Elon Musk Drops Tesla Semi Bombshell

Elon Musk has officially unveiled the production Tesla Semi, and commenced first deliveries. Elon Musk has confirmed that the Carbon Sleeved Plaid Motors, already being used in the Model S and Model X Plaid versions, which absolutely destroy every other electric motor on the market with an insane power curve, will be placed inside the Tesla Semi. Elon Musk also revealed Semi's efficiency to be much better than expected with a much smaller battery pack still capable of 500 miles of range. The triple motor setup allows for boosted acceleration thanks to 2 motors on one of the axels which have a high gear ratio to produce high torque. These motors can also be completely disconnected to save energy and not needlessly drive the transmission. Tesla is also moving to a 1000 Volt architecture which will reduce wiring, increase charging speeds, and enable V4 Supercharging on the Cybertruck and the Tesla Semi. #Tesla #ElonMusk #teslasemitruck

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[TMIOTesla]

Do you think it's possible for the Tesla Semi truck to be reverse engineered and copied, or does Tesla’s infrastructure and technology advantage give them too much of a lead? Be sure to watch:

[joepianpiano]

I'm a long haul truck driver and honestly, I'd be happy to drive an electric truck. I have no "love" of diesel, as long as I have a power unit that works and makes me money, great. That said - there are some real problems with people's enthusiasm for this recent "event" that our pal Elon held the other day.

80, 000lb is the max gross weight of a truck for most highways in the US without getting special permits. I have a truck with an EPU (electric aux power unit) so that I don't have to idle when the truck is shut down to power AC, etc. For this most states (-2) allow me an extra 400 lb to offset my batteries so I am legal under 80, 400 gross. It seems the Tesla semi is being given 2000 to offset the batteries, at least in California. But gross is not freight, it includes the weight of the truck, gear trailer and the freight. Most modern diesel trucks promise shippers that we can haul their freight that weighs up to 48, 000 lb which means we keep the weight of the truck / trailer to under 32, 000.

Elon and his staff talked about the truck that went over Donner pass being "fully loaded" at 82, 000. But he didn't give us any idea what the weight of the truck / trailer was vs freight. I saw that he was using a flatbed (which is what I drive) loaded w jersey barriers, the low concrete walls that you see placed to direct traffic, etc. I'm not sure what the total weight of those barriers would be but I can make a very educated guess. The most common jersey barriers are about 4000 libs each. In the video at his event it looks like the flatbed has 9 barriers on, so the total of freight looks to be max 36000 lbs, which is a fairly light load. This means the truck and trailer were considerably more than 32, 000 lb if the gross weight of the loaded truck was 82, 000, something like 45000 lbs, or 13000 lbs heavier than most of today's diesels.

People who aren't truck drivers might think it's not a big deal and that I'm nitpicking, but I can assure you that I'm not. How often do I haul 80, 000 lb? Well, it's tough to get loads to weigh exactly 48000 of freight but I'm generally carrying above 70, 000 most of the time, maybe 2/3 of my loads, and I'd guess that about 1 out of 8 is 78, 000 or more.

As a flatbed driver freight like steel (coils, tubes, plates) aluminum, copper, roofing shingles, bricks, lumber, etc are loads where we show up and the shipper loads us as close to 80, 000 gross as they can, weighing us on-site to check we are as close as they can be. A truck that can't carry that promised 48000 lb of freight is a major problem. Making the truck much less flexible when it comes to filling clients needs and making $.

The fact that they are not mentioning these facts and white washing over the issue to an auditorium of techy car drivers that will seemingly clap for just about anything is a real tell that there is an issue that they aren't being forthright about.

A couple more issues as well, why did they choose to use a flatbed for this "trial" instead of a more common box truck? Especially when they talked about their research into making the aerodynamics of the tractor/ trailer work together? The answer is obvious to a trucker. The jersey barriers on the flatbed, not loaded to the side, are much more aerodynamic as they are about 3 feet tall vs the box truck being 8 1/2 feet tall from the deck and the same width as the truck. This gives a very big aerodynamic advantage to the truck on this trial.

Also, as for a "long list of companies clamoring for Tesla semis" it just doesn't seem to be true. Pepsi has an order in for 100 trucks, Walmart 150, UPS 130. This is nothing, barely an experiment. Walmart has a fleet of 10, 000 semis, UPS 125000! I would hardly call an order for less that 0.1% of a fleet "clamoring".

Also, the 500 mile range is only adequate for a small segment of today's trucking. As a long haul driver I usually drive about 550-600 miles in a average day. 500 miles seems like it would be close to my needs but it's not. When my fuel is at 3/8 full, I'm looking to refuel. It's too risky to let it go down below say 1/4. Weather, traffic, detours etc all have to accounted for so my actual range in a Tesla would be about 375 miles, just a bit over a half days driving. It takes about 7 minutes to fill my truck with diesel, seems there is no way that I can come close to that time frame with an electric truck. Electric trucks would currently cost me a lot of time and therefore $.

Also, I don't start and end my day at a terminal. I am usually "out" all around the country for 2 - 3 months without coming back to a terminal. Where the heck am I supposed to charge this truck? There is no infrastructure in place or on the horizon. I can buy diesel about every 25 miles all over the entire country. No way that will be possible anytime soon for electric, actually, there is already a huge shortage of parking for big trucks in most of the country. So, even if you did put these into 100% of current truck stops I still would often not be able to access them. Changing this would take decades, at a minimum.

I would be interested to see how Teslas will work with local deliveries or as "yard dogs" (trucks that move trailers around at terminals) where they start and end their day at the same location. But any idea that this is going to be a major change in terms of the number of diesel trucks anytime in the near future is truly almost silly. It's going to take a long, long time no matter how much people want to hype Tesla!

[balthazarbratt]

I'm truck driver that does port trucking to the warehouses. This truck is perfect for that job. I am a true believer of this Tesla semi now. it's going to revolutionize the trucking industry

[ferdievanschalkwyk]

Just remember that "fully loaded" according to Tesla is 5 tons of cargo, compared to 20 tons in a diesel Semi.

[timtessman]

One thing this PROVES... Bill Gates can't do that "Math Thing".

[MadNumForce]

Oh yes, totally real and functional, just like the solar tiles of SolarCity unveiled in 2016.

[jonathanlivingston]

By now we should know that the laws of physics do not apply to Elon

[salvadorcoling]

True, law of physics is the same anywhere on earth, it’s how you utilize the laws of physics that count. No wonder, Elon Musk always fascinated me.

[MeCooper]

They're going to be just as good as the hyperloop!

[Coyote]

How many times does Elon Musk have to say it, its not the product, its the factory that makes the difference.

Even if they had the blueprint for a Tesla product, if classic car makers dont make a change to vertical integration they wont survive.

Jesus the guy is giving away the secret to his success to help them out... he keeps getting ignored.

[brownyes]

How long will it take to recharge these semi batteries? And where will these electric semi's be charged at?

[SirPoofyPants]

How much cargo can it actually haul?
How long does it take to charge (how much down time)?

[radicalrick]

*Hey Daimler, see that thing that just pass you by, that's a Tesla SEMI doing its 500-mile run on a single charge, defying the law of physic.*

[kcbsqft]

How much load can it carry?? Can't find the LOAD anywhere

[Holeyguagaamoley]

A strange comment I hear is that all that speed will loosen loads, that has not been my experience, electric drive trains are way smoother than a regular truck and it’s the shifting and braking that causes loads to loosen.

[teddjan]

how long was the charge time for the return trip?

[SmithsMobile]

By the time anybody reverse engineers the semi Tesla will be finished on its v2 model, they don't hang about ;-)

[curtisscott]

There should be an array of high-efficiency solar panels along the entire top length. Nothing beats a few thousand free watts of continuous charge.

[bart]

Great video. Very informative, well done. You got a new sub. The semi industry is laughing at Tesla like the big auto makers did when Tesla wanted to make electric cars. Look who’s laughing now. The auto industry is trying to catch up to Tesla. Same will happen to the truck industry.

[jozob]

Smaller battery doesn't lead to shorter charging time, just to reduced charging current. Cells are charged all at the same time.