Actual Off-Road Testing: climbing & descending (@ Hollister Hill RSVA - 10/23/23)

[SolarWizard]

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[acey]

Fingers crossed the CT has lockers

 

[fritter63]

"IS IT EVEN ON?" ...... ? ? ? ?

 

[Bill837]

Rear lockers are exceedingly common on half ton trucks even 2wd ones. One wet boat ramp is enough to warrant having them.

I’m not being a hater but that obstacle is a test of approach angles and a little bit on the break over side. Its not insignificant that it make it but any vehicle with sufficient clearance and a locked or good limited slip differential makes it calmly.

Are you using the word locker where I would use limited slip?

 

[Baldey]

It sounds to me like a heavy boy! But i know nothing about offroading

 

[HaulingAss]

At full height it looks quite stiff, like a javalina bouncing around on it's legs...no wheel drop left, so it does a lot of 2 or 3 wheel teetering. Anything road worthy cannot be very off-road worthy. Off-road requires long travel, soft suspension, low tire pressure and lockers. None of those are compatible with pavement.

That's true, good performance desires articulation for off-road terrain and a stiff chassis on flat roads. The Cybertruck naturally has the latter, not the former. The only way to have both would be if that variable ride hight could act individually on each wheel in real time. Not gonna happen.

It looks to me like the purpose of the off-road park was to collect data to tune the traction system (and perhaps the four-wheel-steering system for off-road). If they get this right, we can still see some great performance on rugged terrain. I don't see anything preventing a simulated locking axle on any "axle" that has two motors. It could be made better than a mechanical locking axle by adjusting individual wheel speeds a bit depending upon steering position and also depending upon which wheel is slipping less. It's actually very beneficial when climbing steep rugged terrain to limit wheel slippage. Most off-road problems happen when wheel slippage allows the front or back of the rig to slide sideways.

From what I've seen with the R1T, they didn't get the technical off-road performance right from the get-go. There is still time to fix it. I know the on and off-road traction control and driving dynamics of my 2018 Performance Model 3 (which is actully one of the earliest AWD versions released) improved considerably during the first year or more of ownership through software updates. It also got a special "track mode" at no additional cost over a year after purchase. Don't scoff when I speak of "off-raod performance" of a Model 3. No, it can't really go off-road due to limited ground clearance, but it can do steep slippery tracks within the limitations of its ground clearance, and everything is relative anyway. Yes, it improved greatly after its initial release.

Tuning traction systems is very important and more complex than meets the eye. The more motors, the more complex the task. Multiple motor configurations increase the workload as each one must be tuned individually. I expect the Cybertruck's traction systems will continue to improve long after first deliveries. It seems Tesla knows that there is essentially unlimited demand for at least two years, this gives them time to fine-tune the traction syste.ms after the fact. They will be delivered with high safety and lower capability.

There is a certain balance that needs to be considered between capability and safety. When the traction control is tuned for maximum ability to continue to climb, the natural result will be people tumbling off mountains to their death/serious injury. That's because in sketchy situations, the safest thing is to limit wheelspin while the most capable thing is to keep applying more torque to the only wheel that has traction remaining. Oh, yes, I can hear the chorus of people saying that should be up to the driver, which I normally agree with. It's just in this context, I don't think people realize how much skill it takes to judge where the limits are while sitting in the driver's seat on the side of a rugged mountian, when there is not even one wheel or one axle that is torque limited based upon slippage.

When I worked at a ski area, the expert snow cat operators with decades of experience in some of the thickest and deepest snow in the world, and a bevy of equipment at their disposal, said their best snow cats were really, really hard to get stuck, but when you managed to get them stuck, oh crap, getting them out again is gonna be a herculean task. It might take two or three other snow cats, lots of manual digging, and the better part of a day. Off-roading a super capable rig is similar in that slopes that challenge it are likely very deadly if you make a mistake or run into the rig's limits. Everything is under control, right up to that one moment that it's not.

 

[Klaxon]

I was waiting 57 seconds for acceleration 2.9 sec 0-60mph

 

[Don Kedick]

The parking stoppers at Wal Mart won’t be able to stop me now.

 

[scottf200]

Good video showing a few things.

Chevrolet Trail Boss (same for Sliverado EVs perhaps; except ICE stuff obviously)

Rivian R1T after most recent OTA update.

 

[SolarWizard]

Are you using the word locker where I would use limited slip?

No. A helical limited slip differential makes it up this.
A locked rear end won’t chatter or what is sometimes called bark the tires.

I’m seeing the same issue the rivian and the hummer exibit. I’m no coder and certainly no digital driveline tech but in thousands of miles of offroading I fully understand the limitations of being without a fixed traction device.
While this merely just makes the truck look and sound awkward climbing, an off camber situation or worse a muddy hillclimb is going to be tough for this truck as it stands

Consider this constructive criticism in hopes the tesla lurkers here pay attention

 

[charliemagpie]

We dont know what was or wasn't active on the CT, maybe they took a minimalistic approach, maybe it was FSD learning to drive up that slope.

 

[CyberSleuth]

When you see TWO Cybertrucks cruising around in this environment it really does look like another planet. Or time...

 

[CyberGus]

When you see TWO Cybertrucks cruising around in this environment it really does look like another planet. Or time...

Free-range Cybertrucks

 

[CYBR117]

Some if not all of these comparison videos people are posting have larger tires, smaller wheels and better off-road tires at that. Plus I hadn’t seen one stock vehicle posted.

I’m sure with over the air updates the CyberTruck will learn to apply and mimic lockers very soon. The thing about Tesla is they’re always updating their vehicles and making them better with updates and not bolt on upgrades.

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