What is Yaw Rate?

Purpose:

To explain what yaw rate means.

What is yaw rate?

Yaw rate is a vehicle's angular velocity while rotating from its vertical axis. Yaw rate is simply an indication of a vehicle's rotation from its vertical axis, how far the vehicle angled to the left or right away from its center, or how far the vehicle has deviated from its straight course.

Vehicles are equipped with yaw rate sensors to measure a vehicle’s angular velocity about its vertical axis in degrees or radians per second in order to determine the orientation of the vehicle as it hard-corners or threatens to roll-over.