Tesla truck running on diesel. Alot more to come

You are about 20 years too late for that explanation.
General Motors had already developed and through their EMD locomotive division were selling them in numbers by 1935. The R & D started when the US government was spending very little on anything defense in the 1920's.
Diesel engines/design for ships are completely different than diesel engines/design for locomotives.

 

Wabash, IN was the first town to be lighted by electricity. If you read the contemporary accounts of the process you will find a lot of parallels to our current discussion over EV/solar/wind.

 

Converting a town from no electricity to being electrified is a huge advancement for the better of society. I'm not seeing near the net improvement to society by switching to electric vehicles. What I see is a vehicle that is more hazardous and far less convienient for the owner. Not to mention battery disposal and the massive environmental impact from mining.

 

Kind of impossible to forget something that never happened. In what Kurt Vonnegut daydream did you pull the idea of the government building the electrical grid and phone network?

 

So you're saying that GM's first major customer for diesel engines wasn't the US Navy? And before that during WWI nations didn't dump millions into engine technology? Rudolph Diesel got his patent in 1892 but it wasn't until after WWII that diesel engines took over from steam locomotives. I'd also like you to look at WHERE the engines were manufactured - maritime engines during the early parts of WWII quickly transitioned to locomotive engines in the later stages. Not to mention the learning process of building and maintaining those engines. There are several great articles on JSTOR if you care to peruse them.

Diesel locomotives were available in the early 1930s but they didn't start making significant inroads until the late 1930s. The R&D process was significantly funded by the US Navy, and to a lessor extent the US Army and fought tooth and nail by coal mine owners. I have little doubt that the diesel locomotive would have taken over steam engines - eventually, but it was government spending and intervention that made the transition happen at the speed it did. Just as the Royal Navy's adoption of coal powered ships began the end of the sail era.

 

I'm a bit older. I distinctly remember being told in the 70s that we would be out of fossil fuels and in the beginning of an ice age by the year 2000.

I can see extensive use of electric trucks for inner city delivery, and otr trucks delivering to distribution centers at the edge of large population centers.

I am guessing that hydrogen fuel cell technology will become more viable than electric for otr trucks.

Just imagine how efficient diesel engi es would be, both in regard to fuel mileage and emission output, had engine manufacturers been allowed to commit the resources that have been spent on meeting emission standards toward efficiency instead.

It is arguable that there is a far more detrimental effect on the environment with the production of DEF, DEF containers, trucks to transport DEF, reduced efficiency due to dpf and egr systems, natural resources used to manufacture emission system components, more fuel consumption due to less efficient engines, more trucks hauling fuel, natural resources required to build the additional trucks, tires, etc.............

Nothing is worse than agenda driven "science". And before I am characterized as an uneducated redneck I will share that my father was a professor and head of department at Berkeley. I have been exposed to science.

I'll jump off of my soapbox now.

 

Says you, with the advantage of hindsight. At the time Wabash electrified the debate was fierce.

"We doubt if a dozen men can be found in the city of Wabash who are in favor of the City Council contracting for Brush & Co’s 10,000 candle power electric light. The members of the City Council and the proprietors of the Plain Dealer are about the only advocates of the light.”

“The Plain Dealer says the electric light will virtually turn night into day, and as chickens never sleep during daylight it is only a matter of time when every fowl within the corporate limits of Wabash will die for lack of sleep"
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That government funded experiment resulted in a contract from the Royal Navy, which resulted in other contracts before Brushs's company was consolidated into GE. Within 8 years the Wabash lighting was beyond obsolete, but it created a revolution that lead to the electrification of the world.

 

So you're saying that the TVA and the Rural Electrification Act never happened? Would Western Union exist without the Pacific Telegraph Act?

 

You lay out the broad history of the generational and global R&D process that is the meat and potatoes of the diesel engine's creation then one moment later give all the credit to the governments last minute intervención as being responsible for significantly funding that same global and generational R&D process, completely inconsistent in your reasoning.

 

Haha, you're the guy who shows up with a house warming gift then takes credit for building the house