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The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

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Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#141

Post by jacquesm »

henrikschroder wrote: post #119
jacquesm wrote: post #66

I think the thing that Tesla misses when it comes to semi construction is that unlike with the roadster and the model-s launches the customers are unlikely to be impressed by the tech-bro bit and will first and foremost look at ergonomics, safety and economics. Image isn't on the front burner at all and I think the number of actual truck drivers at the Tesla design department approaches zero. If they mess up the laun…

> If they mess up the launch of the semi in terms of early adopter customer satisfaction Only Tesla thinks of this as a regular consumer product with a "launch". In reality, the competition is already offering electric trucks of various sizes, today, not in beta, not pre-production, but actual products you can buy. And since their competition understands the trucking business, they already know exactly how to slot EV…

> And yet a lot of people still believe Tesla is the market leader and that everyone is just waiting for Tesla to come and disrupt the trucking business.

Ironically those are not the people in the trucking business.

Another thing that Tesla likely hasn't gained a lot of experience with is the longevity requirements on truck chassis. Those things undergo a ton of harsh treatment with a smile and 750K miles+ between rebuilds isn't all that rare, with 500K or so probably around average depending on whether you look at short-haul or long-haul or a mix. In the diesel world the chassis get two or more engine rebuilds. Total lifetime is crazy, check these out:

https://www.commercialtrucktrader.com/Peterbilt/trucks-for-s...

That's 1 million miles and up.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#142

Post by _ea1k »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #24

This seems kind of par for the course. What I find strange is that there are busses[1] operating economically with similar time of use (but not top speed) requirements. The whole "car parts scaled up to truck size" is super on brand for their chief technologist. I'm also seeing a bunch of Rivian trucks and Ford E150 lightnings on the roads around the Bay Area which, for me, doesn't bode well for the launch of the Tes…

I think Ford only sold ~3,700 Lightnings in October. I bet Tesla is selling CT at a much faster rate than that by February. Of course, that ultimately depends on price and what trims are available.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#143

Post by jjulius »

ryaneager wrote: post #125
jjulius wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Tesla's obviously in some kind of beta mode. Then stop marketing yourself as though you're not. I don't care if the little asterisk in the corner of your website makes it clear that "it's just beta mode, bro", they clearly prefer to put out an image that suggests otherwise.

I mean car companies have been releasing concept art of future vehicles since like forever so it’s pretty standard.

GP was speaking about Tesla overall, not their concept art department.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#144

Post by snek_case »

jonathankoren wrote: post #132
ryaneager wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean car companies have been releasing concept art of future vehicles since like forever so it’s pretty standard.

Concept cars aren't driven, let alone sold/given to actual customers.

AFAIK the Tesla Semi isn't being sold to general customers. Pepsi is participating in the testing program, but they knew full well that they were early adopters, and they're doing it in part for the positive PR. It's sort of like a closed beta.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#145

Post by thsksbd »

theodric wrote: post #113
ReactiveJelly wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Priuses manage to get 50 mpg highway without depleting charge or plugging in but I guess the same optimizations can't work on a big diesel as on a little gas engine?

Priuses are slippery little kammback hatches with hard tires and a drivetrain designed to minimize Cd and stop-start traffic fuel consumption. A semi is a brick that bullies the wind out of the way all day every day for two million miles before needing a rebuild. They're very different animals for very different use cases.

Its a long brick though, it shouldn't be considered a bluff body

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#146

Post by _ea1k »

nblgbg wrote: post #84

These two are interesting >>>The constant use of the battery pack is unprecedented and is causing reliability problems for Tesla and other EV truck makers [similar claims coming from Uber drivers who use their Teslas over 300 miles per day, i.e., their batteries are dying quickly. Meaning the batteries are not meant to use more than few hours per day because they heat up ? >>>PepsiCo did a 500-mile trip with the Tesl…

> Meaning the batteries are not meant to use more than few hours per day because they heat up ?

TBH, it sounds like it might be temp related... but it could be as simple as overly conservative software. These are in such early stages of development, that I'm sure they are being very conservative about going into limp mode at the first sign of a potential problem.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#147

Post by [deleted] »

Drblessing wrote: post #121

> All Tesla Semis and other electric trucks are subsidized by California state and the Megacharger station alone cost around $6 million [these mega chargers can power up to 28,000 homes]. The average US household consumes around 10,649 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). This translates to an average of about 888 kWh per month, or about 29.6 kWh p…

[deleted]

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#148

Post by Waterluvian »

kbenson wrote: post #107
Waterluvian wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s basically a quad with a cabin. That’s pretty clever and would be useful in limited cases like working a farm. Obviously an F-150 or whatnot can also leave the farm.

I don't think it's any smaller than a smart car, and people drive those around all the time. I'm not sure why this would be limited to a farm while an F-150 is not. I'm not sure the Datsun and Nissan trucks of the 80's were much bigger, and those saw plenty of use.

It’s going to be difficult getting far at a max speed of 25mph.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#149

Post by _ea1k »

jjulius wrote: post #38

>Center seating, which looks cool in the Tesla Semi launch video, is actually not practical and not well liked by PepsiCo’s drivers. My work involves direct interaction with truck drivers on a near daily basis and I have been saying this since Tesla debuted the interior design. I am completely unsurprised to hear this The amount of hubris Tesla has when it comes to so many things like this is mind-blowing.

The thing that baffles me there is that the original group behind this had a semi truck background. And surely its earliest routes were NVCA, along with the checkpoint at the border?

It seems like either it isn't as big of an issue as it appears to be... or they 100% knew about it and went ahead with it anyway.

Given that this is Tesla, it could easily be either.

Re: The Tesla Semi from an Insider's View After One Year: "Hot Mess"

#150

Post by snek_case »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #111
Element_ wrote: post #6

> Tesla uses the the tri-motor system from the Models S/X Plaid on one axle of the Semi, which seems both dangerous and needless, given the lack of concern among Semi users for quick acceleration Jay Leno did an interview with one of the Tesla Truck engineers the other week, I believe he mentioned each axle is geared differently. One specifically for highway speeds and the other one disconnects for optimal efficiency…

That’s standard for Tesla drivetrains on their cars to avoid transmissions: one axle for low speed, one axle for high speed, blending power to the motors and idling one when the other is primary.

There's an extra trick with the semi where one of the axles can disconnect from the motor once it's up to highway speeds.
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