Renewable Revolution

Tesla Electric Semi Truck to test Self-Driving, capable of 'Platooning': report
Aug 10, 2017  John Voelcker 104 Comments

With Tesla, there's always something new coming up to keep owners, buyers, and fans excited.

The company's main task over the next year is to get its lower-priced Model 3 electric car into volume assembly at high quality, a process CEO Elon Musk has called "production hell."

But there's more to come, one of the new products being Tesla's promised all-electric semi tractor, apparently for long-haul freight.

Musk released a teaser image of the Tesla semi at a TED Talk in May

Now some details may have leaked out, in the form of an e-mail conversation between Tesla and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles seen by the Reuters news service.

In those documents, Tesla sought state approval to test a prototype of its electric semi in Nevada that will contain self-driving software.

California DMV officials told Reuters they were to meet Tesla yesterday to discuss the company's "efforts with autonomous trucks" as well.

According to Reuters, the Tesla semi is likely to offer the capability of "platooning."

That's the term for automated vehicles traveling very close together at speed, which significantly cuts aerodynamic drag.

Vehicles that platoon must continually communicate with each other and the infrastructure around them, but the distances between them are far too short to allow a human driver to react in time to emergencies.

READ THIS: Tesla trucks: semi to be shown in Sept, pickup in 18-24 months

Several companies are working on autonomous driving technology specifically for long-haul trucks, in Silicon Valley and elsewhere.

Long-haul trucks do not face cross traffic when they travel on limited-access highways, and they largely operate at steady speeds.

Those are seen as more favorable conditions for self-driving vehicles than the far more diverse circumstances faced by passenger vehicles in a wide range of uses.

Continental gets Nevada approval to test autonomous cars


CHECK THIS OUT: Daimler to build large electric semi truck

Platooning, meanwhile, is seen as a way to reduce fuel consumption significantly among trucks with internal combustion engines (or energy use in the all-electric Tesla semi).

Robot Semi Trucks platooning
Daimler, Volvo, and other European heavy-truck makers have put years of effort into the technology, including numerous demonstrations on limited stretches of highway.

Platooning is viewed as a precursor to fully autonomous long-haul trucks, which are still widely assumed to be 10 years or more in the future.

He has driven the semi, he said, calling the big rig capable of sporty and spirited driving characteristics.

"This will be a very spry truck," Musk said. "You can drive this around like a sports car."

http://www.greencarreports.com/news/1112028_tesla-semi-truck-to-test-self-driving-capable-of-platooning-report

Agelbert NOTE: The widely assumed 10 year transition period for autonomus EV Semi Trucks is incorrect. They will be dominating in less than five years, simply because the sensor package is NOW cheap AND MORE reliable than a human driver.

The 1% want this profit over people automation. When they want something, it happens. 

In this case ,securing the truck contents will become better paid than driving the truck.

Unfortunately for hopeful drivers planning on being semi truck riding security guards, I do not doubt that the 1% will try to make we-the-people pay for truck contents security with added taxation for added police highway monitoring, rather than doing the responsible thing and hiring a security guard to ride with the truck and ensure safe delivery of the goods, along with the required paperwork. 

At any rate, when you see lots of Semi Trucks Platooning, EV Semi Platooning will be right there to replace every diesel semi truck on the roads.

The upside of this for the biosophere and people of good will is that the lung clogging, respiratory disease causing particulate matter and green house gas pollution on our roads will be much reduced and the big oil refineries will have to put their diesel fuel CRAP where the sun doesn't shine.