291–300 of 575 posts
Can someone with more experience in the field talk about the pricing of the Tesla semi relative to other semis? Musk said it was cheaper to operate from day one, is that not amortizing purchase price into each mile? Seems a little too good to be true.
Ok as a mechanic a few million questions: * What happens when a wheel seal goes? Do I have to remove all that ridiculous plastic on #2,3 axels?? * What happens when a tire blows? Is it going to destroy all that plastic and take out a few more tires in the process? * Why all the glass? I've spend entire days replacing windshields for a 12 or so truck shop which generally come in two (drivers and passengers), the Tesla…
If you check out the reveal, you'll see that it doesn't have those ridiculous covers, nor does it have near zero clearance between the cab and trailer which would prevent articulation, and nor does it have near zero ground clearance.
https://tctechcrunch2011.files.wordpress.com/2017/11/tesla-s... ? I'm not sure what you mean. Looks about the same as the linked page to me.
> nor does it have near zero clearance between the cab and trailer which would prevent articulation, and nor does it have near zero ground clearance.
https://i.imgur.com/cECtzId.png https://i.imgur.com/EPIchQz.png
Ground clearance seems smaller because of how huge it is.
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Could it be that this semi just isn't meant for those in-city hauls, but more for the longer-range highway hauls?
Because of economics of scale, you design one versatile truck chassis. That can then be easily modified like longer vs. shorter for the super structure, the driver cabin is modified in size so that you have a sleeping possibility or not and all those things. Just take a look, the very same long haul truck is also used by the construction workers. Only the the cabin is a little bit shorter.
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Over the last centuries there were a number of truck and bus manufacturers who tried the single/middle seat design. It was never a seller for any of those. If you take someone with you, you don't want to sit him/her to sit behind you. You want them to sit next to you. If you are on the road in the city, you have often colleagues with you, like in a moving company and alike. Such trucks are used in construction work w…
Could it be that this semi just isn't meant for those in-city hauls, but more for the longer-range highway hauls?
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It's incredible how you trivialize SpaceX achievements. I get it that you probably hate Elon Musk for whatever reason. But you should really calibrate your bias filter.
I love some of his other achievements with Tesla and with solar roofing tiles, but SpaceX has a lot of hype surrounding it.
Lots of stuff has been test or tried before, but bringing things from idea to production ready with the efficiency required and cheap production is fantastically impressive.
You can claim 'it is not basic research' or whatever, but the reality is that they are pushing the envelop on so many topics at the same time that they are leafing all competition in the dust.
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Are you sure brakes go on the list? Regenerative braking uses the motor, not brake pads. The track record of this approach is already proven in cars.
Brakes in trucks are already using regenerative braking for about 20 years right now and its called retarder. Because conventional braking is too expansive.
According to the article, most commonly these are not used for regenerative braking, the energy is wasted as heat instead.
Eddy current brakes can be used for regenerative braking if there's an electric drive train (and high power electronics to handle it) but more typically the energy is just wasted as heat in a cooled resistor grid.
Mechanical/hydraulic braking can be used to spool up a flywheel and this was used in Formula 1 in late 2000's (now they use electrical regenerative braking instead).
Which of these techniques is commonly used in trucks?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retarder_(mechanical_engineeri...
Ok as a mechanic a few million questions: * What happens when a wheel seal goes? Do I have to remove all that ridiculous plastic on #2,3 axels?? * What happens when a tire blows? Is it going to destroy all that plastic and take out a few more tires in the process? * Why all the glass? I've spend entire days replacing windshields for a 12 or so truck shop which generally come in two (drivers and passengers), the Tesla…
A lot of this is probably in order to get a 0.36 Cd Drag coefficient! Also having a lot of glass probably increases the view which in turn increases the security!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
He states that they have spent a lot of time talking to truckers and truck companies. I would guess they believe that with an electric drive train repairs and maintenance will be an order of magnitude lower (not sure how that works for tires and wheels). Body damage should also be much lower with automatic breaking and other features of enhanced autopilot. As Musk said, broken glass is a big cost for trucking as you…
> "nuclear blast" proof That seems like a meaningless claim without size and distance from the blast.
"The quickest acceleration—from zero to 60 mph in 20 seconds, fully loaded." sound of cargo falling over :P But serious question: how important is acceleration for trucks?
It is of course irrelevant for the bright future where are no human drivers.
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> They're claiming cost per mile is less than rail for shipping goods. Note: This only applies to "Convoy mode" where 3 or more vehicles draft off each other.
As long as the taxpayers keep subsidizing trucks destroying the roads proportionally to fourth power of mass per axle..
