All-wheel steering is starting to become a widespread feature among luxury cars and the latest name in the game is the Tesla Cybertruck. A new video, which appears to have been filmed inside Tesla’s Gigafactory in Texas, has surfaced on Twitter, showing the upcoming all-electric truck’s rear-wheel steering.
This isn’t the first time we see the pickup’s feature in action, with a previous video appearing online back in April 2022, but it is more revealing, showing the maximum angle the rear wheels of the car can rotate at. It’s worth noting that even if this latest sighting, which is embedded below, was recently published on Twitter, it looks like it was shot last year during Tesla’s Cyber Rodeo.
Rear-wheel steering isn’t a particularly new invention, with the first mass-produced car to feature it being the 1985 Nissan R31 Skyline, but it’s something that more and more carmakers are putting in their cars to improve their handling. The GMC Hummer EV has it, but a lot of other models have all-wheel steering, too, like the Mercedes-Benz EQS, Porsche Taycan, and Lamborghini Urus, among others.
Back in 2021, Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed that the Cybertruck will have all-wheel steering, saying: “We’re adding rear wheel steering, so it can do tight turns and maneuver with high agility.”
Current rear-wheel steering setups usually work in two ways, depending on the speed of the vehicle. At low speeds, the rear wheels turn opposite to the front wheels, virtually shortening the wheelbase of the car and allowing for much tighter turns compared to a similar vehicle without four-wheel steering. At higher speeds, the rear wheels turn in the same direction as the front wheels, but at a much lower angle, providing better stability when going through turns.
It’s unclear at this point at what angle the rear wheels of the Cybertruck can rotate, and whether or not Tesla will offer some kind of off-road mode that will make use of this feature when going off the beaten track.
What we do know is that the Tesla Cybertruck will go into production in the Summer of 2023, with a ramp-up expected in early 2024. We also know that development is moving fast, with more prototypes being made for testing and with a lot of gear being installed at the factory in Texas where the vehicle will be built.
