At the unveiling of the production version of the Tesla Semi, the automaker announced a lot about the electric truck, but said nothing about the fact that it will be equipped with Autopilot/Full Self-Driving technology.
And this despite the fact that it is equipped with the necessary hardware.
When Tesla first announced the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker was still in the early stages of its Autopilot and full self-driving efforts, but the automaker had already announced that all future production vehicles will eventually be self-driving with future software updates.
The automaker didn’t go so far as to talk about autonomous driving when it comes to the Tesla Semi, but the company announced at the time that it would come with Enhanced Autopilot.
This was the slide from the original electric truck unveiling presentation:
Along with the safety features that Autopilot can activate, Tesla had also announced that the Tesla Semi would be able to achieve a kind of convoy mode, where you can have multiple semi-trucks approach each other closely and autonomously on the freeway follow.
Here is the short video demo of the feature released back then:
5 years later and now that the production version of the Tesla Semi has been unveiled, Tesla has removed from its website any mention of equipping the electric truck with autopilot or that convoy mode.
Tesla also didn’t mention anything related to advanced driver assistance features during its presentation about the production version of the Tesla Semi.
While Tesla didn’t mention anything about it, it looks like the hardware is there to make it possible. Minimal Duck posted a video on Youtube showing a close look at the Tesla semi-trucks at the event, and they were outfitted with a variety of cameras.
First of all, there are 3 cameras on each side mirror:
One of them is used to feed the side views into the vehicle, and we expect Tesla’s goal is to eventually be able to remove the mirror portion of the side mirror to use only the camera feed and improve aerodynamic performance.
Here’s the side camera feeds in the Tesla Semi-Cockpit:
As for the other two cameras on the side mirrors, they look like they’re the equivalent of the fender and B-pillar cameras in the Autopilot sensor suite found in Tesla’s passenger cars.
Tesla also appears to have incorporated the same 3-camera array found on top of passenger car windshields in the Tesla Semi:
So it looks like Tesla has replicated its array of Autopilot/FSD cameras in its passenger cars in the new electric truck.
Tesla also appears to have installed a camera in the Tesla Semi’s front bumper:
In summary, it looks like Tesla has integrated its Autopilot/FSD hardware suite into the Tesla Semi, but it’s not about enabling self-driving capability like it does in its passenger cars.
Electrek’s take
I may have an idea as to why Tesla doesn’t want to talk too much about Autopilot or autonomous driving when it comes to Tesla Semi, given that it will need truck drivers to get on board the vehicle right now and likely in the foreseeable future.
That might be harder to achieve if you’re talking about eventually replacing them with features already present in the electric truck.
It’s not really transparent, but it’s business.
Either way, I don’t think truck drivers have too much to worry about for a long time. Not only is Tesla’s Full Self-Driving clearly unwilling to have nobody behind the wheel, but truck drivers are doing more than just driving. They have responsibilities for where to receive their cargo and where to deliver, and in between they still need to be automated.
I think that in the years to come truck drivers will see some tasks related to their job being automated, including driving to some degree, but in my opinion they will probably be needed for more than a decade.
If anything, I see Tesla making semi truck driving an even more fun job.
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