Tesla’s published application for an adjustable suspension describes a ramp mode that lifts the front of a pickup, lowers the rear and sets each wheel’s height on its own. In one example, the front rises 80 mm (3.1 inches) while the rear sinks 70 mm (2.8 inches). The drawings show a wedge-shaped truck, and the stated purpose is loading an ATV or motorcycle across the tailgate.
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It remains an application only. Tesla words the technology broadly instead of tying it to one model, and nothing about a published filing promises production.
Ramp mode geometry: 80 mm up front, 70 mm down at the back
Carscoops found the application, published as U.S. application 2026/0326744 A1 under the name “Adjustable Suspension For A Vehicle,” about a week before its November 2, 2026 report. The geometry is the whole trick. Tilting the bed changes the angle at which a ramp meets it, and Tesla says the breakover angle could fall from 45 to 55 degrees down to 20 to 30 degrees. A shallower angle makes it easier to roll an ATV or motorcycle up, and it would let an owner carry a shorter ramp.
Because each corner moves independently, the same mode could work on a sloped driveway or a soft field. The filing lets owners adjust individual corners to cope with uneven ground and run the system from an onboard interface or a smartphone.
Safeguards are written into the description. The vehicle has to be in Park, the parking brake is applied automatically, and shifts into Drive, Reverse or Neutral are blocked while ramp mode is active. Sensor inputs can also delay or refuse an adjustment when conditions are unsuitable, which matters for a system that deliberately tips a loaded truck while someone walks a motorcycle up behind it.
Two siblings appear in the same text. A dump mode lowers all four corners to bring the bed within easier reach, and a leveling mode is meant for camping or tailgating on uneven ground.
A 2019 filing and the ride-height modes the Cybertruck already has
The ramp idea has a documented ancestor. U.S. Patent 12,151,673 B2, assigned to Tesla, claims priority to a provisional application filed November 21, 2019, and lists Joel Van Rooyen, Brian Doorlag and Paul Venhovens as inventors. Its claims cover four independently adjustable suspension portions, one per wheel, set according to a chosen mode. Among the example modes in its abstract is one that lowers the rear and raises the front to change the ramp angle, so the 2026 application reads as a refinement of a concept Tesla patented years ago. The earlier claims also let the system validate a chosen mode against rules, such as whether an obstruction is detected, and make further adjustments based on load or ground measurements.
What the truck offers today is simpler. The ride-height page of the Cybertruck owner’s manual lists on-road settings of High (2.4 inches above Medium), Medium, Low (1.6 inches below) and Entry (2.2 inches below), plus off-road Very High (3.9 inches above) and Extract (5.9 inches above). With Auto Lower switched on, the truck drops to Entry height when shifted into Park. Notebookcheck described the air suspension as having about 14 inches of travel from lowest point to full lift. All of those settings move the whole truck up or down together; none tilts it.
The same manual page says self-leveling is disabled only when Jack Mode is active, and that the suspension can remember a raised height for a frequently visited location and lift automatically when the truck returns, though that may fail where connectivity is poor, such as an underground garage. Those details show the hardware already accepts automatic, rule-driven height changes. Ramp mode would add a driver-triggered tilt wrapped in the interlocks described above, and the application does not say how many of the existing modes it would replace or sit beside.
Tesla has also patented suspension that learns from other cars. A 2024 report from Not a Tesla App described a fleet-shared road roughness map built from GPS and suspension-height data, and noted that the Model S, Model X and Cybertruck already remember bump locations such as speed bumps, steep driveways and car washes, raising the suspension there automatically.
Loose ends: bed height, air springs and production status
The Carscoops write-up leaves gaps that matter to a buyer. It gives no bed-height figures and does not say whether the system relies on air springs, and the drawings are only illustrations of a wedge-shaped pickup, with Tesla describing the technology for vehicles in general. Tesla also filed a similar adjustable-suspension application in November 2019, which shows how long such ideas can sit between filing and any shipping product.
The unresolved question is whether ramp mode ever reaches the Cybertruck’s touchscreen. The 2019 filing became a granted patent, yet the owner’s manual’s ride-height page still lists Entry through Extract with no tilt or loading setting, and a published application carries no dates for production or over-the-air delivery.
This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.
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