Do you turn on “slippery surface” when driving in the rain?

[hemiarch]

I can measure a slight change in sound when engaged.

Yet when driving near Diddy's house I turn it on and lock up the rear diff.

Freakout mode might be coming with the Christmas update.

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[hemiarch]

Freakout mode might be coming with the Christmas update.

Too soon? That was too soon. Sorry.

 

[Ruffles]

I've never heard that it was supposed to come on automatically. What it does, on the CyberBeast at least, is apply equal torque to front and rear axles. It's easy to feel the difference for me in the rain. By default, the CyberBeast is FWD and when it senses the front wheels slipping, applies torque from the rear. You can feel this in the rain when accelerating uphill or while turning. The fronts will spin a bit. Turning this feature on immediately removes that slipping by always powering the rear axle instead of waiting for slip.

I believe the AWD Cybertruck normally drives in RWD so I don't know if you would notice the slippage as easily. Do I use it? Sometimes. I usually forget about it in the rain but I put it on in snow.

 

[webspeedracer]

Heading to Denver area, are the stock AWD Pirelli Scorpion tires good enough?

Nope, Not for snow/slush/ice…it’s been a great summer tire but no way I’ll drive that tire when winter finally hits Utah/CO. I’m swapping to my winter set tomorrow for Thanksgiving drive to CO, with a weak storm system approaching from the south.

 

[HaulingAss]

I've never heard that it was supposed to come on automatically. What it does, on the CyberBeast at least, is apply equal torque to front and rear axles. It's easy to feel the difference for me in the rain. By default, the CyberBeast is FWD and when it senses the front wheels slipping, applies torque from the rear. You can feel this in the rain when accelerating uphill or while turning. The fronts will spin a bit. Turning this feature on immediately removes that slipping by always powering the rear axle instead of waiting for slip.

I believe the AWD Cybertruck normally drives in RWD so I don't know if you would notice the slippage as easily. Do I use it? Sometimes. I usually forget about it in the rain but I put it on in snow.

I've experimented with "Slippery Surfaces" mode a few times in my AWD but cannot tell the difference. So you might be right.

But simple deduction says it either reduces efficiency and/or ride quality or else it would be enabled all the time as the default. I suspect it will also enter "Slippery Surface" mode automatically, as needed (without indicating it on the menu setting), but that enabling it manually will make sure it's in that mode the instant you first need it (rather than waiting for the truck to detect slippage and engaging it).

I leave it off all the time (except for the times I've experimented with it). I would probably turn it on if the road was slippery enough for me to worry about losing control but in most winter conditions the Cybertruck AWD is golden without it.

I thought I read in the Owner's Manual that it distributes the weight more evenly between all wheels (which implies it connects the four air shocks together). This would allow the truck to roll left and right more easily but would add traction more evenly distributed between all four wheels. It might be useful on glare ice (which I haven't experienced yet). It probably has it's uses (or Tesla would not have included that mode) but it's probably not a big difference (or Tesla would have elaborated on it more and more clearly emphasized when it should be turned on).

 

[Tecyber1]

Ok I used this today again and noticed really what it does. I had pulled out and felt the back tires slip a little in the rain. Turned the feature on, hit the accelerator the same after the next stop and no slip at all!

 

[RonSol]

Yep. Exactly what I have experienced.
Engage the rear differential lock also and you have a paved road 4x4 setting. Just don’t lock that rear differential unless it’s really slippery.

 

[CyberWalrus]

Normally, there is already traction control which auto engage when there is excess slip. The slippery setting probably is just more proactive in reducing power. I have the slippery setting in my RWD but have not test it yet. I have punch it off the line and would peel out, so probably with slippery on, it will cut power.

 

[mark555055c]

Just noticed today this doesn’t turn itself on. You have to go to dynamics and select it.
Do you recommend doing this? What exactly does it do? Have you noticed a real world difference?

Definitely not for rain, only for fully snow covered roads.

 

[Jbrazda]

I've never heard that it was supposed to come on automatically. What it does, on the CyberBeast at least, is apply equal torque to front and rear axles. It's easy to feel the difference for me in the rain. By default, the CyberBeast is FWD and when it senses the front wheels slipping, applies torque from the rear. You can feel this in the rain when accelerating uphill or while turning. The fronts will spin a bit. Turning this feature on immediately removes that slipping by always powering the rear axle instead of waiting for slip.

I believe the AWD Cybertruck normally drives in RWD so I don't know if you would notice the slippage as easily. Do I use it? Sometimes. I usually forget about it in the rain but I put it on in snow.

um, this is how all wheel drive works. why would you need to toggle a setting to get all wheel drive?

 

[RonSol]

Think of it like a ice pick up truck you could either have it in auto four-wheel-drive which will engage when needed or lock it into four-wheel-drive with a slippery surface setting. Now there are other changes that go along with the slippery surface setting, but that’s how it seems to function works from power train standpoint from what I can tell.

 

[mongo]

Normally, the inductive motors (front on AWD, rear on Beast) are inactive for efficiency. I think this mode keeps them on and splits torque between front and rear axles for better overall traction versus the stability control system needing to activate the motors and use brakes to limit primarily axle wheel spin.

 

[hemiarch]

Normally, the inductive motors (front on AWD, rear on Beast) are inactive for efficiency. I think this mode keeps them on and splits torque between front and rear axles for better overall traction versus the stability control system needing to activate the motors and use brakes to limit primarily axle wheel spin.

So would YOU recommend doing this in the rain?
I feel like if this was truly beneficial they would have automated it no?
After all, the car knows when it’s raining because there is a warning that says FSD may be degraded or something like that (can’t remember the precise wording)

 

[MisterChilidog]

I've noticed it come on automatically, a couple of times, when driving (probably too fast) on gravel roads. In one case, I definitely noticed the truck make an adjustment as I was drifting the rear wheels a little bit - the truck righted itself surprisingly quick, and I didn't feel anymore "wagging" after that. Truth be told, it threw a little cold water on the fun I was having at the time, but there are other menu options I could have selected to keep the party going.

 

[TyPope]

Speaking of tires, I have almost 28,000 on mine and I had Tesla measure the tread wear and they told me 6/32 and 7/32. They told me that new they are 9/32 and that I should replace at 3/32. So I might have another 10,000 on them yet. I expected to replace them at 20.000 based on my Model Y so I am very, very pleased.

Mine are also between 6 and 7/32 at 29,000 miles. I wasn't sure where they started. If they started at 9/32, that would mean we have 6/32 (yes, I know that's 3/16...) of wear before changing.

From this, I'm halfway to replacement. So, 56,000 miles? Not bad.

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