Do you use pick up to describe speeding up?
If you use the sentence below, where do you use or see it? Reading articles, having casual conversations, writing novel - you name it.

- The truck picked up speed slowly.

Question

Do you use pick up to describe speeding up?
If you use the sentence below, where do you use or see it? Reading articles, having casual conversations, writing novel - you name it.

- The truck picked up speed slowly.

Answer

That works. It’s not slang, and you could see that sentence in any of the contexts you mention.

It’s inspired me to come up with a tongue twister, though:  ‘The pimped out pickup picked up the pace’. Elements of that sentence ARE slang, and it’s not to be used in formal conversation.