Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Tesla Semi Senior Engineering Supervisor Dan Priestly took the stage final night time – the stage being a flatbed trailer – to announce the arrival of the Tesla Semi. As everybody has famous, that is 5 years after Musk introduced the Semi and three years after Musk stated the Semi would enter manufacturing.
After the 2017 debut, I wrote a chunk asking some questions concerning the rig, particularly regarding a few of its extra uncommon components just like the central seating place and doorways behind the driving force. I’d spent 9 months of that 12 months driving an over-the-road truck greater than 70,000 miles in america and Canada for 2 firms. After final night time’s presentation, most of these questions stay. However let’s contemplate what occurred final night time.
I am going to begin by saying congratulations to Tesla the identical method I’ve congratulated each different aspiring and established automaker for getting a sizzling product out the door lastly (equivalent to Lordstown Motors). Making automobiles is difficult. The instances are tougher.
Now to the breakdown.
“The Way forward for Trucking.”– Tesla Semi site
If the Semi finally ends up being the way forward for trucking, we gained’t know for one more decade or so. Extra importantly, the Tesla Semi as-is might solely be the way forward for a sure form of trucking, bringing us to the primary problem we have to clear up: The phrase “Trucking.”
That phrase makes individuals, even truckers, consider long-haul, over-the-road tractor-trailers with drivers who sleep in truck stops and don’t see their households however as soon as each couple of months. These tractors are referred to as “sleepers,” referring to the realm behind the seats that incorporates a mattress the place the driving force, properly, you may guess what she or he does there.
The Tesla Semi just isn’t that. The Semi is what’s referred to as a “day cab.” That is for regional work, like shifting items between places a couple of hundred miles aside. Within the early mornings you’ll see day cabs delivering food and drinks from native warehouses to eating places. On interstate highways within the wee hours, you’ll in all probability go or be handed by quite a few FedEx day cabs operating parcels from one sorting depot to a different. They’re cabs and a few seats, typically a window in again you may see the occupants by. These drivers go residence every single day on the ends of their shifts.
Truckers drive hundreds of miles per week throughout North America and sleep of their vehicles. Daycabbers drive regional routes and sleep at residence. The Semi serves the latter.
“This can be a step-change enchancment.”– Elon Musk, December 1
This could possibly be true, however there’s some context – and it wants on-road proof.
The Semi isn’t the primary electrical truck, neither is it the one one fitted with three motors. The one motive it will get a lot ink is as a result of it’s a Tesla. That’s not hate. Celeb and industry-defining merchandise have their perks.
However Daimler truck division Freightliner has an eCascadia Class 8 rig plus an electrical faculty bus and an electrical field truck. Nikola has its Tre BEV. Volvo-owned Renault Vehicles has a good wider collection of e-rigs than Daimler, however in Europe. The Daimler can pull the identical 82,000 kilos because the Tesla.
The step change can be the real-world vary and the ecosystem – the distinctive promoting proposition that made Tesla, Tesla way back to the debut of the Mannequin S. The eCascadia is listed with a typical vary of 220 miles with tandem drivers (the 2 axles behind the cab) or 230 miles with a single axle in long-range configuration. Daimler’s max battery capability is 440 kWh. The Tre BEV makes use of a 733-kWh battery to go 330 miles. The European Renault over-the-road T E-Tech truck can go 186 miles on a cost. The Renault’s max battery capability is 540 kWh.
Mixing these battery figures with Tesla’s declare that the Semi makes use of lower than 2 kWh of battery capability per mile, it’s clear the Tesla’s packing an entire lot extra battery than these different vehicles.
“Not very spectacular – shifting a cargo of chips (common weight per pack 52 grams) can not in any method be stated to be definitive proof of idea.”– Oliver Dixon, a senior analyst at consultancy Guidehouse, to Reuters
Fluff isn’t at all times optimistic, and I don’t perceive Dixon’s criticism. Sure, we’re lacking quite a lot of information. However PepsiCo, which owns Frito-Lay, is the Semi’s first buyer. Frito-Lay makes chips. These chips need to get from the manufacturing facility to distribution facilities and shops. Diesel vehicles take them there. Our guess is that proper now, a couple of Semis are on the job, too. It’s not Tesla’s fault that Frito-Lay must haul chips.
As for proving the idea, Musk and Priestly confirmed video of a Semi pulling a flatbed load of freeway dividers over the Donner Move, a 6% grade in northern California. In addition they confirmed a timelapse video of what they stated was a full load of almost 82,000 kilos being pushed from Fresno to San Diego.
Pepsi weighs much more than Cheetos, and Pepsi is aware of this. The corporate would have nixed the deal years in the past if it didn’t consider the truck might pull a bunch of Pepsi. Nonetheless, till we all know how a lot the Semi weighs, and the way a lot of its 82,000 kilos is cargo as an alternative of tractor, that is one other asterisk after “definitive proof of idea.”
Replace: Not lengthy after this piece ran, a colleague of Dixon’s wrote to say, “I feel the purpose that Oliver was making an attempt to make there (and sadly we’re continuously quoted with simply tiny snippets out of bigger feedback) … is that Tesla has stated completely nothing concerning the weight of the Semi. … The 1 MWh battery within the Semi in all probability weighs within the vary of 12-15,000 lbs in comparison with about 1,200 for a diesel powertrain. Even with the additional 2,000 lbs allowed for an electrical truck, you’re in all probability dropping someplace within the neighborhood of 10,000s of payload with this truck and the commensurate income that goes with it. That’s a non-trivial quantity, about 20-25% relying on the burden of the truck and trailer. Whereas a 500-mile run at 82,000 lbs is completely spectacular, the query stays as to how a lot of that was cargo?”
“To have chilly brakes on the backside of the hill, that is mind-blowing within the trucking world”– Elon Musk
“You simply find yourself heating brakes after which you may’t use them.””It is a safer system as a result of no gear to overlook.”– Dan Priestly
The pair had been speaking about how regenerative braking would make descending lengthy grades simpler for drivers. There’s fact to this, however it’s overblown.
On the high of a protracted descent, the trucker places the transmission within the correct gear for the descent. After I drove over the Grapevine grade down into California’s Central Valley 5 days per week, I’d decelerate on the high of the hill and use the paddle shifters to place the truck into fourth or fifth gear (out of eight) for the descent heading north. The truck would hit about 45 mph, the pace restrict, and maintain there. If I wanted to decelerate, I’d faucet the left paddle to drop a gear. I wouldn’t contact the brakes your complete descent.
Any driver in a hilly space who nonetheless has a job after seven days of driving is aware of how you can deal with grades. The secret’s the slowdown on the high of the hill. Drivers mess up after they neglect that half, however until they’ve run as much as ludicrous speeds, the brakes will nonetheless sluggish the truck sufficient to downshift. Everybody else on the highway will scent when that’s occurred, although.
Nobody cares about chilly brakes on the backside of the hill, however nearly any step that makes life simpler for truckers is a wonderful step.
“We even have glorious traction management as a result of the precision of an electrical motor is vastly higher than a diesel engine. … The traction management is admittedly superior … It is mechanically stopping the truck from jackknifing [in a way] that simply is not attainable with diesel vehicles.”– Elon Musk, December 1
This can be a step again from Musk’s 2017 declare that “Jackknifing is unattainable,” and there’s fact to this, however it’s nonetheless overblown.
What’s overblown is that electrical motors can’t beat the physics of a tractor-trailer. We don’t know what the Semi weighs. Volvo’s VNL 300 tandem day cab rig weighs about 16,500 kilos. The federal authorities’s Consolidated Appropriations Act makes an extra gross weight allowance for electrical vehicles of two,000 kilos. That is why the Semi and each different electrical Class 8 truck can pull as much as 82,000 kilos and nonetheless be authorized. If we add 2,000 kilos to that VNL 300, we’re at 18,500 kilos. Let’s say the Semi is 20,000 kilos with all that battery, to be secure, leaving a possible 62,000 kilos for the load. If issues go dangerous for the Semi driver and the 62,000-pound trailer begins pushing the 20,000-pound tractor round, the galaxy’s quickest traction management gained’t cease a jackknife even in good climate. Even when the Semi is 25,000 kilos, you will get the identical consequence.
What’s true is that an electrical motor on an axle will make quicker changes and subsequently doubtless extra exact changes, than a diesel ECU that has to obtain and register the wheel slip info after which ship a command to the engine and/or brakes. This will increase the edge for the potential of a jackknife incident, which is an effective factor.
“One-touch suspension dump, it is very simple for the driving force to connect the trailer, it saves money and time, the fleet’s extra environment friendly, and the driving force’s residence sooner.”– Dan Priestly
I’ve by no means been in a Class 8 truck that didn’t have a approach to empty the air luggage to decrease the chassis. I share a storage unit with a buddy who drives a 1999 Peterbilt 379. It has a toggle for reducing the chassis. With out it, hooking up that busted trailer behind that yard you completely hate going to can be unattainable and not using a forklift or two.
“It is as simple to drive as a Mannequin 3. With principally no coaching, you may drive this.”– Elon Musk
A educated sheep – or fairly shut – might drive a tractor-trailer on the freeway. Truckers undergo all that coaching to allow them to study to drive in a metropolis with out killing the whole lot, to drive backward, to park between different vehicles, to handle the air-based programs, to pre-check for roadworthiness, and to fill out the stacks of paperwork required to maneuver hundreds and keep authorized.
About that video…
Musk and Priestly confirmed a timelapse video of the Semi doing a 500-mile run from Fremont to San Diego, with Musk saying your complete, uncut video will ultimately hit YouTube. We actually need to watch it. A graph displayed on the presentation stated the Semi departed with a 97% cost and arrived with 4% of cost remaining. Downside is, the driving force’s carrying a baseball cap that sometimes obscures the left-side display that incorporates the speedo, which appears … extremely coincidental. If the digital camera had been positioned decrease, like it’s in a later part of video the place the driving force’s doing a relentless 55 mph, or if it had been positioned anyplace on the left aspect of the cab, or if the driving force weren’t carrying a hat, we’d see the speedo your complete time.
The numbers we will see present what appears like some tenderfoot driving. Protecting in thoughts that the pace restrict for Class 8 vehicles is 55 mph in California, the Semi did 55 or beneath for the opening stint; at one level doing 29 mph on what appears like open freeway. The driving force follows one other rig on I-5 at about 60 to 65 mph for a spell, as much as concerning the one-third mark within the journey. Then he locks into 55 or 57 mph for the lengthy stint by central California, dropping as little as 44 mph and 39 mph for a stunning size of time.
For the ultimate 100-mile stretch from Riverside to San Diego, after the driving force takes his necessary break, he doesn’t exceed 51 mph within the video, dropping as little as 47 mph on open freeway.
We gotta watch the entire uncut factor, however it looks as if if you happen to see the Semi on the interstate, it’s best to search for it within the sluggish lane.
Conclusions
Choosing up my questions from 5 years in the past, I nonetheless don’t need to sit in the course of the truck. I’d just like the home windows – a minimum of two of them – to roll down. I want the doorways weren’t behind the driving force. And I hope I can flip a minimum of a type of screens off. However I did get the bodily mirrors.
The actual judges of the Tesla Semi would be the firms that purchase it, and after Pepsi, that ready checklist contains blue chips like UPS and Anheuser-Busch. The Semi web site claims “estimated gasoline financial savings of as much as $200,000 inside [the] first three years of possession.” That implies that for each 15 vehicles within the fleet, the fleet proprietor is saving $1 million per 12 months earlier than upkeep financial savings.
If Tesla can come near that, it doesn’t matter what I say — and relying on the value, which we nonetheless do not know — Tesla won’t have the ability to construct these quick sufficient. And I am unable to wait to drive it.
