Surging quietly from a Chattanooga Choo Choo parking lot, the new Tesla semitruck doesn’t belch clouds of black diesel smoke into the air like a traditional big rig.
The Tesla company offered ride-alongs in the Tesla Semi during the F3: FreightWaves Future of Freight Festival at The Signal on Tuesday, and freight industry attendees lined up all day for a trip around the Choo Choo property.
FreightWaves is owned by Craig Fuller, who also owns the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
Jason Gies, Tesla’s East Coast business development manager, was in the centrally positioned driver seat for demo rides to highlight the truck’s quiet power, maneuverability and regenerative braking system, alongside its technology. The truck featured in Chattanooga doesn’t drive itself, though the technology exists.
The truck wove through the full parking lot without difficulty, slowing enough with its regenerative braking the driver never had to touch the brakes except to come to a complete stop.
All of the Tesla Semis are in production at the plant near Reno, Nevada, Gies said as he described the driver’s seat perspective.
“We have two ways for the driver to access the truck: No. 1, a key card, like hotel key, touch the door, door unlocks and then put the key there and it’ll start up,” Gies said. “The other way, his phone is a key just like our passenger keys, and that’s what we prefer.”
When the driver approaches the truck to start hauling freight for the day, it starts getting ready.
“The truck will wake up, it’ll start preconditioning the cabin, preconditioning the batteries, doing everything it has to do to operate throughout the day,” Gies said. “The driver can open the hood, do the light test, do his pre-trip on the outside of the vehicle without even getting in the vehicle using the phone app. “
Once completed, the driver can get into an already warm or cool truck with the seat and mirrors already in the correct position, he said.
A neat trick for fleet owners is the saved seat and mirror positions are linked to the driver’s phone, so if the driver takes another Tesla Semi in the fleet, it recognizes him and adjusts everything accordingly.
“Everything down to your favorite radio stations to your Spotify, all go along with the truck,” Gies said. “So the driver has the same experience from truck to truck to truck, day to day to day.”
Eyeing the gleaming white truck from a distance, Megan Sadowski with Chattanooga-base LST Group was a little dubious as she looked the truck over before her ride. She said the industry needs drivers, but she wondered if drivers would like the Tesla big rig.
The freight industry is struggling to find drivers, Sadowski said, and she wanted to see if Tesla’s truck could woo a younger generation of domestic drivers.
“I think it has to appeal to the driver. not just the maintenance cost appealing to the trucking company owner.” Sadowski said. “We’re losing drivers to more appealing jobs with much more home time, we’re losing drivers to rising cost of entry or rising insurance and fuel costs.”
Drivers have to want to drive freight, she said. When she returned from her ride, her first remark was about the quiet operation, the second was Gies’ demonstration on the Semi’s capabilities.
“It’s almost video-game-esque,” she said. “I love all the camera angles, love that you have all the driver profiles in it, which makes it nice.
“I think the most appealing thing he said was that a driver, because it starts with your phone, can do their entire pre-trip inspection without ever having to get in the truck and start it up,” Sadowski said.
As they disembarked from the electric big rig, other riders commented on the smooth, quiet ride, and some noted its power when the Semi accelerated. Tesla officials said the company’s Semi can go from 0-60 mph in about 23 seconds with an 80,000-pound load, and it has a 350-500 mile range before it needs to be recharged, depending on the two models available.
Jay Singh, CEO of Chattanooga-based Sevos, an industry workforce solutions company, was ready to be impressed and was.
“I’m a techy,” Singh said as he waited to get aboard. “I’m not opposed to change.”
When he returned, Singh’s review was glowing.
“That thing is amazing,” he said. “Not loud, I think it’s really good for drivers that are going to be driving it. They’re not going to be tortured with that loud noise of that engine and the transmission all day clanking and stuff. Smooth transitions, braking, everything, I think it’s revolutionary.”
Contact Southeast Tennessee reporter Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6569.
