On Sunday night, while you were on the couch missing football and pretending not to watch HGTV reruns of “House Hunters”, Rivian’s RJ Scaringe was out working with the engineering team that’s developing the company’s R1T and R1S all-electric vehicles. He posted about it on Twitter.
Scaringe, who is pretty open about the product development process on Twitter, described what they were doing saying that he was working on “developing traction control for some of our more fun driving modes”. The one in particular that was shown in the video is Drift mode.
No internal combustion truck or SUV features a specific Drift mode straight off the line from the company. A combination of button switches and screen selections can get you something similar in many vehicles, namely the ones that let you disengage traction control.
Tesla’s Track Mode V2 allows owners to adjust their vehicle’s drive dynamics in a similar way.
While driving, Scaringe shows off the truck’s fully-digital driver information display, which shows that the truck is traveling around 30 mph as it makes its way across the snow-covered track. The navigation screen is also on display showcasing a vivid picture of what the area looks like in more hospital temperatures.
The footage is shown as one of Rivian’s electric utility vehicle rivals, the GMC Hummer EV has begun promoting its testing regimen in the snow.
Earlier in the day, Rivian’s corporate Twitter account showed footage of the snow testing alongside other captured moments of the R1T and R1S including an intriguing water fording test and mountain climbing.
The company has been continuously giving updates regarding its development progress, even teasing the fact that its truck will be capable of a tank turn.
Rivian has released the footage as the company takes aim at its June 2021 scheduled deliveries start date. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated factors, the comany was unable to keep its original targeted delivery date for the first Rivian vehciles – late 2020.
