Tesla To Unveil Electric Tractor Trailer

Regenerative braking will only be handy around town. You can get on 40 headed out west and go for hours without ever touching the brake pedal. I'm curious to see what kind of testing they've done for extreme cold. I wouldn't exactly want to be sitting in Wyoming for a couple days during the winter, trying to stay warm in a battery powered truck lol.

Saw this yesterday in the news. I wish him the best, but I'm skeptical. We'll see...

Would it really be that big an issue if it cost even double that of a diesel rig? I mean, one truck easily runs though $1,000 in fuel a week, as much as $50,000 in a year. Even if the Tesla cost over $200,000, it'd pay for itself in fuel savings. I agree though, it'll have to have a generator. Preferably diesel or CNG, for availability's sake.

I sure want one.

Not completely on point but why do we not see more electric reefers or APU's? You'd think that one of these could be electric and the motor from one could drive the other when parked. I've done a little searching but I haven't been able to find out why these haven't taken off. I know I'd appreciate a quiet reefer that I never had to top off.

Reefer:

A refrigerated trailer.

APU:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

APU's:

Auxiliary Power Unit

On tractor trailers, and APU is a small diesel engine that powers a heat and air conditioning unit while charging the truck's main batteries at the same time. This allows the driver to remain comfortable in the cab and have access to electric power without running the main truck engine.

Having an APU helps save money in fuel costs and saves wear and tear on the main engine, though they tend to be expensive to install and maintain. Therefore only a very small percentage of the trucks on the road today come equipped with an APU.

My guess is the first electric semi would probably be a local job. It would return to same place at end of day to charge. Also probably be a company that hauls light loads. I heard Frito-Lay had electric box trucks.

Keep in mind also that back in the early 1900's (no, that's not a typo) the streets of cities in the Northeast like Boston and New York were filled with electric vehicles. Here we are over 100 years later and they (whoever they are) have us convinced that we're still working on the technologies to make electric vehicles viable.

Also don't forget that in the 50's and 60's everyone was convinced robots would be doing everything and we'd have flying cars within a decade or so. The first rocket designed to go to Mars was first engineered in the 60's.

There were virtual reality goggles in the 80's, and Jaws 3D was the first 3D movie back in 1983. We were convinced that by 1990 every movie would be 3D and our entire existence would be virtual reality by 2000.

Soooooo...........

I learned long ago to never believe the hype that inevitably accompanies any revolutionary new technology. Advertisers have been lying since forever.

The VR headsets from the 80s were terrible. I mean, here is a $79,000 VR system released in 1991. Virtuality

The VR was simply so bad it turned people off the whole thing, which was fine because the technology wasn't there in the first place. I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories about electrical vehicles. I'm sure they existed, and I'm sure they worked, but I doubt they were good enough, and once it stopped being trendy, people went with what was more convenient/cheaper.