Have a look on tesla's semi

[Endy0816]

8 hours ago, studiot said:

Of course the term is made more difficult by the american pronunciation of the part word 'semi'.

huh, that is true. Sem Eye vs Sem E

Never realized that before.

[Phi for All]

On 5/17/2018 at 7:14 PM, iNow said:

I’d like to see us overlay roadways and highways with ambient chargers (like used w electric toothbrushes and wireless phone chargers) that themselves get loaded via solar cells. As long as one is driving over it their system is seeing net energy gains (not charge depletions). 

For that, you might as well start a public solar power utility. We could produce the electricity that's too cheap to attract private investors, use it for the roads to start, and expand it as the cheapest electricity solution for home and business as well. Maybe reward those who switch from costly private energy providers with Medicare enrollment at any age....

[dimreepr]

6 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

For that, you might as well start a public solar power utility. We could produce the electricity that's too cheap to attract private investors

 

That would be a societal issue and a profound question of value.

[Strange]

There is a massive amount of energy stored in a vehicle like that. A short circuit or failure of the battery management system could result in a massive fire that would be quite hard to control.

[swansont]

1 hour ago, Strange said:

There is a massive amount of energy stored in a vehicle like that. A short circuit or failure of the battery management system could result in a massive fire that would be quite hard to control.

Massive amount of energy is also true of a diesel truck. More, possibly, since electric tends to be more efficient.

[Strange]

2 minutes ago, swansont said:

Massive amount of energy is also true of a diesel truck. More, possibly, since electric tends to be more efficient.

True. Although there are more cases of batteries "spontaneously" overheating and catching fire than a container full of fuel, which is relatively stable.

On the other hand, the liquid fuel could be more dangerous simply because it is liquid and could carry the fire a longer distance.

[Neil Obstat]

On 5/17/2018 at 10:20 AM, iNow said:

As of 3 weeks ago:

http://www.businessinsider.com/companies-that-ordered-tesla-semi-2017-12

 

I added up the pre-orders and got 449 trucks (aka, 'lorries'), plus 4 companies with unspecified quantities, including Walmart. If UPS ordered 125, Pepsi 100 and Sysco 50, certainly Walmart would have gone in for at least 80. Anyway it seems to me that the total pre-orders ought to total about 700 semis. 

Has anyone seen an approximate price tag for these? No doubt Tesla is making deals for quantity discounts and incentives for placing pre-orders with a deposit. 

Another thing -- I haven't seen one of these on the road yet, only videos of them, and the videos could be composed for advertising so who knows if they're not fake videos. But it seems to me that once say UPS or FEDEX or Pepsi start running deliveries with their new Tesla trucks, they're going to hold their heads high and prance down the road like a victory dance. I expect them to use whatever decorative lighting their lawyers will approve of, and likewise they'll be doing the two-or-three-trucks-with-only-one-driver-in-the-front-truck train thing. Someone is going to come up with a unique name for that train thing. Railroad industry: it's in your face. 

The thing that made me wonder is the material used for the windshield. In Elon Musk's promo video he made quite a splash out of demonstrating its impervious toughness, saying his windshield is guaranteed shatterproof, and if it breaks due to a thermonuclear explosion, "You get a free replacement." I thought, if it's that wonderful why doesn't the watch industry use it for watch glass? Notice Musk made no mention of hardness. He could say he was talking about toughness, not hardness.

 

On 5/18/2018 at 6:10 PM, Endy0816 said:

huh, that is true. Sem Eye vs Sem E

Never realized that before.

Engineers and scientists are accustomed to saying "SEM-ee" like in semicircular or semiconductor or semitranslucent, etc., but the working man on the road has his own language, and those are the guys that talk about trucks: truck drivers. And every truck driver in America says "SEM-eye" when he stops for a quick breakfast at a truck stop in Anytown, USA. I know some truck drivers and when I say "SEM-ee" in a sentence they stare at me with a blank face and have no idea what I'm talking about. It's that bad. The ones with a more open mind will correct me, saying, "You mean 'SEM-eye'." They can't even bring themselves to pronounce "SEM-ee" -- like it's some kind of profanity or whatever. As if truck drivers have any scruples pronouncing swear words!

I'm reminded of the longstanding mispronunciation of molybdenum in the material supply industry. They actually say "molly-BEAT-um," or "Moly" for short. Try explaining that to a chemistry professional. Go to a chemical supply warehouse and try ordering a bulk container of molybdenum disulfide, MoS₂, properly pronounced, and see what happens. When you bother to take a few seconds of their precious time to pronounce "mo-LYB-den-um" for them, they'll just shake their heads and go "no, no, no...," as if they won't dare to set foot across the grain in shop-talk tradition. Nobody wants to become the brunt of jokes in the blue collar environment. The man behind the order desk might not fill your order correctly if you can't manage to pronounce the words as he expects you to say them. They reserve the right to refuse service to anyone, you see. 

Edited June 5, 2018 by Neil Obstat

[Endy0816]

I've actually heard both for semiconductor. Sounds wrong saying Semi any other way though.

Might be rather awkwardly confused with 'seme' too. Guess you are good as long as people can figure out what you mean. Can call it a 'tactor trailer', if you'd rather.

[Bender]

On 5/6/2018 at 9:25 PM, Neil Obstat said:

I haven't seen one of these on the road yet

Makes sense, as they will only be delivered next year.

[StringJunky]

On 06/06/2018 at 3:35 AM, Endy0816 said:

I've actually heard both for semiconductor. Sounds wrong saying Semi any other way though.

Might be rather awkwardly confused with 'seme' too. Guess you are good as long as people can figure out what you mean. Can call it a 'tactor trailer', if you'd rather.

I think a lot of UK lorry drivers call their artics 'tractor-trailers' The ones I've known anyway.

[Endy0816]

1 hour ago, StringJunky said:

I think a lot of UK lorry drivers call their artics 'tractor-trailers' The ones I've known anyway.

Same. More descriptive IMO.

Hmm... Articulated Lorry = Artic, Semitrailer Truck = Semi... seeing a pattern here...

[StringJunky]

35 minutes ago, Endy0816 said:

Same. More descriptive IMO.

Hmm... Articulated Lorry = Artic, Semitrailer Truck = Semi... seeing a pattern here...

I call them artics.

[Externet]

With the  English language being reversed, would make more sense to call them trailer tractor.  (traction for a trailer).  Some buses are also articulated but not tractors, with their engines and propulsion at the back, being 'pushers' instead...

[StringJunky]

4 minutes ago, Externet said:

With the  English language being reversed, would make more sense to call them trailer tractor.  (traction for a trailer).  Some buses are also articulated but not tractors, with their engines and propulsion at the back, being 'pushers' instead...

You are putting the cart before the horse.  

[Externet]

Like this semi-articulated...

[Neil Obstat]

On 6/8/2018 at 6:20 AM, Externet said:

With the  English language being reversed, would make more sense to call them trailer tractor.  (traction for a trailer).  Some buses are also articulated but not tractors, with their engines and propulsion at the back, being 'pushers' instead...

In the motorhome business here in California large bus type motorhomes often have the diesel engine in the rear, behind the rear axle, and they're called "diesel pushers." That design has been in production for many decades now, one of the more prominent brands being Crown Coach. They made a lot of passenger buses and school buses and earned a high reputation. Even after many years of productive service retired buses were made over ("conversions") into motorhomes and traveled the country's highways. Nowadays, the older converted buses are not welcome in trailer parks where it's getting to be a standard rule that to rent a parking space with hookups long term you must have an RV (recreational vehicle) that is no older than 10 years. They don't want the old ones around anymore, which makes it rather pointless to build really well-constructed motorhomes. You're wasting money if it's built to last any more than 10 years! I was very impressed with a particular model, by Itasca with a Mercedes diesel in the front end. The cab is a lot like an aircraft cockpit but a LOT bigger. The cabinets, furniture, external fresh bait drawer, storage compartments are solid, durable and easy to use. But the price ($70K) is about 30% more than similar competition (of less durability). Good for 10 years of fancy travel, I guess. After that, it's going to be challenging to find a parking space with hookups. I hope this isn't getting too off-topic.

The Tesla trucks would make excellent motorhomes, I'm sure, but it seems rather contradictory to make it fit that market when Tesla trucks are built very well and certainly should have a useful life of more than 10 years. I just heard on the news that Elon Musk is laying off thousands of employees, something to do with cutbacks for volume deficiencies and a need to turn a profit this year. So it seems rather unlikely that there would ever be a Tesla motorhome version of the truck (lorry for our Brits).