Crab Truck, sometimes called Crab Dolly, is a lateral camera movement in which the camera travels sideways perpendicular to the direction it is facing, typically achieved using a dolly with wheels that can rotate to move in any horizontal direction without turning the dolly chassis itself. The movement allows the camera to glide smoothly alongside a subject while maintaining consistent framing and distance.

The technique is commonly used to follow actors walking through a scene, track movement across a space, or reveal elements of the environment by sliding the camera parallel to a surface or structure. Unlike a pan, where the camera rotates on its axis while remaining in place, a crab truck involves actual lateral translation of the camera body through space, creating a different sense of parallax and depth as foreground and background elements shift in relation to one another. The movement is smooth, controlled, and unobtrusive, making it a workhorse technique in professional cinematography.

In AI video generation, describing a crab truck or lateral tracking movement helps models understand the direction and nature of camera motion more precisely than generic terms like camera movement. As AI video tools develop more sophisticated camera control features, understanding traditional movement vocabulary like crab truck allows creators to specify exactly the type of motion they need.