Do you drive a big rig?

[Mano]

Good news !



 

[AAIK]

*sigh* I don't know what to think of Tesla. It popped up during the depth of the financial crisis completely propped up by government money and everyone thinks the sky of the company. Have they actually done anything proper on a broad basis to proove they deserve the position they have?

[Mano]

good question. Not sure I can answer that one.

The federal rebates come to an end soon. Will Tesla survive without the rebates?
IMHO they will.

Tesla built a battery factory in Nevada and a car factory in California.
If they are successful you might see GM go under. GM is using their trucks
and high end cars to subsidize their electric cars and do not manufacture any of the key components nor
do they have any plans to make them.

Tesla bought a German robotics company so they can manufacture 500,000 Model 3's a year. They plan
on ramping up production in the first quarter of 2018. We shall see very soon how Tesla does.

 

[Delirium]

Guess we can add truck driving to the list of jobs that will be gone in a few years, along with postal workers, librarians, and newspaper employees.

Frankly, I am overjoyed automation is coming to the highway system. I find human drivers are irresponsible, apathetic, and much too distracted to drive today's vehicles. I just sold my motorcycle last night because I gave up riding. The more I thought about it, the more I would rather take my chances in a steel cage than my motorcycle in light of the "me first" mentality that dominates on the roads today.

[ghi]

Looks interesting,  depends how expensive is going to be, imo can't be priced above 300k , i paid 140k for my Volvo 780 with all options.I noticed they accept 5000$ deposits already. 500 miles range is great for start, but  will take a decade to see charging stations along the interstates.

"World’s biggest sovereign wealth fund proposes ditching oil and gas holdings
Energy industry jolted by advice to Norwegian government from its central bank, which runs $1tn fund....."
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/nov/16/oil-and-gas-shares-dip-as-norways-central-bank-advises-oslo-to-divest

[pembquist]

I'm not in the Musk can do no wrong camp but I have to say it is refreshing to see someone making electric cars, power walls, solar roof tiles, rockets, science fiction Hyper Loops, out of the box boring tech etc. etc. rather than plowing their millions and reputation into "Uber for cat litter" and other BS wanna be Unicorn drivel.

[Vulcan]

I'm not in the Musk can do no wrong camp but I have to say it is refreshing to see someone making electric cars, power walls, solar roof tiles, rockets, science fiction Hyper Loops, out of the box boring tech etc. etc. rather than plowing their millions and reputation into "Uber for cat litter" and other BS wanna be Unicorn drivel.

doesn't matter how much electric power whatevers you make - we need an alternative energy source (like some sort of miniaturized nuclear power).

[NatCigg]

I'd like to see it cross the Rockies from September to May.

The auto bus in Vegas hitting the truck on day one was not a good start.

First dead baby the man's gonna have a lot of splainin to do.

Electric truck, hmmmm

[NatCigg]

doesn't matter how much electric power whatevers you make - we need an alternative energy source (like some sort of miniaturized nuclear power).

Can we not use the co2 we extracted?

[pembquist]

I'd like to see it cross the Rockies from September to May.

The auto bus in Vegas hitting the truck on day one was not a good start.

First dead baby the man's gonna have a lot of splainin to do.

Electric truck, hmmmm

It doesn't say it is supposed to become self driving so I wouldn't conflate it with that just yet. Bottom line is obviously what the thing costs and what it costs to operate. 0-60? Who cares, if it costs less per mile and has less downtime than it will sell otherwise it won't. There might be a zero emission subsidy for it, did you read the air pollution stories out of india this week? But it isn't a sports car for gods sake. I assume that one day electric will be the prime mover of choice as it is simpler and more flexible than internal combustion, one day might be a while from now as it is battery/capacitor dependent. What ever happened to fuel cells anyway?

[NatCigg]

Economics rules, if the government adjusts the economics, economics change.

Maybe it will work, my experience below freezing, batteries die quickly, especially under load.  Bare bones truth, the energy is still coming from fossil fuels, for now, and having to charge every truck or train every 250 miles will require a lot of charging stations.  But again, economics rules, if it works it will happen.  As of now, a toy for the wealthy.

Biofuels could help the problem, we passed the co2 balance with photosynthesis only recently.  With good work and planning  mother earth will have no problem handling reliable diesel engines, hybrid even?

[zack1234]

What about the dinosaurs !

[guncrasher]

I'd like to see it cross the Rockies from September to May.

The auto bus in Vegas hitting the truck on day one was not a good start.

First dead baby the man's gonna have a lot of splainin to do.

Electric truck, hmmmm

You got it wrong't the truck backed into the bus.


Semp

[Mano]

With autonomous driving I could see Scotty in charge of a convoy of 2 or 3 trucks while he stopping Tyfoo from stealing a v base using his laptop connected to the Tesla internet service.
Imagine that.

 

[Vraciu]

Guess we can add truck driving to the list of jobs that will be gone in a few years, along with postal workers, librarians, and newspaper employees.

Frankly, I am overjoyed automation is coming to the highway system. I find human drivers are irresponsible, apathetic, and much too distracted to drive today's vehicles. I just sold my motorcycle last night because I gave up riding. The more I thought about it, the more I would rather take my chances in a steel cage than my motorcycle in light of the "me first" mentality that dominates on the roads today.

They want airliners without pilots, too.