Tesla are now in the business of making lorries. They call them Semi’s, god knows why as they stand alone. At the event on the 16th November Elon Musk appeared from a truck after it was driven on stage. The truck, like all Tesla’s looks svelte and sleek with no panel gaps but somehow clinical and soulless. It looks like something out of Blade Runner. Tesla has pushed the technology in new and interesting ways to produce something that is a real game changer.
BAMF Performance
Elon got a big laugh as he explained that their trucks have what Tesla call BAMF performance. What that means is that an unloaded Tesla Semi will do a 0-60 time of 5 seconds. Just a touch over a Ford Mustang GT. He showed us a graphic comparing the steadily accelerating Semi and a steadily accelerating high end diesel truck. It was hard to see the diesel truck was even moving. The fully loaded truck will do 0-60 in 20 seconds and pull up a 5% grade at 65mph. The best diesel trucks take over a minute to reach 60 and can go 45mph up a 5% grade.
They can cover 500 miles on a charge fully loaded at highway speed and you can charge whilst you’re loading. Other details include a thermonuclear bomb proof glass to ensure no trucker is wasting time waiting for Autoglass and brake pads that never need replacing thanks to an intelligent regenerative braking system.
Each truck has Tesla’s autopilot as standard ensuring that they can’t pull out into your lane whilst you are in it. The central driving position ensures a better view and the floor pan batteries ensure that it’s a very difficult thing to roll. It also has a system making it impossible to crash into itself. Each wheel has its own electric motor tied to a computer system that ensures that jacknifing never occurs even in difficult conditions. The truck is that good that truck driving school could be a thing of the past.
A Long Wait
I welcome this development, anything that stops trucks blocking the motorway and increases safety has got to be a good thing for everyone. Tesla is leading the way in electric vehicles and now not just showing that they are feasible but that they will be massively better. The big problem of course is that it’s a two year wait for a firm to get one if they order today. I am looking forward to seeing them improve our roads but definitely not because they are good looking.
You might be interested in our Tesla wallpaper, take a look.
