Someone spotted a Cybertruck being driven on public roads close to Tesla's design headquarters

Instagram/@chicago_roy

The Cybertruck as filmed by Instagram user @chicago_roy.

• A Tesla Cybertruck appears to have been spotted on a public road despite the vehicles not beginning production until 2021.
• Instagram user @chicago_roy posted a short clip to the social media site on Tuesday, which showed the futuristic pickup truck in full flight.
• The video was shot near Tesla's design studio in Hawthorne, California, per a geo-tag and a construction banner featured in the video. It's likely that the vehicle was being driven by a staffer.
• The Cybertruck is Tesla's first foray into the pickup truck market, and has generated significant hype, not least because a demo of the vehicle meant to showcase its strength went awry earlier this month.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tesla's Cybertruck has been spotted in the wild close to the firm's design headquarters in California.

Although the average Joe won't be able to drive one of the vehicles until the slated production date of 2021, a keen-eyed Instagram user spotted one of the trucks out and about in Hawthorne, California.

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The city is home to Tesla's design centre. It's also where CEO Elon Musk's other company, SpaceX, is headquartered.

Instagram user @chicago_roy posted a short clip to the social media site on Tuesday, which shows what looks like a Cybertruck in full flight. It's not clear who the vehicle's driver was or where it was heading.

The user tagged the video as "SpaceX Hawthorne, CA." A banner in the background of the video confirms the location, since it advertises new apartments being built in Hawthorne.

The Cybertruck is Tesla's first venture into the pickup truck market, and the vehicle has generated significant hype.

Distinguished by its futuristic, jagged contours and tough, armored glass, it gained extra publicity last week when a demo meant to showcase its strength went awry. A botched demo saw a Tesla staffer throwing a metal ball at the truck to demonstrate its tough glass. The glass promptly shattered, prompting some swearing from Musk.

The instant mockery hasn't damaged the Cybertruck's cutting-edge reputation: in a sent tweet Monday, Musk said some 250,000 pre-orders have been placed for the vehicle since its unveiling.

That figure should probably be taken with a pinch of salt, however. Although Tesla is currently taking "orders" for the Cybertruck for $100 each, they aren't really orders in a strict sense, since they're not a final commitment or deposit to buy it.

The vehicle's otherworldly aura has also been noted by influential YouTuber PewDiePie, who's compared the Cybertruck to the iconic Warthog vehicle from the "Halo" game series last week. Musk, replying to PewDiePie, even described it as the "Warthog irl!!" in a tweet on Monday.