🦀 Wheels that go like this
Swerve Drives × Rams Radio × Venmo Secrets
Hey there — excited to be back — we’ve been experimenting with the form of ST a bit and we think you’ll love it! What’s changed?
🔎 We’re keeping the deep dives into new physical products not covered in traditional reporting, including more imagery of the featured product!
💎 A new section that links to the stuff we wanted to talk about, but didn’t have space to do so. Hidden gems and hot takes here.
✌️ Surface Texture twitter is switching hands. You should follow @willborzon instead for more discussion on the links in the new section.
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— Will @ Surface Texture
2022 GMC Hummer EV | Crab Mode
GMC resurrected the Hummer with a bolt of lightning this week, debuting a refreshed all-electric version of the gas-guzzling icon.
Reactions range from “Cybertruck Killer” to dunking on the Hummer EV’s $100k price-tag and Watt to Freedom launch-control mode (Shortened to WTF in an attempt to one-up Tesla’s Ludicrous mode, a cinematic experience worthy of its abbreviation.) — but there are some genuine innovations here, from headlights that indicate recharge level (which seems so obvious in hindsight) to a rear-view-camera-style view of what’s beneath the car (“Can I clear this rock without scraping?”), and removable ceiling panels a la the 2021 Ford Bronco. Oh, and THREE front windshield wipers.
That said, the biggest leap (diagonally) forward? Crab Mode.
“Crab Mode” is really just a cool way of saying “rear steering” — it’s been around for a long time, but usually on high performance vehicles to improve maneuverability while cornering at high speeds. A great perk with rear steering is the ability to make tighter turns, especially important for extremely long vehicles that would otherwise have extremely large turning radii. Perhaps the best example is the humble, and deceitfully maneuverable, fire truck [noise warning].
The big differentiator with Crab Mode is the normalization of translation in a consumer vehicle — we’re used to going forward and turning in large arcs, but not moving sideways-ish. Strafing is unusual in a car! At the core of Crab Mode is an underappreciated quality of electrification: you don’t need to have one motor powering the whole vehicle.
Exhibit A — the Rivian R1T electric truck “tank turn,” made possible by an electric motor at each wheel.
Sure, the Rivian is in mud and its tires don’t look too happy, but the point remains: distributing drive motors around a vehicle can result in some desirable new movements and vehicle behavior. Crab Mode is an attempt to make new types of movement feel premium, in the same way the Tesla Model X gull-wing doors became a status symbol. Can’t you see Tesla punching back with something approaching a proper swerve drive — independent steering at each wheel — like this:
👁 Worth a Look
Speaking of EVs, the new Amazon delivery truck looks like a mash-up between the Honda E and this UPS delivery truck concept — literally.
Mercedes is recalling some vehicles after their illuminated badges cause power steering failures… it seems like there’s an eponymous law more fitting than Murphy’s Law for this situation, but K.I.S.S. will have to do.
Teenage Engineering released (and sold out immediately) the OB-4, a good old-fashioned radio channeling Dieter Rams. The exposed speaker diaphragms are concerning… but the way the volume knob physically adjusts to your device’s volume setting is 😍
Apple did that thing again where it released new iPhones. The latest phones have a magnetic attachment point for wireless chargers, cases, wallets, etc. Peak Design, the photography gear company, launched a kickstarter with a wide range of accessories leveraging the new MagSafe connector — quite fond of the “Wall Mount” variation.
Venmo launched a credit card with both a camouflaged QR code in the printed design, as well as a hidden Venmo logo in the chip.
I’m surprised more companies don’t do this: Samsung launched the “LivingColor” interior paint range that perfectly matches their “Lifestyle” line of TVs. The paint is free if you buy a Lifestyle TV, and is provided in colors that directly match the TV bezels.