That is the point of convoy mode, elsewise it would cost about the same as 3 trucks minus a little drafting.
Even if each truck is manned, the increased safety from having rear trucks tied in with the front truck might reduce insurance premiums enough to make it viable. Especially if you can give the front truck a "pilot and co-pilot" setup (or good enough AI to simulate that with human pilot and AI co-pilot).
I don't think insurance is nearly expensive enough for that scenario.
Unlike their cars, if they want to be successful they will need to release factory service manuals and sell parts to repair them. It's not going to be acceptable to send it to some far away service center to be repaired, at least for small outfits that heavily use all their equipment. When a critical piece of equipment is down, the mechanic is going to be working through the night hacking it together, possibly waitin…
> It's not going to be acceptable to send it to some far away service center to be repaired, at least for small outfits that heavily use all their equipment. Hmmm. Doesn't Tesla usually offer a loaner car while a Tesla is in for repairs? If they did the same thing with semis, would shipping companies accept it?
So sort of a subscription model for trucks? You buy (or more likely rent) "a truck" and Tesla supplies you with "a truck" but it's not necessarily always the same truck?
The new Tesla Roadster "Founders Edition" costs $250k, paid up-front, and only 1,000 are made. In other words Tesla just put $250 million in the bank by rubbing rich peoples' egos.
And making a really really nice limited-edition car, apparently.
He mentions that the mega chargers will all be solar powered. I don't know how this will be possible as the user base grows. The amount of energy needed for even a small fleet will be huge.
So a charging station will need what, 10 hectares of land for the solar? Either that or 10 kW of grid interactive solar for marketing purposes, while absorbing the bulk of the electricity from the grid.
Details for those that couldn't watch the live stream: -500 mile range on a full charge. On empty 30 min of charging will get you 400 miles. -Lower drag coefficient than a bugatti veyron -They're claiming cost per mile is less than rail for shipping goods. -2019 availability -Lane centering + other features (jack knife prevention) -1,000,000 mile guarantee ---------------- Also they surprised announced a new roadster…
> Lower drag coefficient than a bugatti veyron I LOLed at this one. Supercars want lots of downforce so they don't constantly go off the road and you die. They're not built for low Cd. A Toyota Prius has 35% lower drag coefficient than a Bugatti Veyron. It's like when the "superfruit" people go "look at this amazing berry, it has 20% more vitamin C than a lemon!" Well yeah, an orange has 70% more vitamin than a lemon…
> It also means that on the distribution grid, a charging station for 8 semis will need a dedicated 20 MVA 33/11 kV distribution transformer, plus 4 11kV/480V transformers.
I have read the same comment (slightly modified) on HN since telsa announced their first vehicle. Tell me, have you actually worked on a new model truck? Because the days of a service manual and a backyard shed are over
Tesla will be selling into a very complicated industry. You think enterprise sales of software are hard, just wait. Tesla say their system includes all the functions necessary. I haven't seen a list but I doubt it. Even if they do it will literally take enterprise integration projects to hook them up to the largely bespoke systems used by existing trucking company backends. (E.g. 20 year old ADP systems)
A more complicated industry than SpaceX sells into?
Details for those that couldn't watch the live stream: -500 mile range on a full charge. On empty 30 min of charging will get you 400 miles. -Lower drag coefficient than a bugatti veyron -They're claiming cost per mile is less than rail for shipping goods. -2019 availability -Lane centering + other features (jack knife prevention) -1,000,000 mile guarantee ---------------- Also they surprised announced a new roadster…
> Lower drag coefficient than a bugatti veyron I LOLed at this one. Supercars want lots of downforce so they don't constantly go off the road and you die. They're not built for low Cd. A Toyota Prius has 35% lower drag coefficient than a Bugatti Veyron. It's like when the "superfruit" people go "look at this amazing berry, it has 20% more vitamin C than a lemon!" Well yeah, an orange has 70% more vitamin than a lemon…
Musk stated in the presentation that they plan to use solar with on-site battery storage at these "Mega-Charger" stations and will guarantee a max electricity cost $0.07/kWh. No grid needed (my phrase, not his). Not sure if it is doable, but that is the plan.
The roadster also has 10,000Nm of torque and a top speed over 400km/h. In the old measure that's 7,375 ft-lbs and 250mph+. Those numbers are simply insane, for anyone who doesn't know torque figures. A Dodge Challenger Hellcat makes 650 ft-lbs for comparison.
That's 10,000 Nm (aka 7375 ft-lbs) wheel torque. The hellcat has 650 ft-lbs engine torque. First gear in the hellcat is 4.71:1 and rear axle ratio of 2.62:1, which gives you 8021 ft-lb at the wheel at torque peak. In second gear, we have 5347. So, a small car with more wheel torque than a Hellcat in 2nd gear, nice! Edit: Used incorrect ratios, updated.
Generally wheel torque would be quoted in the gear that gives you a 1:1 (or close to) ratio. Hence in a lot of cars a dyno run will be done in 4th gear as higher gears are generally overdrive gears. Also your calc is missing the final drive ratio.
It seems like it will require a $5000 deposit (with a $50,000 "full deposit") and the truck will cost between $200,000 and $250,000, according to the page source.
Well shoot, if they can deliver full self driving capabilities, can I just buy one of these to live in instead of a house, cruising the freeways endlessly?
Huh, that’s pretty interesting. I guess if it’s smooth enough, doesn’t even need to spend all night cruising, can just get you to a campsite an hour out of town.
Is a center seating position common for truck drivers? It looks amazing , but it is different enough from my normal consumer driving experience as to make the entire product a non-starter if it were in a consumer car. I've developed decades of training and muscle memory sitting on the left side of the car. I wonder if there will be a measurable impact on accident rates.