Tesla delivers there first semi

[FlatBroke]

Tesla semis deliveredhttps://www.foxnews.com/auto/first-tesla-semis-delivered-tech-mystery

Tesla delivered its first production Semi trucks on Thursday night to PepsiCo for use at its California facilities.

The all-electric tractor debuted as a concept in 2017 with an eye on entering production in 2019, but its development and later the coronavirus pandemic caused the date to be pushed off.

The truck arrives with many of the specifications originally promised, however, including a range of 500 miles per charge fully loaded.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk boasted at the event that it is more powerful than a diesel, and that it can accelerate to 60 mph in 5 seconds unladen and in 20 seconds with a full load, but did not reveal its exact specifications."

[time2roll]

Dadoffourgirls wrote:
And I hope the taxpayers appreciate this. I read that they are paying $15.4 Million for Pepsi to have this.

And I hope you approve of the $40,000 per every semi coming from the Federal Government. That would be like giving 4 people $10k towards their student loans.

For perspective....

$36B for union pension bailout

[ford_truck_guy]

They ( Tesla ) never actually said the unloaded weight of the truck/trailer combo, just the total weight of 81k..

As a big rig ( flatbeds ) driver of 30 yrs, I kind of like the concept, hate the looks...

It would be nice to be able to enter the cab, stand up and get out of the 1 piece overalls usually worn when loading in the cold temps outside... although that does not sway me to want to run out and drive one.

I also like the fact that the braking will be dramatically better due to regenerative braking and the combo will experience LESS brake fade ( I believe?? ) on long down hill runs,, perhaps resulting in LESS usage of run away truck ramps??

[stsmark]

While it is capable of going up the Grapevine at 60, is there video of that? It would have been speeding as the towing limit in CA is 55. I’d really like to see the consumption doing it as if I understand correctly all 3 motors would be working in that situation. I’m sure it’s well under a mile per KWh then.
Said it before, Pepsi is beta test. I’m sure it will do great for them as the use pattern is set for success.

[Groover]

JRscooby wrote:

Groover wrote:


I have heard that a leading cause of runaway trucks is drivers missing a gear at a bad time. Regen should eliminate that.

I think the "missed shift" is less of issue the last few decades. In the days past, like my '76 Pete, (by then that set-up was rare. But that was the 3rd truck the 1693 was in. Likely the gearboxes where from earlier times too) with 2 non synchronized transmissions, trying a split, getting both boxes in neutral, getting back in gear was hard.
And driver not wanting to show they missed was issue. Going up hill, speed would drop fast enough with the peaky torque curve, by the time got in a gear could not pull. Down steep hill, the best idea is save the brakes by standing hard until stopped.
But many trucks sold in the last 15 years (or what I saw last time I was used truck shopping) for fleet operations had some form of computer controlled auto-shift. Bell, the Super 10 in my '95 Pete, moved the stick once from 40 MPH to topped out.

Based on what I see just driving around it does appear that use of runaway truck ramps has declined considerably of the last 40 years. Maybe we won't need them at all in another 10 or 15 years.

[JRscooby]

Groover wrote:


I have heard that a leading cause of runaway trucks is drivers missing a gear at a bad time. Regen should eliminate that.

I think the "missed shift" is less of issue the last few decades. In the days past, like my '76 Pete, (by then that set-up was rare. But that was the 3rd truck the 1693 was in. Likely the gearboxes where from earlier times too) with 2 non synchronized transmissions, trying a split, getting both boxes in neutral, getting back in gear was hard.
And driver not wanting to show they missed was issue. Going up hill, speed would drop fast enough with the peaky torque curve, by the time got in a gear could not pull. Down steep hill, the best idea is save the brakes by standing hard until stopped.
But many trucks sold in the last 15 years (or what I saw last time I was used truck shopping) for fleet operations had some form of computer controlled auto-shift. Bell, the Super 10 in my '95 Pete, moved the stick once from 40 MPH to topped out.

[Groover]

I have had my Model Y nearly 2 years now and their is no discernable wear on the brakes. Tesla put a lot of emphasis on the semi having good regen characteristics.

I have heard that a leading cause of runaway trucks is drivers missing a gear at a bad time. Regen should eliminate that.

[Reisender]

Groover wrote:

free radical wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:
Here's video put out by Tesla for a fully loaded 500 mile run. I do find it interesting there's no passenger seat.

Link

I find it interesting what is "fully loaded." Is it fully loaded with Mike's my pillow pillows? Is it fully loaded to gross max weight? Is it fully loaded to volume? Is 10,000 lbs net fully loaded?

Words matter...

I find it interesting the route was never mentioned. I get pretty good fuel mileage when I measure my mileage at the top of the Ike grade going down hill. Now going up the Ike...

Words matter...

Ah but does your fuel tank refils on the way down !?

Tesla bateries do get recharged going downhill. Can you say free energy? I knew you could :B

Heres the full delivery vid.
Somewhere around 16 min is the good stuff

https://youtu.be/LtOqU2o81iI

The energy recovered is better than free. Due to the energy being recovered the brakes rarely get used. The expectation is that a fully loaded Tesla semi can go down any interstate highway hills without speeding up and without touching the brakes. The brakes should last the life of the vehicle.

One thing that does not seem to be getting mentioned is that the Tesla semi went up the Grapevine hill at or over 60mph. I think that a lot of us will appreciate it when we can make a trip without getting stuck behind semis cranking up a hill at 45mph. But we probably won't give it a second thought either.

Yah. The regen is nice. I’m not sure what the semi is like but with our little electric SUV trailer combo we can descend a 13 percent grade and not need brakes. Kinda cool. Of course that semi combo is 8 or 9 times heavier than our little combo. It will be interesting to hear how the drivers like it.

[Groover]

Reisender wrote:

JRscooby wrote:

Bird Freak wrote:
Sounds good for a local truck but not for cross country.

I don't know about that. Many, if not most, LTL loads move terminal to terminal. 500 miles will most times be near the 11 hour driver daily limit, so terminals are spaced at about that. So spend up to 10 hours charging while trailer is reloaded. Ready for another day.
For sure would not be good for slip-sheet, or even slip-seat operations. Will need to put chargers in parking spots for irregular route operations, but will happen.

Yah good points. As well charging to 70 percent is 30 minutes and that last 30 percent wouldn’t take more than another 45 minutes. My guess is fleet operators will employ them where it makes sense.

As well not all loads will be at max which will extend range. A load of Doritos will weigh a lot less than a load of concrete curbs. As well not all routes have grades like the grapevine that the test trucks did.

We actually see this in real world with our smaller more aerodynamic trailer being towed by our tesla. (Picture below). Ford lightnings are struggling to get 120 kilometers of range pulling bigger heavier boxy travel trailers. We can tow double that range with an SUV that has a 30 percent smaller battery. I’m not knowledgeable about these things but I would assume that some of this physics carry’s thru to the big boys.

Jmho. Definitely not an expert.

By charging to 70% in 30 minutes they can get another 6 hours on the road. That will put them past the legal limit for the day. Tandem drivers could drive that way continuously. And the stops are required by law for all commercial trucks.

Another cool fact: The Cybertrucks will be able to use the 1 Megawatt chargers that are being deployed for the semis.

[Groover]

free radical wrote:

Turtle n Peeps wrote:

FishOnOne wrote:
Here's video put out by Tesla for a fully loaded 500 mile run. I do find it interesting there's no passenger seat.

Link

I find it interesting what is "fully loaded." Is it fully loaded with Mike's my pillow pillows? Is it fully loaded to gross max weight? Is it fully loaded to volume? Is 10,000 lbs net fully loaded?

Words matter...

I find it interesting the route was never mentioned. I get pretty good fuel mileage when I measure my mileage at the top of the Ike grade going down hill. Now going up the Ike...

Words matter...

Ah but does your fuel tank refils on the way down !?

Tesla bateries do get recharged going downhill. Can you say free energy? I knew you could :B

Heres the full delivery vid.
Somewhere around 16 min is the good stuff

https://youtu.be/LtOqU2o81iI

The energy recovered is better than free. Due to the energy being recovered the brakes rarely get used. The expectation is that a fully loaded Tesla semi can go down any interstate highway hills without speeding up and without touching the brakes. The brakes should last the life of the vehicle.

One thing that does not seem to be getting mentioned is that the Tesla semi went up the Grapevine hill at or over 60mph. I think that a lot of us will appreciate it when we can make a trip without getting stuck behind semis cranking up a hill at 45mph. But we probably won't give it a second thought either.

[schlep1967]

Reisender wrote:

schlep1967 wrote:
SO they left an elevation of 5,000 feet and drove basically downhill for 500 miles to an elevation of 5oo feet in a truck that regenerates it's batteries when going downhill.
Can it make the same loaded run in the other direction?

Hmmm. You may be interpreting that graph wrong. They went from Fremont to San Diego via the grape vine. So start at roughly sea level, over the grape vine and back to roughly sea level. Start in the bottom left hand corner to see the altitude and follow the changes. The grape vine is pretty obvious but there are some other grades as well.

This kind of graph presentation is common to all Tesla software displays.

You are correct. I was reading the graph incorrectly. Ignore my last.

[Reisender]

schlep1967 wrote:
SO they left an elevation of 5,000 feet and drove basically downhill for 500 miles to an elevation of 5oo feet in a truck that regenerates it's batteries when going downhill.
Can it make the same loaded run in the other direction?

Hmmm. You may be interpreting that graph wrong. They went from Fremont to San Diego via the grape vine. So start at roughly sea level, over the grape vine and back to roughly sea level. Start in the bottom left hand corner to see the altitude and follow the changes. The grape vine is pretty obvious but there are some other grades as well.

This kind of graph presentation is common to all Tesla software displays.

[schlep1967]

SO they left an elevation of 5,000 feet and drove basically downhill for 500 miles to an elevation of 5oo feet in a truck that regenerates it's batteries when going downhill.
Can it make the same loaded run in the other direction?

[Turtle_n_Peeps]

Dadoffourgirls wrote:
Let's see this vehicle in operation in Ohio, Indiana, or anyplace that is currently near freezing.

Really good question. Here is one answer to your question and it's not good. And this is in what I call moderate cold. 30 degrees F is not really cold even in Kalifornia. Many parts of the US get into negative numbers. Now that's cold!

[Learjet]

hang on doubters...it's only going to get better 🙂

[stsmark]

Here’s an info sheet from FritoLay on the sustainability project at Modesto plant from 2019,

https://fritolay.majestic.dev/sites/fritolay.com/files/2020-08/zanzeff_layout4-01.14_r2%20%281%29%20-%20FINAL.pdf