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Tesla new Electric Truck

Started by red, November 15, 2017, 04:13:18 PM

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red

Tomorrow is the big reveal on the Tesla Tractor Trailer Truck. It's the first one but many truck manufactures are building electric. Seems we still need cheaper lithium batteries is one large obstacle. 
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sprucebunny

I read in a local newspaper today about a bunch of people ( probably not truck drivers...) pushing for self-driving trucks. It seems Tesla is working on this along with their autonomous cars. Tesla cars being sold now are upgrade-able to self-driving ! ...( when it becomes legal and practical, I hope )

Don't think it will impact my area since GPS is so often wrong around here and there are no chargers.
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

breederman

I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday talking about self driving vehicles and how they had GPS to within 4 feet so they even  could avoid pot holes.  If that's the case how come my Garmin is off by a quarter mile sometimes ?
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John Mc

Quote from: breederman on November 15, 2017, 06:17:14 PM
I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday talking about self driving vehicles and how they had GPS to within 4 feet so they even  could avoid pot holes.  If that's the case how come my Garmin is off by a quarter mile sometimes ?

A GPS with WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System) will improve the accuracy considerably, if you can pick up the WAAS satellites (which are geosynchronous, so tend to be low on the horizon for those of us in the north).

There are other technologies which provide a more localized correction signal which will get even more accuracy than GPS with WAAS.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

John Mc

Rumor has it that Tesla is working on a pickup truck as well. I'm hoping it's a real pickup, rather than a sport truck. I don't need to go long distances or 90+ MPH, I just need to haul my gear to where I'm going (which is within 20 miles 90% of the time)
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Grizzly

Most of what I read now on the technology sounds good but some of us old diesel smellers are gonna have a hard time accepting this new stuff as "real" trucks. Won't even have gears to grind!!  :D
2011 - Logmaster LM-2 / Chinese wheel loader
Jonsered saws - 2149 - 111S - 90?
2000 Miners 3-31 Board Edger

red

Tesla CEO Elon Musk is promising to " blow your mind clear out of your skull and into an alternate dimension " when he releases details on a new Electric Semi Truck Thursday night.
According to www.usatoday.com
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Stuart Caruk

Quote from: breederman on November 15, 2017, 06:17:14 PM
I was listening to a guy on the radio yesterday talking about self driving vehicles and how they had GPS to within 4 feet so they even  could avoid pot holes.  If that's the case how come my Garmin is off by a quarter mile sometimes ?

The GPS isn't wrong, its the obsolete database used to graphically illustrate your position in relation the the physical GPS position. I gave up on Garmin years ago, because their database updates are notoriously inadaquate. Grab any decent phone running Google maps and do a comparison. The difference is striking. In a congested area Google has their cars driving around updating the physical (as built) streets, and taking images for use in their software.

With self driving cars, the maps, provide only a route. The onboard sensors actually track the pavement, lines, vehicles, etc. to do the driving. I'd trust a computer over most human drivers any day. The biggest problem is like driving on snow and ice. You can't predict what the other vehicles will do. But I suspect, like TCAS in aircraft, that technology will actually get better so that when 2 driverless cars are on a collision course, they will communicate with each other to avoid an impact.
Stuart Caruk
Wood-Mizer LX450 Diesel w/ debarker and home brewed extension, live log deck and outfeed rolls. Woodmizer twin blade edger, Barko 450 log loader, Clark 666 Grapple Skidder w/ 200' of mainline. Bobcats and forklifts.

BradMarks

I saw where a self driving shuttle in Vegas crashed within 4 hrs of initial test run. Won't be in my fleet ;D

plantman

I don't care what they say, I'm not gonna get "chipped".

red

The truck looks interesting , but not available for about two years.
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pineywoods

Think about how to charge a battery big enough to do that. Definitely won't be a 1 hour charge time with a plug-in charger.  ;D. 
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

red

Lithium Batteries under the trailer.  So all you need is to change trailers , all charged up ready to go. Elon Musk has that huge battery factory in Sparks Nevada , just cranking out batteries.
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submarinesailor

Quote from: red on November 17, 2017, 08:22:53 PM
Lithium Batteries under the trailer.  So all you need is to change trailers , all charged up ready to go. Elon Musk has that huge battery factory in Sparks Nevada , just cranking out batteries.

Red - I knew he was building it, but has it actually started producing batteries?

Bruce

sawguy21

A little off topic but anyone see the roadster? 0-60 in 1.9 sec, 8.9 sec quarter mile and 250 miles per hour. :o I had better not drive it.  ;D I am not sold on the truck, we will just have to see if it becomes practical.
We had better get used to the new technology, it's coming whether we like it or not. Or we can be Luddites and rail against it while the world passes us by.  Our great grandparents resisted the telephone and the automobile and look what happened.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

Grizzly

According to one article JB Hunt and Walmart are on the books for 1500 trucks. Of course it doesn't say how many years that's over or what terms and all that rot. But an actual order? Impressive.
2011 - Logmaster LM-2 / Chinese wheel loader
Jonsered saws - 2149 - 111S - 90?
2000 Miners 3-31 Board Edger

Ianab

The truck will shine in things like city deliveries and shuttling containers from the port to local addresses. Might only do 100 miles a day, and much of it will be low speed stop start travel that electric vehicles excell at. So it has the range to run all day, zero energy use when it's stopped at the lights, and regen braking will recover a lot of the braking energy at the next set of lights. 

There is another system already in limited production that uses hybrid drive for longer range. Uses a gas turbine genset of maybe 200 hp to recharge the battery, but has ~600 hp of electric drive to the wheels. Electric and battery get the rig up to speed briskly enough, and plenty of torque to climb hills. The small genset provides enough power to keep up a steady cruise. Come to an uphill and the system can lean on the battery again, then when downhill there is extra power to recharge, and regen braking helps as well. Similar technology, but you can get in and drive without worrying about battery range.
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

Brucer

Quote from: BradMarks on November 17, 2017, 05:07:47 PM
I saw where a self driving shuttle in Vegas crashed within 4 hrs of initial test run. Won't be in my fleet ;D

The shuttle was backed into by a human controlled truck :D :D.

Quote from: pineywoods on November 17, 2017, 07:30:38 PM
Think about how to charge a battery big enough to do that. Definitely won't be a 1 hour charge time with a plug-in charger.  ;D. 

A thirty minute charge is good for 400 miles of travel (as opposed to 1000 miles for a diesel with a full tank).

Tesla is planning to build a grid of high speed charging stations to support the trucks. So ... what if they put charging stations in all the major depots in a region? Charge up your truck while it's being loaded/unloaded.

Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

Ron Wenrich

I saw one estimation that the batteries will weigh 10 tons.  I don't know how accurate that is, but that would really cut into payload.  I also don't see them as a woods truck for hauling logs.

There is a lot of talk about charging stations, but I don't see any being built.  Musk says they will be solar powered.  How big of a solar field would you need to recharge rigs along the interstate?  What happens in places that get socked in with fog like along the Pacific coast?  Or where winter offers a lot of overcast and shorter days?  A lot of this seems like California engineering.  Toyota is already selling and using hydrogen hybrids in the LA area.  To me, hydrogen is a better alternative than an all electric.  No need for charging stations, less onboard battery storage. 

I think the self driving cars will be here sooner than we think.  Seeing how people are easily distracted and car mfg is putting more distraction at driver's fingertips, it seems like a smart move.  Uber has spent $680 million on self driving rigs.  They made a 120 mile beer run in October, 2016 for Budweiser.  I think there is a lot of room for the technology when put onto the interstate hauling.  Those rigs will run more at night than during the day.  I do know that self driving cars will be make a world of difference for old folks and people with disabilities that can't drive.  It opens up a whole new world for many.

If everyone were to go to electric vehicles, how much would the electric grid be able to handle?  Is there generating capacity?
Never under estimate the power of stupid people in large groups.

John Mc

I read somewhere that Tesla already has the largest charging network in the US for electric vehicles. It's a proprietary system, and a major selling point for their cars. It takes some planning, but it's possible to drive long distances (e.g. coast to coast) in one of their cars. Of course these are car charging stations, not semis, but Tesla at least they recognize the need to develop the infrastructure - and are actually doing something about it.
If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.   - Abraham Maslow

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: Ron Wenrich on November 18, 2017, 05:59:14 AM
If everyone were to go to electric vehicles, how much would the electric grid be able to handle?  Is there generating capacity?
That's the beauty of electrics.  The current electric grid has an abundance of base load units (large coal, oil or nuclear generators) that cannot swing their output quickly.  They take hours to shut down and even longer to start up (sometimes days).  So, the power companies keep them running all the time and shape their generation output with other smaller (and typically more expensive to run) units like gas fired.  There is always (cheap) hydro but, at least out here, the amount of energy you can get from that varies greatly year to year.

When the load drops off at night, power companies are a bit flush with power and often have to sell it to distant locations.  That is when you have the electrics recharging - at night - making use of that extra power.

Now, throw in all the solar.  Somewhat cheap - especially if the home-owner purchased and installed it.  Now the power companies need to have more gas fired units to take over the instant a cloud bank affects generation.  And then there is wind, even more variable.

In the long run with solar becoming more dominate, the grid will need some better storage options (huge battery banks?) so they can stop building gas units.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

red

This was an event to introduce a " concept vehicle " . Also to be first at it and it did drive onto the stage .  Volvo car manufacturer said it will only produce electric cars in 2019 , you can bet Volvo trucks will not be far behind.  Lots of variables but it is very close to being put into production.  I think Elon Musk is like PT Barnum he has his hands in many new and futuristic projects. This truck was supposed to be introduced earlier in the year , but they helped Porto Rico with some solar setups .  A long time ago we had electric milk trucks . I believe the range is 500 miles and pickup another trailer to go another 500 .
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red

Imagine plugging your LT 70 electric into your Tesla . . .
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red

Charges from zero to 80% in 30 minutes
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Crusarius

eastview mall, in Victor NY. has a Tesla charging station in the parking lot. From a distance it looks like about 10 spots. I have seen it being used.

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