The primary deliveries of the Tesla Semi have been made final Thursday night to an excellent quantity of fanfare at Tesla’s manufacturing facility in Sparks, Nevada. The Tesla Semi was first unveiled as a prototype in 2017. 5 lengthy years later, the primary deliveries occurred, ending with Tesla handing over the keys to the primary manufacturing vans to PepsiCo and Frito-Lay.
It is smart that the presentation lined the vans’ very spectacular specs and that they touched on how the automobile could be useful to trucking corporations (saving them gobs of cash), the Earth, and, normally present a greater expertise for truck drivers.
However an enormous query stays: Will truck drivers embrace this new and glossy electrical marvel?
I suppose I used to be sufficiently obsessive about the Tesla Semi main as much as and following the streamed occasion that Fb steered the positioning Drive United to me. In keeping with the positioning, Drive United is “dedicated to making sure our drivers are rewarded for his or her arduous work by way of distinctive pay, advantages, tools and recognition applications.” It’s a in style social media vacation spot, because it has virtually 150,000 individuals liking it.
So, when the Drive United submit confirmed up for me, it was for the Tesla Semi. The very first thing I seen is that that they had a doctored picture that takes the sleek-looking Tesla Semi and makes it fairly hideous (form of like if the Tesla Semi took steroids for a 12 months). However then, it was fairly attention-grabbing to learn the feedback. Whereas there have been some people open to the chances of an electrical big-rig future, an excessive amount of the feedback went like this:
Trucker Josh stated: “I want they’d make it appear like a standard truck. I don’t need to drive no matter that’s…”
Mary Ann Tomes stated: “That is the stupidest factor I’ve ever seen.”
Kevin Marshall selected to be humorous: “Care to check the home windows,” with a nod to the Cybertruck unveiling the place the smash-proof home windows have been certainly smashed with a metal ball.
Krag Anderson will get the award for probably the most false statements in a single submit by stating: “Want enormous landfills to accommodate the outdated batteries that may’t be recycled! The entire truck constructed with supplies derived from fossil fuels. The merchandise used to make the batteries will run out lengthy earlier than we run out of fossil fuels.”
And Jerry Noe shouts: “DIESEL IS AMERICA!!!!”
So, this raises the query of whether or not truckers will give the Tesla Semi an opportunity. Properly, with value financial savings being so dramatic (it’s about 83 % cheaper to drive and haul items with a Tesla Semi than with a normal diesel truck, and there may be in all probability additionally a major discount in value on account of a lot much less upkeep), the truck could also be poised to disrupt the trucking trade whether or not drivers are prepared or not.
There are many people who’re enamored with the “regular” approach of trucking. The diesel, grime, and gears are a part of their trucking mystique. We see this in those that say they’d by no means contemplate an electrical pickup truck, too. This sentiment is sort of prevalent right here in Kentucky, the place it is not uncommon to see the black “Mates of Coal” license plate on a large number of automobiles. In truth, these plates are on many Teslas now, too!
Although, if any of those anti-EV patriots are arguing that electrical is un-American, I can’t consider a gasoline that’s extra American than domestically-produced coal or the big variety of renewables which can be produced domestically. In truth, even powered by coal, EVs are dramatically cleaner than their diesel and gasoline counterparts.
So, similar to with passenger automobiles, schooling is job #1. And now, preventing misinformation ranks up there as a precedence. It’s unlucky that many select to be closed off to new and higher methods in terms of the transportation sector.
Thank goodness for the PepsiCos and Frito-Lays of the world. Giving an opportunity to one thing that can profit our communities’ collective well being and the wellness of our frequent house looks as if what we ought to be doing. 10-4, Good Buddy?
Associated tales: Tesla Semi archives
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