Attendees at Tesla’s Cybertruck delivery event have had a chance to walk the production line and are sharing lots of photos online. It has now been confirmed that the Cybertruck will use steer-by-wire.
Drive Tesla shared the following photo of a sign that confirms this, along with a photo of the front-end drive assembly.
Steer-by-wire is important as it indicates that Tesla will now offer a dynamic steering ratio, based on the speed of travel. The slower you go, the less steering input is required to make a turn, while the faster you go, the slower the impact of your steering inputs to accommodate variances at highway speeds.
This addresses one of the criticisms levelled against the implementation of the yoke on the refreshed Model S and X, so now Tesla has the technology in one of their models, it raises the question, will they retrofit it to existing production lines?
While some may have fears about not having a steering column, this is a well-established technology and helps Tesla remove a part from production. This also is an important reduction in parts that differ between RHD and LHD models, if the Cybertruck ever gets made for markets like Australia, that process will be easier.
“The drive unit, brake rotors and pads, drive shafts, steering rack and actuators come together to create a complete subframe assembly.
Rather than a mechanical steering column, Cybertruck uses steer-by-wire, an electrical wired connection, to communicate the driver’s commands to the vehicle.”
This is encouraging news, and will, I suspect, make a RHD option more likely.
Where’s my truck???