The Run on Less Event has proven that those who doubted the Tesla Semi truck doubters were wrong.
They said that the Tesla Semi could not carry 44,000 lbs of payload. This is despite eleven 4000 lbs ten foot cement jersey barriers being carried on the demo run. The Tesla Semi was show on video near the maximum allowable highway weight of 82,000 lbs. This is 26000 lbs for the tractor, 12000 lbs for the trailer and 44,000 lbs for the concrete barriers.
Above is a picture of the Pepsi Tesla Semi from the Run on Less Event. The picture of the Pepsi bottles being moved is not from the Run on Less event. The evidence of bottles being moved is from the statement of Mike Roeth of NACFE.
The claims were that Tesla could not drive the 500 miles of distance shown in the video.
Tesla has made the claims of moving full loads and provided video evidence.
Pepsi trucks drivers had given video interviews saying they are moving full loads.
NCAFE has said that they have verified that Pepsi and the Tesla Semi are moving full loads with beverages.
Pepsi bought 100 Tesla Semi trucks and 21 have been delivered and are being used. The Tesla Semi haters were hoping that Pepsi was only using the Tesla Semi trucks to deliver Frito-Lay chips.
North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE)’s Mike Roeth made a statement:
“We’re tracking the beverage. It’s impressive, a fairly heavy haul at nearly 80,000 pounds. It goes to one location and drops off soda, but maybe picks up some waters, goes to another location to drop off waters but pick up Gatorade. We don’t really know the payload, [but] NACFE has verified that these are fairly fully loaded when they leave and stay fairly loaded. They’re not out there gaming Run on Less.” So these things are running heavy (no chips and rarely empty), all efficiency numbers should be understood in that light. Given that heavy load, the efficiency numbers that can be inferred from the data should be understood to be on the low end of the spectrum – same for the range on a single charge.
The charts of the runs show the charging and energy usage. It shows the exact times when charging was done.
Brian Wang is a Futurist Thought Leader and a popular Science blogger with 1 million readers per month. His blog Nextbigfuture.com is ranked #1 Science News Blog. It covers many disruptive technology and trends including Space, Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Medicine, Anti-aging Biotechnology, and Nanotechnology.
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Range could be increased even more when they will be using autopilot. Tailgating is dangerous, but if the fleet of trucks is synchronized savings from using less energy because drag is reduced can be good.