The Semi is one of Tesla’s most significant product releases in a while. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has been making huge promises about the truck—promises that, delivered upon, would put Tesla in a whole new market and ahead of its competition there. I mean, an electric semi-tractor that could carry a full load 500 miles is a huge deal. It seems that Tesla really did drive a loaded one 500 miles, but we still await crucial details about how much the tractor itself weighs. We’re even still waiting for a full video of that drive.
Still, I’m finding myself almost as fascinated with the Semi as I was when I saw a Roadster for the first time. Over the weekend, I realized that something sneaked by my commercial vehicle-loving radar. David, Jason, and I got to see a Semi in person and we got all over the thing with our cameras. I should have noticed it then, but I didn’t. Then European truck driver Tomasz Oryński started a discussion on Twitter about the problems that he sees with the Tesla Semi.
And I am going to tell you’all why it is a completely stupid vehicle. And I won’t even want to talk about (1) — Tomasz Oryński (@TOrynski) December 8, 2022 He made some interesting points, like how the day cab (a semi cab without sleeping quarters) is so huge, yet has nothing in it. Or how having the door behind the driver and creating a corridor adds extra unnecessary steps (literally). Here’s what that corridor looks like from the Tesla Semi delivery event: When this Tweet made it over to our friends at Opposite Lock, something else was revealed: the Semi’s windows only pop out; they apparently do not fully open. This could make it hard for truckers to pay tolls or pass papers in and out of the vehicle—something they understandably do very often. At first, I couldn’t believe it. Then I looked at the pictures that I took of the Semi prototype that Tesla parked at the Petersen Automotive Museum in LA. Sure enough, flanking the driver are pop-out vent windows. Still not believing what my eyes saw and what my camera took a picture of, I checked Tesla’s promotional video from the event. Yep, the pop-out windows are there, too. And they were there in the timelapse of the Semi that drove 500 miles. Here’s what the windows look like open on a prototype:
Why This Is A Big Deal
It should be noted that Tesla has updated the cab’s design between the prototype stage and production. The trucks featured in Tesla’s promotional videos from the Nevada event are of the updated design, which appears to feature larger windows plus extra dummy-side windows. However, in interior shots, you can still see the arm for the pop-out windows. You can see the window arm to the very right of the below image: As Oryński pointed out in his thread, being able to reach out of a window is a big deal because truckers often need to communicate with people outside of their rig. It could also mean dealing with authorities or just the simple act of paying a toll. (Granted, many truckers use electronic toll pass systems these days, as do tons of drivers, but let’s face it—sometimes you need to get your window down for a lot of things.) You may also want to open your window to clean something off of your side mirror or heck, just get some fresh air blowing into the cab. But someone driving a Tesla Semi can’t easily do those actions. The windows pop open into a sizable slit, just like a minivan. The central driving position seems to make it so that you’d have to get out of your seat to pass something through the window, anyway. So, realistically, the driver of a Tesla Semi will be getting out of their rigs to conduct business that other truckers can do in their cabs. Reading “takes” on the Tesla Semi by another trucker, it seems that not having a true opening window is a letdown. I’ve gone through pages of different semi-tractor manufacturers, and so far as I can tell, Tesla is the only one with a production truck with windows that open like a vent. It’s not the worst problem a vehicle could have, but an annoying one that I think could have been largely avoided.
A Potential Solution
This is something that I have personal experience with, albeit with buses. In both my old school bus and my current Nova Bus RTS, I’ve had to do things that required an open window. I’ve also had conversations through my open windows. You might think that the advent of electronic tolling would have eliminated this problem, but when I’m in line to pay toll, I’m often behind multiple semis. At this time, we don’t know why Tesla went with its pop-out windows. Perhaps the shape of the Semi makes a rolling window difficult. Maybe it had to do with cost savings. Whatever the reason, General Motors had a solution to this problem decades ago. Let’s look at my RTS. It, like the Tesla Semi, has ginormous windows. And from me digging around my bus, I know that there’s nowhere for that slightly curved window to roll down into. GM’s solution to having an opening window was to have a secondary window that slides open. This window is a tiny opening, but it is more than enough for you to reach your hand out to do whatever you need to do. It’s certainly not ideal, as it’s still a small portal. You sort of have to bend over to talk through the window. However, in my experience, most of the time I don’t even have to take off my seatbelt. And even though this window is tiny, it’s still large enough to blow in fresh air during a drive! And Unlike my RTS, the Tesla Semi’s windows don’t have a chunk of bodywork limiting how far the window could open so that the Tesla could have a bigger portal. But that’s just my idea. I’m sure there are more configurations that Tesla could have chosen. Here’s where we have a question for you, dear readers. As we wait for more information on the Tesla Semi, we want to know if it’s anywhere as revolutionary as it’s being pitched as. Is having that huge day cab actually useful? Is sitting in the middle of a semi-tractor beneficial? We don’t drive semis for a living, but some of you might. If you’re in the trucking industry and have comments about the Semi, we’d love to read them at tips@theautopian.com.
Read more on The Autopian
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There was no talk of expanding overseas when I was there, so the logo should be safe too.
Given it’s 2022, do we still pay tolls by throwing some change in a bucket in some places in North America?
All the toll roads I know of just take a picture of your plate and send you the bill at the end of the month.
Same deal on a recent trip I was on in Europe. All tolls involved snapping my license plate picture and I paid it when I returned the car to the rental agency.
Meanwhile, my home state of Illinois does what it used to call “Open Road Tolling.” That’s just a fancy way of saying that cameras take your license plate picture and you get 14 days to pay it, or else you’ll get an angry letter in the mail. Before covid, you got only 7 days and those angry letters would be attached to fines valued at multiple times the cost of the toll.
The Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland is the same deal, scan EZ Pass if you’ve got it, mail you an invoice if you don’t. Toll collectors went away in 2020 and never came back.
– give/take paperwork when entering lots. – talk to someone through in intercom where you need to press a button. – hand ID over when crossing a border. – show logs at weigh stations Etc.
Tesla got this wrong, but I have a feeling Lord Elon decreed it.
At least he didn’t decree it should have gullwing doors I guess…
https://www.ocregister.com/2022/02/23/disneyland-parking-trams-return-after-nearly-a-year-of-walking-to-parks/
If someone has a reason why a day cab needed a hallway and center driver position for reasons I am not fathoming please speak up.
And is generally a royal pain in the ass to develop.
Should we tell him?
https://nikolamotor.com/tre-bev
Having to get completely out of the truck every time? Um, no.
Aaaaaand blind spots, talking about blind spots how can y’all read if you are as blind as the spots you are complaining about. Do you not see the two large monitors on either side of the wheel? Do you also see what being projected on the monitor? There are no blind spots with a 360 degree view around your truck. Once I got just a backup camera in a vehicle I refused to ever go back to cranking my head all the way around again, when I have to drive other vehicles that don’t have a backup cam that’s the feature I notice the most when it’s gone and it’s a huge pain and also an archaic method. Let’s all take our eyes off the road in the direction my vehicle is heading look out a side window, brilliant idea it most certainly is not. This is all without even taking into account the human flaw of saccadic suppression- going blind for 1-7 seconds every time your eyes move, reason you’ll never see your eyes move when looking in a mirror (go ahead try it).. Maybe the reason for having the center cab is to make room for 2 giant monitors on either side of the cab large enough to trigger moving objects in our peripheral view- this is the reason we can’t see motorcyclist moving in our peripheral, they aren’t big enough objects to represent a danger to our brains so they are blocked out in order to conserve energy just like it does our nose or the reason every time you look for something it turns out tone right in front of you- you weren’t overlooking it your brain made it disappear because it wasn’t necessary for your survival to need that object and it needs to conserve energy which your brain already consumes the largest portion of your calories.
Who knows maybe the 4 hour battery limit will render the sleeper cab useless. Just think about what all will be possible if, while you take your 30 min lunch break to charge your truck while simultaneously passing off your load to the next relay driver before returning home each night to your bed and your family, which now you can have more memories with and not feel like daddy atm. The 4 hour drive on 80% 30 min charge time nicely works out to a 8.5 hr work day just like everyone else.
Change isn’t always bad, don’t be afraid to embrace it, plus green is a sexy color on you. The evolution of our cavemen truck drivers and the industry has been long overdo.
P.S. btw it’s never been considered wise to insult, or question The Musk, it’s what stupid tastes like 🙂
But that leads into the issue of charging facilities. Every truck stop, rest area, and rural exit ramp is already parked full of trucks. While charging infrastructure is sure to come, it’s going to be a challenge. So for now, I would expect any early customers will using these for short hauls that return to their own yard at night, so at this point, the sleeper cab is probably premature.
You are correct that 500 miles doesn’t sound like a lot to us. You are also correct that there is a long way to go before they can be used as a long haul truck.
