• A Tesla Cybertruck appears to have been spotted on a public road even though the vehicles are not expected to enter production until 2021.
• The Instagram user @chicago_roy posted a short clip to the social-media site on Tuesday, seeming to show 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. The vehicle was most likely being driven by a staffer.
• The Cybertruck is Tesla's first foray into the pickup-truck market, and it has generated significant hype, not least because a demo meant to showcase the vehicle's strength went awry earlier this month.
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Tesla's Cybertruck appears to have been spotted in the wild close to the firm's design headquarters in California.

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

The city is home to Tesla's design center. It's also where another of CEO Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX, is headquartered.

The Instagram user @chicago_roy posted a short clip to the social-media site on Tuesday showing what looks like a Cybertruck in full flight. It's not clear who was driving or where the vehicle 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 on two different windows broke, prompting some swearing from Musk.

The instant mockery doesn't seem to have damaged the Cybertruck's cutting-edge reputation: In a sent tweet Monday, Musk said some 250,000 preorders had been placed for the vehicle since its unveiling.

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

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