Tesla is trucking into the future

Tesla Chairman and CEO Elon Musk unveils the new “Semi” electric Truck for buyers and journalists on November 16, 2017

The Tesla Semi got attention from a crowd in a Tesla facility held in California. As people waited for Elon to come from the big truck he surprised everyone by unveiling the big, futuristic Tesla Semi when spirits were lifted as hundreds of beaming Tesla fans showed their praise for the company’s ambitious future plans.

The Tesla Semi truck’s claimed range comfortably at 500 miles, it’s roughly twice what Tesla claimed in August of last year. That’s also more than double what mechanics planned in electric trucks. That and the promise of solar-powered Megachargers to give 400 miles of range in 30 minutes at a Tesla charge station and changing the Supercharger network should help concerns that an electric truck is useless for trips outside of cities.

Close-up of a scale model of a Tesla Semi, an electric semi truck from Tesla Motors, on Santana Row in the Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, January 3, 2020. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)

Musk claims the Semi could go for 1 million miles without a breakdown, which will test the company’s reputation for quality. There are reports of Model S and Model 3 cars having quality problems, but that didn’t stop people from putting down preorders for a truck that isn’t even planned to start production until 2021.

While the Tesla Semi is equipped with Autopilot, Tesla says it isn’t fully self-driving and has moved away from a self-driving truck. Instead, Musk spent a lot of time talking about how driver positive it was with its centered seat and space for people inside the cab. As excited as Musk was about the semi, the whole audience was way more interested in the surprise at the end of the show. Which was the unveiling of the second Tesla Roadster which caused cheers from the second its headlights switched on.

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