Following the release of a fake video in the middle of last year that claimed to show a Rivian R1T performing a ‘tank turn’, Rivian has released an official video but is that a good thing?
Tesla’s ugly-as-sin and likely-to-fall-foul-of-every-known-safety-agency Cybertruck sent the Interwb into meltdown as Musk showed off a tug-of-war between his truck and an F-150 and much more. Rivian has hit back with a video last week showing its quad-motor pickup performing a ‘tank turn’ on a muddy track.
The idea with the tank turn is that if you’re stuck on a closed in track you simply press a button and the truck swings back around on its own axis. Being able to perform a tank turn was always on Rivian’s wishlist but until the release of its video last week the brand had been super quiet. Rivian still isn’t saying too much about the tank turn which clearly has to be performed on soft surfaces like mud, grass and snow… while it looks cool it begs a question (see below).
While the world has gone ga-ga for the Cybertruck, we reckon the Rivian R1-T, which Rivian reckons will go on-sale in Australia (production will begin in the second-half of this year for left-hand drive markets and RHD markets after that), is the one to go for. See the quad-motor variant you see in this video will hit 96km/h in three seconds, so you can forget about the alleged V8-powered Raptor, offers a driving range of 600km, offers an approach and departure angle of 34.8-degrees and 30.5-degrees, respectively and a 20.5-degree rampover angle with a staggering 360mm of ground clearance and a 5000kg towing capacity.
Question: Is the tank turn functionality useful or just environmental vandalism?
