A Tesla Semi electric truck was spotted seemingly broken down on an on-ramp near a highway in Northern California.
After years of delays, Tesla has finally started production of the Tesla Semi last week.
The first deliveries are expected to start on December 1, and the electric truck is going to be in the hands of customers outside of Tesla for the first time.
Since Tesla unveiled the electric truck in 2017, only about half a dozen Tesla Semi prototypes were spotted in the wild. The vehicles were spotted all around the US as Tesla tested them.
Now with the start of production, more Tesla Semi vehicles are expected to be spotted and accumulate even more mileage.
For the first time, one of those Tesla Semi trucks appears to have broken down on the road. A truck driver posted this video last week of a Tesla Semi stuck on an on-ramp on the highway:
Based on the signs on the road, it looks like this is in Fremont, California – near Tesla’s factory.
The Tesla Semi appears to be broken down with a lot of people at the scene including the police, a tow truck, and even a Tesla Service vehicle.
We recently reported that Tesla has been building a “Tesla Semi Service” team, which includes mobile service technicians – presumably for situations exactly like this one.
Electrek’s Take
That truck driver seemed really excited about the Tesla Semi breaking down.
I understand being skeptical about electric trucks, but I don’t understand rooting for them to fail. Also, this is not exactly a failure either. It is to be expected that early in the program there would be a few issues to iron out.
Obviously, we don’t know exactly what is happening in this scene here, but we know that early Tesla Semi customers are going to have to deal with some issues first before they can fully benefit from their electric trucks.
It’s generally like that for first adopters of any new vehicle program. It’s why Rivian owners right now have another recall to deal with, and early new Tesla vehicles are more often in service.
It’s not ideal, especially for a commercial vehicle that is losing money when it’s not on the road, but those first growing pains are worth it if they lead to a truck that can deliver $40,000+ per year in fuel savings.
Subscribe to Electrek on YouTube for exclusive videos and subscribe to the podcast.
Author: Fred Lambert
Source: Electrek
