Saw a Tesla semi today

Sac Arrow

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I was on my burger ride. Burger Ride. As I was eating my burger, an electric semi truck in Pepsi colors parked along side and made a delivery. It was gone before I could finish, get cleaned up and check it out, but it passed me on the road back through a couple intersections and I could then tell it had a Tesla logo. It got a lot of stares. I didn't think those things were close to being put on the road.

What threw me was that as it pulled out from the Burger Place, it made what I thought were diesel engine noises. I wondered if it had some sort of artificial truck noise feature for safety. I Googled it and couldn't find any mention of such.

It does have impressive specs, for a short haul delivery truck. I'm not sure how I feel about the center mounted driver position. Some of the reviews mentioned problems with backing.
 
I didn't think those things were close to being put on the road.
Pepsi and Frito Lay have been taking deliveries for several months.

it made what I thought were diesel engine noises. I wondered if it had some sort of artificial truck noise feature for safety.
Did it sound like this? I think that's just the electric motors.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7Tsc6ClSmeU

I'm not sure how I feel about the center mounted driver position. Some of the reviews mentioned problems with backing.
I don't know anything about driving a semi.

The driver has two big screens, one to each side. They display backup cameras, and sideview cameras, as needed. Not a great pictures, but it gives you an idea.

tesla-semi-cockpit-1-1280x720.jpg
 
The Porsche Taycan 'turbo' S I drove produced exhaust notes upon acceleration. The salesman claimed that Porsche did that for pedestrian safety. I think it was done for the same reasons some dog treats are made to look like little bacon strips or T-bones. It did haul the mail from 0-130mph.
 
I'm not sure how I feel about the center mounted driver position. Some of the reviews mentioned problems with backing.

I read some passionate reviews about how difficult Tesla made toll booths and security guard shacks where a driver on a route can no longer reach out the window for a ticket.

The front windows have the a minivan's rear window style pop-out that only opens a few inches.

Driver has to un-belt, step out of his seat, and exit the cab via a rear corridor and door behind the seat.

Form over function.

tesla_semi_who_decided.jpg


https://www.theautopian.com/the-tesla-semi-has-a-weird-and-annoying-issue-with-its-windows/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...mi-as-a-completely-stupid-vehicle-206190.html
 
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pics or it never happened. oh wait, lemme just check my phone….
 
Pepsi and Frito Lay have been taking deliveries for several months.


Did it sound like this? I think that's just the electric motors.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7Tsc6ClSmeU


I don't know anything about driving a semi.

The driver has two big screens, one to each side. They display backup cameras, and sideview cameras, as needed. Not a great pictures, but it gives you an idea.

tesla-semi-cockpit-1-1280x720.jpg

No. It might have, but the tire noise probably subdued the sound plus the driver wasn't flooring it.

I'm no pro at driving semis either, but I've driven trailers and a lot of backing involves not just the mirror but being able to poke your head out and look backwards down the side of the trailer. I suppose like a video game, you could adjust to the sight picture.
 
I read some passionate reviews about how difficult Tesla made toll booths and security guard shacks where a driver on a route can no longer reach out the window for a ticket.

The front windows have the a minivan's rear window style pop-out that only opens a few inches.

Driver has to un-belt, step out of his seat, and exit the cab via a rear corridor and door behind the seat.

Form over function.

tesla_semi_who_decided.jpg


https://www.theautopian.com/the-tesla-semi-has-a-weird-and-annoying-issue-with-its-windows/
https://www.autoevolution.com/news/...mi-as-a-completely-stupid-vehicle-206190.html

Good point. I am going to guess the main driver (no pun intended) in putting the operator in the middle is to improve aerodynamics, and that may well be the difference to achieving a claimed 500 mile range, or not.

I don't think the electric truck (or car for that matter) is a completely stupid idea. I think it is a great idea. It just has a limited scope and battery amd charging issues aren't quite resolved yet.
 
Truck blah blah blah electric blah blah blah…

Tell us what we’re ready interested in hearing about, how are the burger girls?
 
I'm no pro at driving semis either, but I've driven trailers and a lot of backing involves not just the mirror but being able to poke your head out and look backwards down the side of the trailer.
While not a professional truck driver, I have a fair amount of time driving and backing up semi's. I don't think that I've ever stuck my head out the window to look back. The mirrors give you a much better view since they are further away from the truck than your head could ever get.
 
Pepsi and Frito Lay have been taking deliveries for several months.


Did it sound like this? I think that's just the electric motors.

https://youtube.com/shorts/7Tsc6ClSmeU


I don't know anything about driving a semi.

The driver has two big screens, one to each side. They display backup cameras, and sideview cameras, as needed. Not a great pictures, but it gives you an idea.

tesla-semi-cockpit-1-1280x720.jpg
Where is the clutch petal?
 
Truck blah blah blah electric blah blah blah…

Tell us what we’re ready interested in hearing about, how are the burger girls?

That and....how much bacon was on the burger? Regular fries? Spicy fries? Waffle fries?
 
Of course I can't find it now, but a couple weeks ago I read an article about how the Tesla truck will increase shipping cost. The main reasons were initial cost of the truck, the heavier weight of the electric truck will displace revenue loads, and down time for recharging means two trucks will be needed to carry the same amount of revenue as one diesel truck. All of this increase will be passed on to the consumer.

The search continues.
 
Of course I can't find it now, but a couple weeks ago I read an article about how the Tesla truck will increase shipping cost. The main reasons were initial cost of the truck, the heavier weight of the electric truck will displace revenue loads, and down time for recharging means two trucks will be needed to carry the same amount of revenue as one diesel truck. All of this increase will be passed on to the consumer.

The search continues.
And of course that will depend on the route and load.

This is definitely not a full solution, as are EVs anywhere else, but I’m sure there will be specific runs where this can be attractive.
 
I was on my burger ride. Burger Ride. As I was eating my burger, an electric semi truck in Pepsi colors parked along side and made a delivery. It was gone before I could finish, get cleaned up and check it out, but it passed me on the road back through a couple intersections and I could then tell it had a Tesla logo. It got a lot of stares. I didn't think those things were close to being put on the road.

What threw me was that as it pulled out from the Burger Place, it made what I thought were diesel engine noises. I wondered if it had some sort of artificial truck noise feature for safety. I Googled it and couldn't find any mention of such.

It does have impressive specs, for a short haul delivery truck. I'm not sure how I feel about the center mounted driver position. Some of the reviews mentioned problems with backing.

Cool! I'd love to see one but I don't think there's any around here yet. Pepsico has gotten most of them so far, and I think I heard that a second customer has taken some deliveries, but I forget who it was.

As far as backing, when you're backing a truck you use the mirrors when you're backing straight, but when you start to turn you have to look out the window. That's why on normal trucks right now, drivers will do everything they can to either be straight, or to back around a corner to their left. Backing to the right is called "blind side" backing because with a sleeper you can't see anything on that side once you're curving. The driver being in the middle combined with the shape of the Tesla semi means that they have likely eliminated the blind side, so it should improve the backing I would think. I'd sure love to drive one of these beasts at some point.

I read some passionate reviews about how difficult Tesla made toll booths and security guard shacks where a driver on a route can no longer reach out the window for a ticket.

The front windows have the a minivan's rear window style pop-out that only opens a few inches.

Driver has to un-belt, step out of his seat, and exit the cab via a rear corridor and door behind the seat.

Form over function.

Interesting - But it is not at all form over function. Having the driver in the center allows them to make it much more aerodynamic, which in turn greatly increases the range for a given battery size. Since that's a big constraint at this point in the development of electric semis, it's very important and I'd say it's function over form...

While not a professional truck driver, I have a fair amount of time driving and backing up semi's. I don't think that I've ever stuck my head out the window to look back. The mirrors give you a much better view since they are further away from the truck than your head could ever get.

You don't stick your head out the window, but you definitely look out the window once the trailer is more than maybe 20 degrees off from the tractor.

Where is the clutch petal?

Where's the clutch? :eek:_O:

Of course I can't find it now, but a couple weeks ago I read an article about how the Tesla truck will increase shipping cost. The main reasons were initial cost of the truck, the heavier weight of the electric truck will displace revenue loads, and down time for recharging means two trucks will be needed to carry the same amount of revenue as one diesel truck. All of this increase will be passed on to the consumer.

Sounds like so much of the electric car FUD I've heard over the past decade. Yet here we are, with the Tesla Model Y becoming the top selling vehicle - not electric vehicle, the top selling vehicle period - worldwide in Q1 of this year.

Here's what I think: Yes, the initial cost of the truck will be higher earlier in the game. We're almost to the tipping point where electric cars will be cheaper than their gas counterparts, but that will take a bit longer for trucks. However, fuel costs will quickly make up for that.

I'm not sure the weight will be a problem, and it certainly won't cut the payload in half. There's already a federal exemption for trucks that carry a diesel APU to be slightly overweight - 400 pounds, roughly the weight of the APU, IIRC - and I would not be surprised at all if they allow some leeway for electric trucks as well. Even if they don't, based on the best information I can find there's about a 4,000-pound difference. That's less than 1/10th of the max payload of a modern semi, so maybe you'd need 11 trucks instead of 10 to move a big bunch of heavy freight, but there's plenty of freight that is not that heavy as well.

In fact, Tesla's "Convoy Mode" could drastically change things here. That's the capability it has of having multiple Tesla Semis follow-the-leader nose to tail down the highway. That not only decreases overall drag and thus fuel costs, but it also means that you could save money on drivers. Local drivers would pick up loads and drop them at a location where over-the-road drivers could hook up 3 or more trucks and put them into Convoy Mode. They could even have two OTR drivers who could function effectively the same as team drivers do today, without the major downside of having to share a truck! They won't make it quite as fast as team drivers in a diesel semi would due to time spent charging, but let's say they need an hour of charging every 400 miles on average, that means that at 70 mph, the first driver could go 5.5 hours, plug in for an hour, drive for 5.5 more hours, and plug in again. An hour later, the other driver would come on duty and unplug, and do the same. And they could pretty much do this all day, every day, six days a week.

So, two drivers could do a round trip from LA to Boston and back in a little over four days (52 hours) with multiple trucks. For comparison, a team in a diesel semi would take 48 hours to do the same trip in a single truck. A single driver in a single truck would take 9 days.

Down time for charging shouldn't be an issue whatsoever. Hours of service regulations already require a mid-day break of at least a half hour; if that is done while charging it shouldn't make a big difference. This does assume that the infrastructure is built out. But, in the meantime, these trucks are great for shorter hauls, as the infrastructure build-out starts more and more regional runs will be feasible, and in another 5-10 years any old random route long haul routes should be feasible.
 
Love some of the "the technology isn't perfect now so it will never be viable" comments.

Ya'll think Starlink is just about brining internet to rural areas?....that is to just beta test the system and work the bugs out. There is a reason Tesla is licensing its EV software to all the other manufactures for practically nothing...so one day they can flip the switch and all the cars and trucks are on the network operating autonomously all connected via Starlink...'link"...get it?

Now that EVs are truly functional the battery energy density and charging technology is gonna progress at breakneck speeds...putting a lot of low skilled people out of work. Employers are on a mission to eliminate employees. They are the biggest cost and biggest headache to any operation.

Uber and trucking companies will make a fortune as soon as they can cut all those pesky drivers out of the picture.
 

So the wedge shape and central driver position may make it easier to back, not harder. There is no blind side.

Ya'll think Starlink is just about brining internet to rural areas?....that is to just beta test the system and work the bugs out. There is a reason Tesla is licensing its EV software to all the other manufactures for practically nothing...so one day they can flip the switch and all the cars and trucks are on the network operating autonomously all connected via Starlink...'link"...get it?

Gonna be a bit harder than flipping the switch, since none of these vehicles have a StarLink antenna in them. Also, Tesla is not "licensing its EV software to all the other manufacturers". They have made a lot of offers, but nobody has taken them up on it until just a week or two ago when Ford announced that they're adopting the NACS (the plug formerly known as the "Tesla plug") charging standard.
 
Now that EVs are truly functional the battery energy density and charging technology is gonna progress at breakneck speeds...
So someone is suddenly going to find a magic way to make batteries so much better? Some way of proving physics and chemistry all wrong? Why don't we just prove gravity wrong and go directly to antigravity flying machines?
 
Clutch is only used for putting into gear when sitting still. Otherwise clutch is never used for driving down the road.
 
So someone is suddenly going to find a magic way to make batteries so much better? Some way of proving physics and chemistry all wrong? Why don't we just prove gravity wrong and go directly to antigravity flying machines?
Nothing sudden about it. There has been steady progress in battery tech over the past decade with emerging tech getting closer to deployment.

One big change is the LFP (Lithium Iron Phosphate) battery chemistry. Roughly half of the new Tesla's worldwide now have LFP packs. The LFP pack eliminates all rare-Earth metals. No nickel or cobalt.

Another is the 4680 tab-less form-factor which greatly improves the packs ability to charge and discharge quicker with less heat being generated. Tesla has been deploying 4680 structural battery packs for a number of months, in the standard range Model Y, as they range up their ability to produce the cells in-house and through suppliers.

The thermal management systems are also now much more advanced which improve battery performance and extend their life. The better EVs now use a heat pump system for the thermal management system so that excess heat from the motors and/or battery can be used to heat the cabin in cold weather which improves efficiency.

Right now, the manufacturer's are battery-constrained in their EV production. Until that production catches up, it makes more sense to make more mid-range models instead of fewer, more expensive, 400+ mi range models. You can buy 400+ mi range EVs now, if you want one. Most don't need that and don't want to pay the premium for it.

The current Tesla Semi is not intended for long-haul use. It doesn't have a bunk nor room to add one. That type of use will require charging infrastructure that isn't yet available. They did demonstrate a loaded Semi doing a 500 mile run without charging stops and that works well for many companies in their applications.
 
They did demonstrate a loaded Semi doing a 500 mile run without charging stops and that works well for many companies in their applications.

How much weight of freight was it carrying? And what was the gross weight? Critical questions that need accurate answers. If its a truck that grosses 100,000 pounds but carries a payload of only 10,000, the truck will never pay for itself unless freight rates skyrocket.

That type of use will require charging infrastructure that isn't yet available.
The exact same problem that held back the adoption of automobiles in rural areas. Sure, cars were commercially available in 1910, but some horses and wagons were still being used in more remote places even into the 1950s because there were no service stations, or they were far apart. And with few or no car owners to buy fuel, there wasn't much incentive to build service stations. The government did not step in and spend vast amounts of taxpayer dollars to build them, either. Those were the sane days when they let the market figure it out.
 
How much weight of freight was it carrying? And what was the gross weight? Critical questions that need accurate answers. If its a truck that grosses 100,000 pounds but carries a payload of only 10,000, the truck will never pay for itself unless freight rates skyrocket.

meh.

I’ve worked in multiple industries where we shipped our product every day between plant and distribution center, on a predictable milk run.

Our trailers cube out way before they gross weight out.

Not every truck is loaded with steel bars running half way across the country.

Heck, one of our runs was less than 10 miles across the border, from a warehouse in Mexico to a warehouse in a Texas. Multiple trucks every day. With border customs wait times often exceeding 3 hours.

That would be an awesome case for a driver to run electric with the AC blasting vs idling a big diesel in mostly stop and little go traffic for hour after hour.
 
So someone is suddenly going to find a magic way to make batteries so much better? Some way of proving physics and chemistry all wrong? Why don't we just prove gravity wrong and go directly to antigravity flying machines?
Batteries have been getting better so now you have cars and trucks being sold with real 500-600 mile range. There still room for improvement. There are other ways to improve Li battery technology, and there are other materials besides Li. A Chinese company has been selling cars with sodium based batteries, and there is work being done using other metals.
 
Of course I can't find it now, but a couple weeks ago I read an article about how the Tesla truck will increase shipping cost. The main reasons were initial cost of the truck, the heavier weight of the electric truck will displace revenue loads, and down time for recharging means two trucks will be needed to carry the same amount of revenue as one diesel truck. All of this increase will be passed on to the consumer.

The search continues.

Probably this one:
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/electric-trucks-are-worse-than-diesel-trucks/

But it's not "cough" quite accurate.

1) There's no reason that an electric truck should take longer to recharge than a Tesla Model 3. It just has more battery cells - you just need a bigger charger. There is no chemistry or electrical limits that prevents it. If you can build a SuperCharger than can charge 100 Model 3's (Mohave Desert) in an hour, you can build a hypercharger that charge 10 Electric trucks in an hour.

2) The price leaves out cost of fuel & service.

3) The statement that you need to "double" the size because of the reduced payload is bogus. A diesel semi can carry a 68000# payload and be at 80000#. A Tesla semi can carry 54000# and be at 82000# (EV's are allowed slightly more). That's 25% - not double.
 
I didn't watch that 500-mile Tesla truck run video, but did it have to handle any significant hills? In BC, where I grew up, there's no way that that truck would go 500 miles though those mountains, and BC is mostly mountains. I've heard of Tesla car owners hating those climbs. Maybe they get some regen from the downhills, but there will still be losses.
 
"EV is better"

"No it's not, it's 1/2 as good for *reasons*"

"That's not true, it's only 25% worse, so that makes it better".

And magically 25% worse becomes better.

Oh, and it'll be even better any minute now.
 
"EV is better"

"No it's not, it's 1/2 as good for *reasons*"

"That's not true, it's only 25% worse, so that makes it better".

And magically 25% worse becomes better.

Oh, and it'll be even better any minute now.

I can't quite figure out how a product that is taking market share at enviable rates and is filling a need/desire for a significant number of customers generates so much controversy.

No it's not a universal solution for every use case. Neither is any other single product.

But if it is a tool that works for some, more power to them.


WW-K-12-2022.png

WW-S3-12-2022.png
 
Yeah, there's no governmental pressure limiting choices that's effecting the market. Absolutely not. *cough* All the best products required government regulation for people to adopt them. *choke*

Honestly, EV's are a horrible choice for the average person. I own one. But I'd have a hard time recommending a pure EV to anyone, unless they literally have money to waste on it. There will never be a cost benefit for mine, I could have a much nicer car for the money it did cost me, even counting fuel costs.
 
So someone is suddenly going to find a magic way to make batteries so much better? Some way of proving physics and chemistry all wrong? Why don't we just prove gravity wrong and go directly to antigravity flying machines?

Yes...that is why your cell phone does not run on a AA battery...
 
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