With a radical departure from family sedans, sports cars, solar panels and spaceships, Elon Musk doesn’t appear to have any time for sleep these days. Tesla’s newly unveiled semi-truck has a two year projected payback over its diesel competitors and $200,000 in fuel savings. This effort represents another remarkable tack in the re-direction of a changing industry. If anyone can bring it to market, it’s Elon Musk.
The concept features everything from a center located driver’s seat, lower overall number of parts count, (cheaper and less maintenance) and a proven Auto-Pilot, so this truck is uniquely positioned to go full autonomous when society is ready for a radical shift. With 4 motors powering the vehicle, Tesla projects a 0-60mph of 20 seconds while pulling 80k lbs. load.
What makes the Tesla approach (Musk) so intriguing is the technical questions being asked about why we design things as we do. The Musk method seems to ignore the history of how we got where we are, and go right to “If we design “xyz” today on a clean sheet of paper, how might we change the world?
