Fleet Management News & Business Info | Commercial Carrier Journal
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/923471
commercial carrier journal | january 2018 17 JASON CANNON is Equipment Editor of Commercial Carrier Journal. E-mail jcannon@randallreilly.com or call (205) 248-1175. radio to the navigation, the giant iPhone-like screen houses all the mis- sion-critical stuff for the car, including programming and customizing its air suspension. Tesla's Semi features two of these screens, one on each side of the steering wheel. e all-wheel-drive car is powered by dual electric motors and equipped with a 100kWh battery pack, enabling a driving range just north of 300 miles on a single charge. e Model S is rich with cameras to support its AutoPilot feature but uses only about half of them. e rest are included as architecture for fully autonomous driving. Whenever that becomes a "thing," Tesla can flash updates to the car, activating the rest of the technologies that were included at build but lie mostly dormant. It's important to note that Tesla's AutoPilot is a driver support feature and isn't designed for a driver to mentally "check out." e driver still has total control of the car and can deactivate auto-steer by turning the wheel or tapping the brake. You can pump about 100 miles of range into the Model S in less than 30 minutes from one of Tesla's Supercharger stations. Tesla says there are 1,043 Supercharger Stations equipped with 7,496 Supercharges across North America. A full hour is about the equivalent of a fill-up. None of this technology is conceptual or experimental. e Model S is a production vehicle, and its technologies are absolutely viable in truck- ing applications; the on-demand torque, the electrification, the automa- tion, the customization. It works, it's seamless, it's comfortable, and it's awesome. ere are many important players in this space for trucking, and Tesla is simply the newest entrant. e work they are doing, combined with the work of Daimler, Navistar, Cummins and many others, will play a role in getting the trucking industry where I think it is slowly heading. WANT MORE EQUIPMENT NEWS? Scan the barcode to sign up for the CCJ Equipment Weekly e-mail newsletter or go to www.goo.gl/Ph9JK. Tesla Semi starts at $150K, reservations $20K T esla in late November released a price guide for its Class 8 electric-powered Semi regional hauler. A 300-mile variant of the Semi will cost $150,000; the 500-mile model, $180,000; and a Founders Series, $200,000. A reservation cost for the truck also increased fourfold, jumping from $5,000 to $20,000 in less than 10 days. ose want- ing to reserve the Founders Series model will have to shell out $200,000 upfront. Tesla was not sharing pre-order numbers publicly, but reports indicated that as many as 1,200 Semi reservations had been placed, which would mean the company had raised between $600,000 and $2.4 million to aid in the vehicle's development and production. Walmart, J.B. Hunt, Schneider, PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch all placed early reserva- tions for the Semi. Production is set for 2019. – Jason Cannon Embark testing semi-autonomous trucks I n a partnership with Ryder and Frigidaire, auton- omous retrofitter Embark conducted tests of its semi-au- tonomous system in four states in late Octo- ber. Ryder tractors equipped with Embark's Level 2 system operated in an autonomous mode in on-highway segments during trips of about 650 miles. Drivers operated the rigs on surface streets. Embark said several loads were hauled, during which one truck traveled as many as 306 consecutive miles in automated mode, with the driver only taking over control for a mandatory stop at a state border. e tests were conducted in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. – CCJ Staff Embark said it hopes to continue its part- nership with Frigidaire and Ryder to test its automated system.