Rear Wheel Steering

[TruckElectric]

There is no one to kill. Every Electric Truck, Car or Pickup is a good one.

It just means the Tesla Cybertruck will be better than those listed.

Sponsored

 

[firsttruck]

Driving ability & parking are not only advantages.

No trailer & tight street corners
towing trailer & tight street corners
towing trailer & backup
towing trailer & highway speed lane change

 

[davidngo44]

Elon just confirmed the Cybertruck will be almost exactly what was shown. They are adding rear wheel steering, so it can do tight turns and maneuver with high agility.
He added; "lots of other great things coming".


Wow.... can wait to get one next year...

 

[cyberpays]

Well the yoke is on us to think any competition would have an edge on the best selling CT or best selling truck soon period. Taking away any negatives now makes sense hopefully at no additional cost...maybe its an option buy? There might be a lot of option buys before it all done....did I say that... stop the madness! If I was Tesla at this late time with 1MM backorders waiting and other trucks coming what else would I change...your comments below....

 

[Frank W]

I like your way of thinking.

It just means the Tesla Cybertruck will be better than those listed.

 

[John K]

Just think if Tesla offered an option to jump in line. (Stirring the pot)

 

[`AquaWatt]

So are we back to not taking the 3% off?
Are we getting a hummer for our CT reservation? Can you sprinkle a little bit of Rivian too?
I want to see stuff, Twits are not updates. Show me the darn new CT. I am not holding my breath for mid-gate but I waanna see if there is a more useful better looking dash

Rant aside, it sounds like it is not cancelled yet so that is a good news.

I agree I want to see actual updates. Show me the darn truck. I want to see the Frunk and the interior.
But I am happy about the Hummer add on. And i want a dash of Rivian. Quad motor and tank turn please

 

[carpedatum]

One of the key advantages of EV is the simplicity of fewer moving parts. Moving parts require maintenance. Moving parts fail. While dual axle steering is a nice convenience, I have my concerns. If a six axle dump truck can maneuver through city traffic, I don't think a pu with less than half the footprint really will use the dual steering feature enough to pay for the investment. I understand that the CT is an ideal platform for it but I don't picture myself showing off doing pinwheels during a "hold my beer" moment. Tires are expensive. I will concede that parking in a tight spot would be really cool.

That's a really good point. While Tesla has some great engineers and they certainly do innovate, it is really hard to see how four wheel steering doesn't introduce a whole bunch of additional bits and pieces that have cost and weight, and can break, but won't get put to use every day.

Unless it will. I am reminded of the 4WS Honda Prelude. The offroad "crab walk" was not a use-case for that car, nor was trailering. It made for tighter turns at low speed and zippy lane changes, and I think those would be great to have on any vehicle, particularly a larger one.

It would make perfect sense to me that there be trim levels of Cybertruck that don't have that additional cost/weight/complexity. Maybe the simple 2WD version doesn't get this feature? On the other hand I would hope to see it on trucks with bigger batteries that don't suffer so much from more hardware being onboard.

As for the reliability issue, I really hope Sandy Munro gets an early build with this steering system on it and tears it down for us. More parts means more problems, certainly, but how much of that can be mitigated by deft engineering? Could be a lot. I am reminded of Electrek's coverage of a Tesla steering system patent:

https://electrek.co/2019/10/03/tesla-patents-efficient-power-assist-steering-system/

No doubt they've got some very bright people thinking about how 4 wheel steering gets done reliably in an electric truck. Now I look forward to laying on my back, underneath my Cybertruck, trying to figure out how it works...

 

[BillyGee]

For everyone worried about more parts and added complexity, I volunteer to take delivery of mine earlier than you to make sure it works. Just have your people talk to my people.

 

[`AquaWatt]

For everyone worried about more parts and added complexity, I volunteer to take delivery of mine earlier than you to make sure it works. Just have your people talk to my people.

What a guy! LOL

 

[Dave Lyon]

As an existing truck owner, that lives full time in a 40 ft fifth wheel, quad steering would be awesome for backing my trailer into tight campsites.

 

[Crissa]

I am reminded of Electrek's coverage of a Tesla steering system patent:

https://electrek.co/2019/10/03/tesla-patents-efficient-power-assist-steering-system/

No doubt they've got some very bright people thinking about how 4 wheel steering gets done reliably in an electric truck. Now I look forward to laying on my back, underneath my Cybertruck, trying to figure out how it works...

...the top comment on that story points out that this would be best used as a heavy-duty drive by wire system on the semi or pickup... like, say, the rear wheel steering?

-Crissa

 

[hridge2020]

Elon just confirmed the Cybertruck will be almost exactly what was shown. They are adding rear wheel steering, so it can do tight turns and maneuver with high agility.
He added; "lots of other great things coming".

How much $$$$ for that option?

 

[JBee]

...the top comment on that story points out that this would be best used as a heavy-duty drive by wire system on the semi or pickup... like, say, the rear wheel steering?

-Crissa

That steering assembly would fit well with a multilink inboard suspension. Variable ratio with two motors by the sounds of it. Redundancy for drive by wire, geometry also works for self centering.

Sponsored