires didn’t pop/deflate, the exterior of the truck is intact, the bed door is still attached & the 1.4mm-1.8mm steel exterior (2x thicker vs normal trucks) helped contain the blast,” Sawyer Merritt, a Tesla investor, wrote. “It’s the toughest & most badass truck ever made!”
   
马斯克很快转发了这条帖子。
Musk quickly shared the post. 
   
科洛·科尔(Chloe Cole)发布了一段该被烧毁的特斯拉汽车的视频，并写道：“想象一下，试图用汽车炸弹恐吓特朗普和@elonmusk，结果却只是杀死了自己，还为@cybertruck做了一次广告宣传。”
“Imagine trying to intimidate Trump and @elonmusk with a carbomb but you end up just killing yourself and running a @cybertruck ad campaign,” Chloe Cole posted along with a video of the burned-out Tesla vehicle.
   
马斯克在回复中谈到这辆汽车烧焦的残骸时说：“我很确定我们能让它重新跑起来。”
To which Musk replied of the vehicle’s charred remains: “I’m pretty sure we could get it running again too.”