Don’t mess with ferry boats.
That was the takeaway Thursday, after the Twitter account of San Francisco Bay Ferry unloaded a mocking broadside against Tesla Inc.’s
TSLA,
billionaire chief executive Elon Musk, who claimed earlier in the day that the EV maker’s upcoming Cybertruck will be waterproofed enough “to serve briefly as a boat.”
That comment drew its share of eyerolls on social media, with comedian Blaine Capatch tweeting that “if you drive your car off a cliff it serves briefly as a plane.”
But the ferry service didn’t chime in until one Twitter commenter said Musk’s announcement “just took the ferry business in SF out of operation.” With a healthy dose of side-eye, S.F. Bay Ferry posted a laughing Michael Jordan meme in response, followed by a couple of tweets dripping in sarcasm.
“To prepare for the inevitability of the Nintendo 64 floatie truck flotilla rendering us obsolete, we’re adding little wheels to our ferries. Landboat will be able to serve brief as a bus, so it can cross bridges, parking lots and highways that are not too congested,” the ferry service tweeted.
Touting a free-fare day to celebrate California Clean Air Day next week, it continued: “Hurry, come ride before the Blade Runner Barge Armada puts us out of operation. Free rides next Wednesday!”
San Francisco Bay Ferry carries nearly 3 million passengers a year, and connects San Francisco with Oakland and the East Bay.
At least one transit advocacy group said it had the ferries’ backs. “We at the California Transit Association applaud your innovation and ingenuity. Perhaps next you can add wings, too,” a tweet read.
Transit agencies, by and large, aren’t fans of Musk, who has proposed building tunnels built by his Boring Co. to alleviate traffic rather than improving public transportation, and called public transit “a pain in the ass” where you might have to sit next to a serial killer. Musk also reportedly once admitted his Hyperloop concept was intended to undermine California’s high-speed rail plans.
