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Tesla Will Reveal Its Electric Semi Truck in September (techcrunch.com)

Posted by msmash on from the shape-of-things-to-come dept.

From a report: Elon Musk just let us know when we'll get a look at the electric semi truck that he's teased in the past: The Tesla transport vehicle will be revealed in September, the CEO said on Twitter on Thursday, noting that the team has "done an amazing job" and that the vehicle is "seriously next level." Plans at Tesla for an electric semi truck have been in the works for a while now: The vehicle was first mentioned back in July of 2016, when Musk revealed part 2 of his fabled "master plan" for his electric vehicle company. The Tesla Semi, as Musk called it, is designed to help reduce the cost of cargo transportation, and improve safety for drivers, according to the CEO at the time.

19 of 273 comments (clear)

  1. Driverless by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It has to have the capacity for a driverless upgrade out of the gate or it's going to be an expensive, outdated piece of awkward shit. That's where we are now: an electric lorry would be awesome, but we're seriously waiting for a driverless lorry in 2020. Promise an upgrade to driverless at significantly less than the full cost of the vehicle and close to the cost difference between it and a driverless model of equal specification when the tech becomes available and you're good to go; require replacing a probably 5,000,000 mile vehicle 500,000 miles into its lifespan to get the driverless tech (bigger than electric tech) and you're getting nothing.

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    1. Re:Driverless by steveha · · Score: 3, Informative

      It has to have the capacity for a driverless upgrade out of the gate

      Please note that Tesla is now building every new car (Model S, Model 3, and Model X) with full self-driving hardware. This includes 8 cameras, 12 ultrasonic sensors, a forward-facing radar, and computers adequate for self-driving (they claim 40x more processing power than the previous "Autopilot" computers). In the future, every Tesla car sold this year could be software-upgraded to full self-driving.

      So, call me crazy, but I think Tesla might have thought of your point and is probably on top of it.

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  2. Nothing says... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nothing says long haul trucking like a vehicle with a 200 mile range and a 6 hour recharge time.

    1. Re:Nothing says... by Bugler412 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      a huge proportion of the truck market is local travel and terminal movement tractors. An electric makes perfect sense for those roles. Not all trucking is long haul.

    2. Re:Nothing says... by Ichijo · · Score: 3, Informative

      San Francisco's electric trolleybuses can run all day and all night without stopping to recharge.

      --
      Any sufficiently unpopular but cohesive argument is indistinguishable from trolling.
    3. Re: Nothing says... by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 4, Interesting

      If the trailer is full of batteries you don't have room for that cargo.

      It doesn't have to be "full" of batteries. If you devote 5% of the space to batteries, you can have a 1000 mile range.

      If it takes one hour to recharge after 6 hours of driving, that is a total of four hours/day of downtime. With a human driver, the max legal limit is 11 hours per day of driving, followed by at least 10 hours of downtime. So the SDT has less total downtime, faster deliveries, and no driver to pay.

    4. Re:Nothing says... by steveha · · Score: 5, Informative

      Nothing says long haul trucking like a vehicle with a 200 mile range and a 6 hour recharge time.

      I guarantee you that this thing is going to have a fast-swap battery pack.

      The Model S already has a battery pack that can be swapped in about 90 seconds by a computer-controlled machine. It turned out that very few Model S owners wanted to pay for the fast battery swap service; the Supercharger service is adequate to most people's needs. (By the way, the Supercharger is much faster than your suggested 6 hours of charge time, for existing cars at least.)

      So if range and charging time is an issue, companies will have the option of buying extra batteries and setting up battery-swap hubs at key locations on long haul routes. Or Tesla will do it like they tried for the Model S.

      And hey what do you know, Tesla is investing heavily in a battery "gigafactory" and is going to bring the cost of batteries down as much as possible, as soon as possible.

      So your joke was amusing but you have not actually identified a real problem. It's almost like Tesla knows what it's doing.

      --
      lf(1): it's like ls(1) but sorts filenames by extension, tersely
    5. Re:Nothing says... by Solandri · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The attraction of electric motors for trucks is the same reason steam and diesel locomotives were replaced by diesel-electric. The heavy loading means there's a huge range of torque vs. speed requirements. So a direct mechanical linkage from an ICE engine to the wheels requires a massive number of gears in the transmission. For a train this would mean 20-50 gears. Most trucks use 10-18 gears (plus 2 reverse gears).

      An electric motor can cover that huge torque vs speed range without any gears. At some point the extra weight of the transmission with all those gears is more of a burden than the losses you get from converting the ICE's mechanical energy into electrical to drive the electric motor. In that respect, even if the truck isn't 100% electric, it could offer some serious advantages. e.g. No low gears - the ICE engine only drives the truck at higher speeds. At lower speeds it's powered by an electric motor, whose battery is recharged by the ICE.

    6. Re:Nothing says... by radarskiy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      "Nothing says long haul trucking like a vehicle with a 200 mile range and a 6 hour recharge time."

      Nothing says long haul trucking.

      Nothing says 200 mile range.

      Nothing says 6 hour recharge.

      Your argument aspires to strawman status.

  3. Hey, it kinda looks like a... by pr0t0 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given how critical aerodynamics are for ev's, I wonder if they'll be able to streamline the vehicle without it looking like a phallus on wheels.

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  4. Tesla will flourish if complexity is reduced... by bogaboga · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I say to Tesla: Reduce the complexity and(or) the gimmickry and see cash flow into your coffers. Folks, how about creating a near "normal" car with better range and more competitive pricing?

    I for one know I'd be a sure customer. I also know that I am not alone. Who needs a car whose handles will pop out? These get "stuck" sometimes...and in a dusty environment, it gets worse!!

    1. Re:Tesla will flourish if complexity is reduced... by bluefoxlucid · · Score: 3, Informative

      Model 3: $35,000. Bolt EV: $37,000. Volt PHEV: $33,000.

      Seems like Tesla is in the same MSRP class as Chevrolet.

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    2. Re:Tesla will flourish if complexity is reduced... by AK+Marc · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://i.imgur.com/TQMbb51.gif Seems to work in the lab.

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    3. Re:Tesla will flourish if complexity is reduced... by brunes69 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Tesla quite literally can not build cars fast enough to meet demand.

      The Model 3 is already the most successful consumer product launch of any kind in history (forget cars), and it won't even start shipping for months. It has years worth of pre-orders in the backlog.

      Acquiring customers is far from their problems.

  5. Wasted snark opportunity by sjbe · · Score: 4

    Nothing says long haul trucking like a vehicle with a 200 mile range and a 6 hour recharge time.

    Who said it was a long haul truck? And if you're going to make up bogus numbers for range at least try to make them credible. Be more clever with your snark next time.

    1. Re:Wasted snark opportunity by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Formerly a professional semi driver, Currently a programmer.

      It is only your implication it is not the implication by those that drive the semi's or manage the fleets.

      I spent 10+ years behind the wheel of large vehilces and most semi's I knew of drove in a radius of less than 400 miles as the crow flies. Hell I know thousands of semis that drove in a radius of less than 100 miles on a general basis. If he has made a Semi capable of 200 miles and a six hour recharge than he has great market potential. Please note semi's are often sitting for 1+ hours to load/unload or wait to load/unload. If the warehouse they are siting at has recharge capabilities then partway through your day you are able recharge while sitting.

      Semi does not mean long haul and a 400 mile radius is not long haul to a semi driver.

      Overnight trips are not long haul at least not to the truckers I know.

      * I still have the liscence and occasionally get behind the wheel to keep up the skills but i would not consider myself a professional truck driver anymore as I don't drive for a living.

  6. Wind resistance doesn't care by sjbe · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Given how critical aerodynamics are for ev's, I wonder if they'll be able to streamline the vehicle without it looking like a phallus on wheels.

    Aerodynamics are just as important for gas powered vehicles as they are for EVs. Wind resistance doesn't care what you have under the hood. Besides, EVs have an advantage there because they don't need a radiator up front screwing up the air stream.

  7. Re:Humans can part a trailer just fine by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nothing wrong with letting the computer do it but let's not pretend humans can't handle the task.

    I've met humans. They're dumber than they look.

    --
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  8. Re:Humans can part a trailer just fine by nospam007 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "So can one with a human driver. They do it every day all over the world with excellent results. Nothing wrong with letting the computer do it but let's not pretend humans can't handle the task."

    But not 24/7 without any pay.