Skip to main content

Watching a Tesla tech pull a kitten out of a bumper will warm your heart

Tesla Service Center rescues trapped kitten
Electric cars are much quieter than their gasoline-powered counterparts because they do not need to create and contain mini explosions to move forward. Sound is not a big part of the EV experience, so a Tesla Model X owner became concerned when his crossover began making weird, cat-like noises while parked in his garage.

Before you send Elon Musk a Tweet, you should know that Tesla does not build a version of the Model X with a one-catpower drivetrain. It is not another one of the company’s clever Easter eggs, either. As it turns out, a kitten found its way behind the rear bumper and couldn’t find its way out. The owner couldn’t remove the bumper on his own, so he drove to the nearest service center and asked for help.

We would love to read the repair order; “customer states car makes cat-like noises.” A technician confirmed the presence of a small, furry, and presumably terrified creature trapped in the back of the car. Extracting it required putting the Model X on a lift and unbolting the rear underbody panel, which Tesla installs on all of its models to make them more aerodynamic and, consequently, more efficient.

An opening in the plastic part gave the kitten its first sight of daylight in about 14 hours, but it was too scared to jump out on its own. Wearing thick gloves, the technician had to reach in the car’s belly and pull the kitten out. The entire operation took less than a minute.

There is no word on exactly how the kitten wound up behind the bumper of a Tesla X. Anyone who has ever owned a cat will testify that they are crafty and flexible, so anything is possible. Regardless, this story has a happy ending: One of the technicians working at the service center immediately decided to give the cat a new home.

Editors' Recommendations

Ronan Glon
Ronan Glon is an American automotive and tech journalist based in southern France. As a long-time contributor to Digital…
Watch Tesla’s Cybertruck cruise the streets of New York City
tesla cybertruck features price specs release date photos 6

Tesla’s futuristic Cybertruck pickup was spotted cruising through the streets of New York City on Saturday, May 8, just hours before Elon Musk, the company’s flamboyant CEO, hosted Saturday Night Live.

Tesla tweeted a short clip showing the pickup -- or a prototype of the as-yet-unreleased vehicle -- passing by Radio City Music Hall in Manhattan.

Read more
Watch Tesla’s all-electric Semi hum around a test track
2020 tech trends for the decade tesla semi truck

Tesla has just released a video showing its all-electric Class 8 Semi truck humming around the automaker’s test track beside its factory in Fremont, California.

The 17-second clip (below) offers a decent view of the sleek-looking truck — sans trailer — showing it from the front, side, and rear as it rolls by the trackside camera.

Read more
Watch this Tesla drive from SF to LA with almost no intervention
A Telsa Model 3 drives along a road.

A Tesla enthusiast has posted a video showing a Model 3 Performance vehicle traveling from San Francisco to Los Angeles, California in Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta mode, with almost no human intervention necessary during the entire trip.

The video (above), spotted by Teslarati, has been sped up to compress the 380-mile journey int0 15 minutes of footage, though it’s still easy to see the vehicle’s driving decisions play out on its touchscreen display.

Read more