Tesla has been teasing the release of their all-electric semi for months now so it’s no surprise that they reached out to both the California and Nevada DOTs to start testing their truck on public roads. But a new report from Reuters claims that the new Tesla truck is not only all-electric, it is also going to have self-driving capabilities.
Set for an unveiling in September, the Tesla truck has been teased since April but no specifications have been released. Up until the Reuters report, there was no indication that the Tesla truck would have any autonomous capabilities.
Reuters claims to have seen emails between Tesla employees and Nevada and California DMV officials. Based off of those emails, it seems that the truck is 100% electric, with self-driving and platooning capabilities, designed for long-haul applications.
Conventional wisdom currently says that electric vehicles are not suitable for long-haul trucking since the range on current electric vehicles, charging times, and availability of EV infrastructure are all roadblocks to widespread implementation. Tesla, it’s founder Elon Musk, and Musk’s other companies like SpaceX are known for challenging conventional wisdom however.
Tesla representatives met with California state highway administrators on Wednesday and Nevada DOT officials back in June. In setting up the meeting in Nevada, Tesla wrote in an email that “our primary goal is the ability to operate our prototype test trucks in a continuous manner across the state line and within the States of Nevada and California in a platooning and/or Autonomous mode without having a person in the vehicle.”
It is not clear whether Tesla pushed the same agenda in Wednesday’s meeting in California. A California Department of Motor Vehicles spokeswoman wrote in an email to Reuters that “no one can test ‘autonomous’ trucks in California at this time,” but neither California nor Nevada have commented specifically on their meetings with Tesla.
If Tesla has or is still trying to get permission to test “trucks in a continuous manner across the state line… in a platooning and/or Autonomous mode without having a person in the vehicle,” that could mean that a driver would be needed in the lead truck but not in any of the follow trucks, it could mean that there might be a driver in each truck but only the one in the lead would need to be in control, or it could mean that no drivers will be needed in any of the trucks.
Unfortunately, given Tesla’s silence on the subject, it looks like we’ll have to wait until the truck unveiling in September to know for sure.
Source: reuters, overdrive, theguardian, mashable, usatoday, theverge
Image source: Tesla
Andrew H says
I’m kinda indifferent on self driving trucks. If there is a highway cruise control to make the long boring parts automated, go for it.
But trying to make everything automated will be a failure. Make the auto cruise for fair weather only as well.
Jerry says
Wait till they start killing ppl….than see what happens, all the years computers have been here they fail on a daily bases…no different…Musk better lawyer up
Scott Hayden says
likely not a popular question but your response begs it; how many people are killed by the error of human drivers? Like it or not, autonomous driving is coming, and it’s coming faster than most think.
les gvt says
anything mechanical- whether it be humanoid or robotic has the potential to have issues. If you want to be entirely safe- stay in bed and never leave the house- that is of course provided the house doesn’t burn down around you
Robert says
Self driving trucks with no driver at all is a bad idea. You are talking about 80,000 pounds of rolling destruction. Truck I drive has onguard collision management. It malfunctions in snow, ice and rain. It randomly shadows bridges and solid objects resulting in the brakes being applied. I say the federal government should not approve this. States should not approve this either. People will get killed if the technology malfunctions.
Alex Manson says
Currently in a Volvo that has Bendix, same issues. Radar box under front bumper will malfunction in moderate snow. These trucks will stay in lane by GPS + have some combination of radar, lasers, cameras but hard to imagine as 100% safe.
Lawrence says
Well it’s said that a driver will still in the truck so if something goes wrong guess who’s at fault? The driver!!
les gvt says
This is a great idea- put one of these behind every politician and government bureaucrat when they leave the house daily
Dale Johnson says
The driverless truck is as fanciful as the flying car with one major caveat. As already stated, the truck is upwards of 80,000 lbs of rolling death in the “hands” of a computer. I’ve driven trucks enabled with collision avoidance and it’s a real joy when some yahoo cuts across the front of you to exit a last-second offramp. It’ll NAIL the brakes sending your stomach into your throat. Driverless has a ways to go. A LONG way to go. Just ask the flying car makers.
JudgeRightly says
Trucks are legal up to and including 80,000 lbs. Anything over that and you need a permit, and the driver has to plan special routes.
Jessie Julius Jr says
If this truck becomes main stream,Tens of thousands truck drivers will be out of work.this will work for the companies bottomline,but not for drivers who have family to support.
Big Don says
Well, I suppose we can all go to being lumpers then…
Gail Morra says
Lol
Old man says
A Tesla car is only good for 200 miles so going to be interesting with all the slow crawling traffic in and out of Ca.
Dean Belk says
You cant replace the human brain. These trucks will never be able to drive in a courtesy type enviorment that is required on a congested road. Computers fail more than people. Plus freight costs wont go down as the price of these frucks will not be cheap. Yes I said frucks.
les gvt says
perhaps Mr Musk and others who are pushing for autonomous vehicles and robots to replace humans in the work force should ask themselves a very basic question.
Once humans are no longer working (making a paycheck) who is going to be able to afford any of the products or services their robots provide and offer?
Johnny D says
Top comment.
Boss Major says
Right! I said the same flipping thing!
Alex says
We are already well on the way on this path.
Most people don’t realize how much of the workforce has already been automated or mechanized away.
Think back to just a few years ago, when coal was dug by hand, all parts were machined by hand, the auto factories had a worker for each operation on each part of every car, all mail was sorted and handled by hand, railroads were built by hand, tunnels were dug by hand, each office had a pool of secretaries for when multiple copies were needed of a document to type them up, or to edit and proofread and mail, and I could go on with the long list of jobs that simply don’t exist anymore, because they have been replaced with machines and computers and technology.
But yet even if those jobs, which used to be some of the largest employers, are gone, people still have jobs to do.
Now, they support the automation, and new fields of technology are always opening needing workers, so reducing the number of people in a particular and relatively small field, isn’t going to have the impact feared, because there are other new fields that are always opening.
This doesn’t mean that there won’t be hardship for people who only know how to drive, just as people who only were able to mine coal had problems when the coal mine got a machine to replace them, so consider this a warning to improve your skills, and take a class at a community college in some new skill that is in increasing demand, or find a company that needs drivers with extra skills, instead of being in a situation where your CDL is your only source of income, because then you are a commodity, not a unique resource…
Tom says
You win the Internet!
les gvt says
You already have over 40,000 children between the ages of 6-14 working in the cobalt mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo sorting highly dangerous rocks of cobalt to make the batteries we currently rely on- How many more children should we endanger so we can put battery operated semi’s on the highway?
(Amazing what some people will do for 10 cents a day)
FromOTRtoLoca says
This is coming we like it or not. I realized this last year after seeing some documents and decided to switch from OTR to salary based local driving with manual delivery ( plants).
Not only do I love my new work but I’m actually able to have life and be in my family life. Watching kids grow over the phone is not fun. Think ahead and look for local good paying jobs!
Daryl Miller says
Time and technology keep moving forward, who would have ever thought that cell phones would have evolved into hand held super computers. So like it or not the electric autonomous truck is going to be a reality, with people like Elon Musk pushing the boundaries of technology, its going to happen, I mean good grief, who would have thought an electric car would be capable of a top speed of 155 mph, 3.5 second quarter mile, Elons supercharged Tesla does that. Times are a changing.
Big Don says
I do agree that this is coming. It IS going to happen. Change is always frightening. And this is quite a change. Yes there are draw backs to it. Yes, some people will die during the developing stages. They are dying right now too. Yes, jobs will be eliminated. They are being eliminated every day right now, too.
My opinion is that rather than dread it, (which helps nothing,) rather than fight it, (which will be a losing battle anyway,) we, as a profession, start looking for the positive things that it will bring. Then, we need to get up to speed on these positive things. Instead of fighting a losing battle, I think we need to embrace it, and learn how to live with it.
Jobs are in a continual state of flux. No matter what you’re working at, nothing is guaranteed for tomorrow. This is the state of today’s world.
Kelly says
Well said.
Some guy on the internet says
Care to name some positives for this change? All I can see is negatives for the working man.
John says
I could have used a self parking truck the other night at a crowded pilot. Parking after midnight can be a lot of work.
Amardeep maan says
I would suggest they get the autonomous car working before going for a truck, learn to crawl before running.
Shogun says
97 percent of trucking companies still have twenty trucks or less. They certainly can’t pony up the money for trucks like this to replace old equipment and still pay a driver until the “self driving error free ideal utopia” trucking conditions exist these techno geeks hope for. Banks aren’t going to suddenly start handing out capital for them, and insurance will be outrageous starting out.
Liability wise, do you Volvo, Tesla and other crappy plastic junk makers are going to program these trucks to drive in the opposite lanes so they can make turns? Or back across lanes of traffic into a dock, hoping people stop? Securing loads? No, that still requires a human to do that understands the dynamic of traffic around him or her.
Does a self driving truck eliminate the HOS issue? Not unless all freight has become Just In Time and receivers and shippers decide they are 24/7 and need that truck instantly. Musk, for example, says Ryder will be in charge of maintenance on his trucks. The same Ryder that took two weeks to replace a hose on a DEF tank and burnt up some wires in the process on one of our trucks. Don’t hold your breath getting that Tessa truck fixed and back on the road anytime soon, given their company track record of batteries catching fire and hitting barricades.
Will these trucks replace drivers and put them out of a job? Possibly, but when you consider that all the mega carriers in the US can’t even begin to cover one tenth of the capacity, and smaller companies need drivers, it stands to reason that truck drivers won’t soon be out of a job. And considering the volume of freight to available trucks, they wouldn’t be able to mass produce enough self driving junk to haul it all.
Maybe I’m being naive, and tomorrow a self driving truck will put me out of a job and be able to blindside into a dock, understand axle weights, rout itself better than a GPS, troubleshoot mechanical issues to get back up and running, assume liability and make split second decisions, etc. I always say I was looking for a job when I found this one.
Bill Shaughnessy says
Computer controlled = hi jack accessible!
Super trucker says
To the people who say self driving trucks is coming no matter what because people will die no matter what. Keep in mind that the reason the actual drivers are quitting and the reason pay sucks so much is because of all the laws and regulations that get passes by politicians who have their hand in the cookie jar under the guise of safety. We have all been hearing lately that one death is too many and all this new crap technology is going to save us. Open your eyes and see what’s going on people.
george says
and again ships invented in 2613bc, still need captains
planes in 1903, still need pilots
trains in 1804, still needs engineers
trucks in 1898, all of a sudden no drivers required in 2017. GTFOOH
Alex says
Actually, there are already autonomous planes, but passenger planes are not, simply because if something goes wrong, no matter what, you can’t just pull the plane over and wait for a tow truck.
Planes and flying are complex enough that you can’t have an automatic system that can troubleshoot and repair and override and communicate all the things that a human can.
However, most passenger jets now fly most of the flight autonomously. They program the flight path in, and take their hands off. If ATC orders a change of course, they tell the computer instead of touching the controls. Even landing is often done by the computer on the newer planes.
But, the pilots are still needed for human relations, and to automate the rest of the functions of the plane would be more expensive than keeping the pilots.
With ships, same thing, you are not near tow trucks, and you have to have people to repair and maintain and throw ropes and such. Also, when you remember that the ship equivalent of long haul trucking is a bulk or container ship, and each ship hauls the equivalent of thousands of truck loads with a very small crew, the benefits of eliminating the crew are not there.
Same with trains. Hundreds of truck loads, 2 or 3 guys for it all.
And they have to do switching operations as they drop and hook cars along the way. Not much benefit to automation.
In your time-line example, you left out cars, which were invented about the same time as trucks, and are now showing better abilities and safety than human drivers, in the toughest conditions around.
As to trucks, you have a lot of small vehicles (load per human, compared to ships and planes and trains) traveling on designated roads in well-known traffic patterns, and the ability to stop and pull over if something goes wrong. The financial benefit from being able to increase the load per human ratio is great, at least for specific cargoes that do not require special driver interaction. For instance, much of the current long haul cargo is terminal to terminal, or warehouse to warehouse, with the driver only having to carry paperwork and drive the truck. That would be easy to automate, or platoon, because nothing would be lost except for the cost of the driver. The yard jockey would just meet the truck in the inbound lane, hop in and park it, and then after it was loaded, pull it to the exit and close the doors, and push Engage.
Much of the industry will be safe, because a lot of freight still requires a driver to do more than drive, or will be driving in places or conditions that the autonomous systems aren’t ready for.
But this is happening lol
Jesse says
With this truck if it happens we will have more accdents also we don’t need humans here on Earth at all these people that develop this shiz going to kill the human race
Sgt Kll says
“Are we heading down hill, like a snow ball headed for hel”
-merle haggard-
Back when we had real country, and real trucks..lol