GM has filed to trademark the name “King Crab” with a usage description of “electronic controllers for steering systems for motor land vehicles.” It also trademarked a new logo to accompany the name. General Motors hasn’t yet released any official information about a new feature or drive mode with this name.
GM’s current crab-themed branding is CrabWalk. That’s the GMC name for GM’s lateral four-wheel steering feature, allowing a vehicle to turn diagonally. The same feature is called Sidewinder Mode for Chevy and Arrival Mode for Cadillac. So far, it’s only available on electric trucks and SUVs underpinned by the BT1 platform.
What else could a crab-themed steering system be? CrabWalk already takes advantage of the maximum turn angle of the rear wheels of the Sierra EV and Hummer EV, which is 10 degrees. CrabWalk disengages at speeds over 25 mph; could King Crab be a higher-speed version of the same feature? Will it utilize the non-functional console-mounted switch in the Hummer EV?
Notably, king crabs tend to be native to cold environments. Could General Motors have taken this into consideration? Could King Crab be some kind of snow mode for GMC EVs? If so, how would the steering be tuned for optimal snow performance?
Although a less exciting prospect, it’s possible that GMC is simply renaming “CrabWalk” to “King Crab” rather than introducing a new feature or drive mode. One hint that this could be The General’s intended application for King Crab is the fact that the trademarked King Crab logo is almost identical to the CrabWalk logo. They have similar stylized crabs surrounded by similar angular lines; the main difference is that one says “King Crab,” and the other says “CrabWalk.”
Four-wheel steering is available in every BT1-based vehicle currently in production. It’s standard in the GMC Hummer EV, GMC Sierra EV, and Cadillac Escalade IQ. For the Chevy Silverado EV, it comes in the top RST trim. When the Sierra EV gets a more fleshed-out lineup with more affordable lower trims, four-wheel steering could be a Denali-only feature.
Comments
Maybe it hints at a new model. An electric H4X would be cool. Maybe I’m a wishful thinker.
A great feature for the 5 people that buy these turds.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Hummer EV has sold almost 20, 000. No matter how much Luddites kick and scream, EVs are the future.
20,000 units even in just 1 year gets many models cancelled.
The benefit of EVs is that the inverter, motors, drivetrain, cells, and packs are shared between many vehicles. So the Hummer only sold 20k, but the Lyriq, Equinox EV, Blazer, Silverado EV, Escalade IQ, Sierra EV, and Brightdrop EVs use identical subsystems. In addition, it doesn’t have to do emissions testing.
For an ICE vehicle, low sales numbers kill them because it’s not profitable doing one-offs.
20,000 sales in the three years it’s been produced (SOP Nov, 2021) is basically a rounding error for any volume auto manufacturer.
So Stupid…Just Leave it alone!
Crab Walk is the perfect name, King Crab is not what it is!
Besides, I don’t want to change my license plate “CRABWALK”
The ultimate answer to the question exactly nobody asked?