See Tesla Cybertruck Make A U-Turn, Put Its Rear-Wheel Steering To Good Use

Name: See Tesla Cybertruck Make A U-Turn, Put Its Rear-Wheel Steering To Good Use
Uploaded: 2023-08-17T08:30:00Z
Description: The Tesla Cybertruck is inching closer and closer to its expected market launch in September, so more and more prototypes are being spotted by brand enthusiasts.

A drone video shows the impressive turning radius of the all-electric pickup.

Photo by: YouTube

Iulian Dnistran

By: Iulian Dnistran

Aug 17, 2023 at 4:30am ET

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The Tesla Cybertruck is inching closer and closer to its expected market launch in September, so more and more prototypes are being spotted by brand enthusiasts.

Now, a new drone video published by avid Giga Texas follower Joe Tegtmeyer on his YouTube channel shows the upcoming pickup truck’s rear-wheel steering at work from above, giving us some extra information about its turning radius.

Embedded above, the almost five-minute-long video follows the vehicle from its battery top-up session at a Supercharger station all the way to the moment when it goes inside the factory, but shortly after it leaves the charger, it makes a U-turn, revealing that it can turn around without having to back up.

A typical local road in the US has a width between 9-12 feet, according to the Federal Highway Administration, so if we were to guess, we’d say the Cybertruck’s turning circle is about 35 ft, considering the separator that divides the road is approximately 5 ft wide.

This is a very rough estimate, so take it with a grain of salt, but if it turns out to be true, it would mean the Cybertruck has a similar turning diameter as the GMC Hummer EV’s 38 ft, which also has rear-wheel steering. At the same time, the Rivian R1T, which doesn’t have rear-wheel steering, can turn curb-to-curb in 44.9 ft, according to MotorTrend’s measurements.

Previously, Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a reply on X (previously known as Twitter) that the Cybertruck is “perhaps better than a [Model] Y in turning.” For reference, the Model Y, which doesn’t have rear-wheel steering but sports smaller diameter wheels than the Cybertruck, has a turning circle of 39 feet 7 inches.

What do you think?

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Tesla’s Cybertruck is already in the pre-production phase, with release-candidate (RC) units rolling off the assembly line at the company’s Texas Gigafactory. A special handover event is expected to happen next month, after years of delays and mountains of speculation online, making it one of the most, if not the most anticipated vehicle in recent history.

As always, we’d like to know what you think about this, so after watching the video embedded above, head over to the comments section below to give us your thoughts.