“Crab Mode” isn’t just what you’re in when you journey to Red Lobster, McCormick & Schmick’s, or Baltimore. It’s a feature of the new electric Hummer that GMC has teased. Complete with a silly logo.
Crab Mode? In a Hummer? Please excuse any typos, I am giggling too hard at all the jokes that are coming to mind. Yes, I am 13 years old inside, apparently.
Ahem.
This Crab Mode is accompanied by a logo that looks like a rejected design from the Transformers cartoons.
Here’s what Crab Mode is/what it does. Or rather, what it might be or what it might do, as GM/GMC is still being quite circumspect.
Crab Mode is, probably, as Motor1 speculates, a reference to the top-trim Hummer having three electric motors and some kind of unique motion that the electric SUV will be able to do. The author over there thinks it could be like the tech that Rivian uses to allow its truck to make a zero-radius turn. Our guess is that maybe it can “crab walk” sideways if you’re trying to maneuver your Hummer into a tight parking space or for some sort of work usage.
This is all accompanied by a logo that looks like a rejected design from the Transformers cartoons.
GMC’s tweet doesn’t shed any real light on the situation. “Real revolutionaries forge their own direction.” OK, so maybe that does mean the Hummer will move in mysterious ways?
We shall see when the Hummer is revealed this fall.Until then, I will be thinking of this and cackling, at least until my neighbors take notice and send me off with the nice people in white coats.
[Image: GMC via Twitter]
Sounds like a cool feature that – someday – we’ll wonder how we lived without.
Maybe GM is bringing back Quadrasteer!
How did we ever live without Quadrasteer?
Does even remember Quadrasteer?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quadrasteer
Quadrasteer, I was thinking about that the other day when I saw Murilee’s story which made me think of the 4WS Prelude, then the 4WS GM trucks.
:-)
So, now GM has crabs? Mary Barra too?
It is not funny anymore. What do you have against Mary Barra? That she is a woman?
Gee, you sound kind of … crabby
Hey, I like Mary Barra so much, I want to buy one of her crabs. Normally I avoid crabs, but if it is from Mary, it must be special.
Not to worry, every GMC Hummer will come with a bottle of head shampoo.
Crabs are so Macho, what a great image for GM. One theory is that giant coconut crabs the size of dogs devoured Amelia Earhart, eaten alive. So is this the new GM ad campaign?
when your battery is dead and you have to crawl home, it makes you crabby!
So, first you get a hummer, then you get crabs. That’s a familiar story.
Ehhhh…..Thats not how you get crabs genius
I mean, if the guy that gives you the hummer has an infested beard, then…
The case I got was from a motel blanket. All of the hassle and itch without the associated fun. :(
Should I be taking Stellantis if I’m experiencing symptoms of Crab Mode?
Pthiris pubis. The name matches my avatar. Good for them.
So should you always wash the Hummer front to back?
If you know how to drive 4-wheel steering, being able to crab can be an advantage; it can also allow for even tighter turning radius than you would expect for a vehicle that size.
Oh, boy, this could lead to some interesting variations on unintended acceleration…
Aye. That it could.
When I was in the AF I watched a guy trying to use one of the big 4×4, 4WS tractors to fit an F-15 between the wingtips of two F-4s undergoing maintenance in a hangar. Both F-4s were on jacks, so couldn’t be moved and their wingtips were higher than normal, so the F-15’s wings couldn’t simply pass over them. There was certainly room… though tight… about 4″-6″ clearance on each wingtip before opening up to a wider area for the F-15 itself to be worked in. The driver, even with spotters, would manage to get the plane lined up beautifully… with the tractor so turned that he couldn’t push the plane back straight… always turning it one way or another to near-collision. (This guy was supposedly trained on how to drive the thing, too.) After watching this fiasco for so long (more than 30 minutes) I finally requested that I–an avionics tech–see if I could manage it.
First thing I had them do was chock the wheels and un-hitch the tow bar. I straightened the tractor out so it was properly facing the nose of the F-15 and got it hooked up again. Then, rather than trying to steer with just the (front) steer wheels, I used 4WS and drifted the entire tractor back and forth, keeping the tractor aligned with the nose of the plane with each crabbing move. In one single attempt, I had the plane in the hangar and parked, almost exactly (with the spotters’ help) slipping dead center between the F-4 wingtips.
Funny thing, too. About two days later I was called up to my department NCOIC about the episode and had an aircraft tow-tug license issued to me for that event. The crew chief that so botched the attempt ended up having his license revoked.
Thank you Rivian for goading GM into moving a piece of technology from the lab to the street.
Will this be offered on all models, or as part of an optional package? (The piece cost [i.e., excluding development] should be very close to software-only, no?)
Note to self: EV’s can potentially do things which other vehicles cannot do.
In a way, it is comforting to know, the GMC Hummer will be known as Mary’s Crabs.
Obvious from the logo this truck is equipped with large claws.
However you get your crabs, it’ll be a shocking experience.
I am curious about the history of the Hummer brand. I remember back when GM was reorganizing they had a deal to sell the brand to China but it fell through. I was curious and looked and didn’t see Hummer on the list of brands that were rolled into “New GM”. Is this an omission and they actually did or did they have to call up Motors Liquidation and say “no, you can keep Saturn but we’d like to buy Hummer back” I wonder how that went down if so.
Anyway, bit of a roller coaster. From “Like Nothing Else” to “Not even the Chinese want that crap” to electric vehicles coming sometime in the future.
China didn’t just want the Hummer brand, they wanted the vehicle designs as well, which GM said was a ‘no sale.’
So after it all shook out, which GM got the brand?
This coming from the company that’s so bereft of sense ‘n’ reason that they have to build a step-ladder into the tailgate because they can’t comprehend appropriate ride-height.
GM is approaching the event horizon of the black hole that is Ford. Ford is so far gone that nothing can save it–they’ve screwed-up so much for so long that whether you went in and revised all the turds, or fired everyone and started fresh, you’d still wind up with turds.
GM isn’t there…yet. Sadly, they’re getting there.
@Schurkey: Well, to be honest none of the brands understands “appropriate ride height” for pickups today. In that, GM is more of a follower than a leader. Ford made this obvious first with their silly little “wire frame” step out of the tailgate to climb into the bed while GM put the step into the corners of the bumpers. At least the new tailgate is more sturdy and functional than Ford’s toy. But even RAM has done something roughly similar with its split tailgate design which in some ways is even more functional than GM’s.
But still, those trucks definitely don’t need their load beds so high that you need a step ladder to climb in. Used to be you could comfortably sit on the tailgate (as an average-sized person) without having to climb up onto the tailgate first.