The primary deliveries of the Tesla Semi have been made final Thursday night to a very good 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 sensible that the presentation lined the vans’ very spectacular specs and that they touched on how the car can be helpful to trucking corporations (saving them gobs of cash), the Earth, and, generally present a greater expertise for truck drivers.
However an enormous query stays: Will truck drivers embrace this new and glossy electrical marvel?
I assume I used to be sufficiently obsessive about the Tesla Semi main as much as and following the streamed occasion that Fb instructed 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 exhausting work by distinctive pay, advantages, gear and recognition applications.” It’s a standard social media vacation spot, because it has nearly 150,000 individuals liking it.
So, when the Drive United put up confirmed up for me, it was for the Tesla Semi. The very first thing I seen is that they’d 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 probabilities of an electrical big-rig future, a substantial amount of the feedback went like this:
Trucker Josh mentioned: “I want they’d make it seem like a standard truck. I don’t need to drive no matter that’s…”
Mary Ann Tomes mentioned: “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 essentially the most false statements in a single put up by stating: “Want large landfills to accommodate the previous 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. Nicely, with price financial savings being so dramatic (it’s about 83 p.c 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 big discount in price because 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” method 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 take into account an electrical pickup truck, too. This sentiment is kind of prevalent right here in Kentucky, the place it is not uncommon to see the black “Buddies of Coal” license plate on a large number of vehicles. In actual fact, 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 gas that’s extra American than domestically-produced coal or the big variety of renewables which are produced domestically. In actual fact, even powered by coal, EVs are dramatically cleaner than their diesel and fuel counterparts.
So, identical to with passenger autos, education is job #1. And now, combating misinformation ranks up there as a precedence. It’s unlucky that many select to be closed off to new and higher methods in relation to the transportation sector.
Thank goodness for the PepsiCos and Frito-Lays of the world. Giving an opportunity to one thing that may profit our communities’ collective well being and the wellness of our frequent residence looks like what we must be doing. 10-4, Good Buddy?
Associated tales: Tesla Semi archives
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