One of the advantages of having a motor for each wheel is that you can make them turn independently of each other. Besides the obvious advantage when it comes to torque-vectoring -- applying varying amounts of torque to each wheel for maximum grip in turns -- this sort of control allows a vehicle to turn like a tank. A video (bottom) appeared that appears to show a CGI Rivian R1T pulling a zero-radius turn on a dusty mountain road. The credits in the video description are as follows: Director: Abteen Bagheri Producer: Melissa Murphy Cinematographer: Tom Townend Editor: Ryan Beck @ Final Cut Colorist: Fergus McCall VFX by The Mill Agency: Droga5 Monkey Films Somesuch x Anonymous Content There are a couple of takeaways from these. First is a lot of effort was put into making this 15-second clip. It wasn't done by a rabid fan of the company with a super-powerful computer and lots of time on their hands, but by a number of professionals. Second, it was made by Droga5, which is the agency that Rivian hired in the past for video work. So, since zero-turn radius is something the vehicles should be capable of, and the company's ad agency has put together this little clip, it seems highly likely this will be a feature on Rivian vehicles. The video was taken down by YouTube after RIvian sent a copyright violation complaint. Am disputing it since I think it should be considered Fair Use because of its newsworthiness.
The InsideEVs post was updated to mention that, as implied in the video, "Tank Steer" is a term that has been trademarked by Rivian. They also trademarked "Tank Turn." This lends more weight to the argument that this is a real (and useful!) feature at least some Rivian vehicles will get.
I find this video and "tank steer" thing a little sketchy. The trademark links above point to web pages that make no reference to Rivian. Regardless, the status of each trademark is "602 - Abandoned-Failure To Respond Or Late Response." A tank steer/tank turn/zero-turn radius implies the vehicle can complete the maneuver in place without moving forward or background - an in-place turn if you will. The video clearly shows after the truck's first stop, it accelerated forward then whipped the back-end around 180 degrees. The "tank steer" looked to kick in toward the end of the maneuver to assist bringing the front-end around. Neat move but not a tank turn. But the most interesting part about the Rivian truck video ... it's "no longer available due to a copyright claim by Rivian IP Holdings, LLC." Hmm ....
Here's the link to Rivian's page of trademarks from which the individual copyrighted terms were taken. Yes, the video was taken down, but I'm pretty sure it was selectively leaked to begin with. Part of the evidence for that is that it included inside information about its creators in the video description. I suspected the video would be taken down after a short period and that is why we still have a copy of the video in our post.
Thanks for the trademarks link. Odd that the actual web page for a given trademark does list the issuer's company. At any rate, it doesn't appear Rivian is concerned about keeping "tank steer" and "tank turn" trademarked. As I previously stated they both have a status of abandoned. Hopefully not an oversight by Rivian? I get the leaked video angle. If that's the case, I find it interesting on how they (Rivian) are "stretching" the conventional meaning of a tank track turn, which again is a maneuver of a vehicle in-place without moving forward or back. Perhaps it will be possible and just was not highlighted in video. But the other hand, if it is possible then why would you not include it the video.
They may have just thrown that out there to judge interest. I would be surprised if the reveal truck has this capability already programmed into it. I'm hoping they teach this trick to the first set of prototypes. It might not be a feature many will use, but it sure would look impressive and attract lots of attention to them. Here's a video of an electric UTV I once covered that had one motor per wheel turning in place. I expect the R1T to be just as impressive.
I also doubt the reveal/prototype pickup currently has that capability but it's really a mute point since the video is CGI. It would be a cool feature but I agree that it would be most likely used, at least at the current price point, by a small subset of the Rivian R1T owners to be. Definitely a feature that could get some seriously PR mileage. None the less, would much rather see Rivian focusing and spending their time in such areas as vehicle stability, reliability, safety, security, oh, and the test drive program to name a few, at least for the vehicle's initial launch. The UTV in the Vimeo video clip looks like it would be fun to off-road in. It certainly would be way more nimble that the R1T.
While at the NY private event for reservation holders one of the engineers (I promised not to out him) showed me a video on his phone of one of the tests of tank mode. In the video the truck ( it appeared to be an F-150 body on the skateboard) was stopped on a dirt surface and then it seemed like they floored it and the truck spun on its axis like a top for about 3 complete circles. The engineer confirmed that it will be an included feature and that they will have safety controls in place that will require the truck to be at a dead stop before allowing tank mode to activate. He also mentioned that it should only be done on a dirt surface or it will destroy your tires.
Confirmed! Rivian just posted the following video YouTube: From video description: "Tank Turn. Available on the R1T and R1S " Happy Holidays!
