Tesla’s lead Cybertruck engineer took to social media to question the practicality of General Motors‘ new “CrabWalk” feature showcased on the upcoming GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1.
What Happened: On Tuesday, GM posted a video demonstrating the CrabWalk maneuver on its 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 and Hummer EV. CrabWalk allows the vehicle to move diagonally by mimicking a crab’s sideways motion, achieved by synchronizing the angles of the front and rear wheels.
Morrill’s Doubt: Tesla Cybertruck lead engineer Wes Morrill responded to the video on Twitter, expressing doubts about the feature’s real-world usefulness. He acknowledged that Tesla had considered a similar feature during development but ultimately decided against it.
“Does anyone know when this feature is practically useful? Genuinely curious,” Morrill said.
“We played with this in development but no matter what we tried it was a clunky/awkward experience with no real use case,” he added. “The feature is not sufficiently useful to allow parallel parking and is very unintuitive to control.”
Morrill clarified that his intent wasn’t to criticize GM but rather to understand potential benefits overlooked by Tesla. He encouraged users to highlight any functional features present in GMC trucks that the Cybertruck lacks.
Users Point To Tesla’s ‘Fart Mode:’ Several users pointed out that Tesla itself offers features with questionable practicality, such as the “fart mode” in its vehicles.
“Ok – fair. Agree Fart mode isn’t practically useful either (other than to make ppl laugh),” Morrill said.
What Good Is It For? The CrabWalk feature was first introduced by GMC on its Hummer EV in 2020, touted as an enhancement for off-roading capabilities. It also came with a cool ad featuring NBA star LeBron James … and several thousand CGI crabs.
The 2024 Sierra EV Denali Edition 1, a premium limited edition, boasts a GM-estimated range of 440 miles, exceeding the Cybertruck’s range.
Deliveries for the new Sierra EV are expected to start in summer with a starting price of $99,495. The higher-end Cybertruck variant, “Cyberbeast,” starts at $99,990, while the base AWD version starts at $79,990.
Delivery Dip: GMC’s overall deliveries in the U.S. dipped nearly 5% year-on-year in the first quarter, mainly due to a decline in Acadia sales. However, the brand managed to sell 1,668 units of the combined Hummer EV pickup truck and SUV models.
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Photo courtesy GMC
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