1. They'll be able to line the entire trailer with batteries. Elon's pretty good at physics and engineering: if he says this can be done better than existing gas-powered semis, you're not going to be able to prove him wrong with some back-of-the-envelope arithmetic, as if he hadn't considered this. Obviously he has and knows it will work. Tesla didn't get this far on vague conjecture.
2. Maybe so, but it will happen, and the delay won't really hinder Tesla. They're not dependent on it. It's not like they can't sell cars without it. It's just another tier of advancement to be reached in time.
3. Maybe you don't want anyone using your car (nor would I), but that's why it's optional. A lot of people will love this. Owning a car of that level of quality for a greatly reduced price thanks to earned revenue. I assume the app will let you monitor its location, and you can anticipate when you'll need it back again and call it back before that time arrives. Or....just take someone else's car if you're in such a rush :) Sharing is caring.
Most criticisms of Tesla are so...amateur. They try to point out obvious issues which Musk and team must have thought out on day 1.
People still treat this company as if it is some stoner's living room project, not a multi-billion dollar organization that built the best electric car on the planet while its sister company built a reusable rocket
> 1. They'll be able to line the entire trailer with batteries
But that's an enormous inversion of expense that falls on the trailer owners. The tractor-trailer model works so well because it concentrates complexity and cost in the tractor.
At present trailers are mechanically fairly simple and require only routine servicing with a basic toolkit. They draw power from their tractor. An owner can maintain a fleet of trailers to match their peak demand and are immediately available. Just charter a tractor and away they go.
Battery-equipped trailers will be much more complex, heavy and maintenance-intensive. More expensive but with a smaller payload and prolonged periods of unavailability whilst charging. The cost of haulage charters will have to reduce by magnitudes to make that an attractive preposition.
Semis sound like a better market for hot-swapping and renting your battery compared to consumers. The rollout is a bit more straightforward since the travel routes are more obvious (weigh stations or truck stops).
Some math on the weight issue - A big rig tractor unit is about 10 tons in weight. A tesla model S battery is about half a ton. The energy to move a truck is maybe 8x (given trucks get 5mpg, cars 40mpg approx), so that's a 4 ton battery for 200 mile range. Electric motors weigh much less than a large diesel engine so the weight would come out about the same. I think cost may be more of an issue.
2. Maybe so, but it will happen, and the delay won't really hinder Tesla. They're not dependent on it. It's not like they can't sell cars without it. It's just another tier of advancement to be reached in time.
3. Maybe you don't want anyone using your car (nor would I), but that's why it's optional. A lot of people will love this. Owning a car of that level of quality for a greatly reduced price thanks to earned revenue. I assume the app will let you monitor its location, and you can anticipate when you'll need it back again and call it back before that time arrives. Or....just take someone else's car if you're in such a rush :) Sharing is caring.