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Tesla Semi

tesla.com

221–230 of 575 posts

Re: Tesla Semi

#221

When you have hundreds of thousands of customers with paid reservations waiting for Model 3s, why on Earth would you spend resources launching another product line? It’s madness.

Because you can use the deposits to keep the lights on until you start getting model 3s out the door.

Re: Tesla Semi

#222

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Elon Musk decided that spending days or a week preparing for a presentation is not the best use of his time. At least that much time is generally what it takes to pull off a really smooth presentation. I heard that he does not script them and just does them off the top of his head. Tim Urban has a great essay about different levels of prep people do for talks [1] which he wrote when preparing to give a Ted talk. Musk…

Considering Tesla is depending on it's image to get more money to fill the gap of it's ever deepening losses, spending days preparing a presentation is the best use of his time. Tesla has a price-to-sale ration of nearly 6, while Nissan and GM are <0.5. So Tesla is mostly image and vision, not reality. Therefore it depends on Musks presentations with visions of a glorious future.

I don't think Elon Musk's plan is to build up Tesla as a huge pyramid scheme, cash out at the peak, and move to Mars before he gets arrested. He is running a couple of very technical companies and is down in the trenches working 80-100 hours weeks to keep them moving forward as fast as possible. Getting the Model 3 up to a production rate of 5,000 a week is what will start to prove out Tesla's current stock price, not a slick demo.

Re: Tesla Semi

#223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then it's dead out of the gate, almost every trucking company in existence does in house repairs due to cost.

Call me a fanboy, but something tells me that the guy who built a revolutionary space program from scratch while successfully running a revolutionary auto company, probably has some ability to think things through pretty comprehensively from all angles and plan effectively for what's needed. Do you think you've just pointed out something that never occurred to him? Do you think if you could share your comments with h…

It wasn't really from scratch though was it, he hired out people who had already worked with space projects. None of the tech is really new (yet). We used to have the same types of rockets in the past.

Amongst Model 3 fiasco Solarcity too currently has issues.

Re: Tesla Semi

#224
post #153

I'm a product manager at a telematics company. I've talked to a lot of folks in the long haul trucking space, from drivers to back office folks to service managers. I'll be surprised if this truck catches on. The trucking industry has a huge urge to do everything themselves, all the big guys have full service garages in their many yards across the country. This truck seems essentially unserviceable by anyone other th…

If those TCO numbers pan out they won’t have much choice. They’ll be undercut by the competition.

Re: Tesla Semi

#226

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…

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…

Tires, wheels, suspension, bearings, steering, brakes and drive axles (one from each electric motor to its wheel) will be the same as a regular truck, maintenance-wise.

The maintenance reduction basically only related to the motor itself. And, supposedly the "nuclear blast proof" windshield. A collision with a deer probably be much, much more expensive compared to a truck with a safari grill or plow mounted for safety.

Re: Tesla Semi

#227

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…

Watch the actual reveal before commenting. The glass was addressed.

Re: Tesla Semi

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Security screws on purchasable goods really need to be banned for anything that doesn't pose an immediate and extreme health and safety hazard.

And I don't think anything sold in the US today, not to the Department of Defense, has anything that poses "an immediate and extreme health and safety hazard".

I don't know, an electric car seems like it would contain a few items you don't want to be poking at if you don't know what you're doing. Security screws could a pretty good job of keeping the casual DIYer from electrocuting himself, essentially a "can't open this? Maybe you shouldn't."

Re: Tesla Semi

#229

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?

Top of the line Winnebagos are $500k. You might be on to something: https://winnebagoind.com/products/class-a-diesel/2017/grand-...

Someone pair up with a tiny house company or a prefab design/build architecture company and start making some housing trailers for Tesla Semis.

Re: Tesla Semi

#230
post #201

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.

In the year to 2017-Aug, total US solar generation was 72.1 TWh, amounting to 1.80% of total US electricity (predicted to reach 5% by 2022; in 2016 US solar capacity almost doubled from the year before). Tesla semi consumption: One charge: 500 miles => There are about 2 million semi trucks in the US (tractor trailers). Assume that each semi fully charges once a day, 300 days a year. The conversion of all of the count…

There’s a lot of surface area on top of a trailer, just saying.
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