re: Tesla Semi could be ‘the biggest catalyst in trucking in decades’

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Yep. People were skeptical at a plant I worked at when these were brought it. Took a LOT of effort and $$ but... when they got fully functional and online, the reality sunk in. I remember the manager saying "and these things don't stop to check their Iphone every 3 minutes."

24/7 and almost creepy watching these things in action, especially how they'll return to charging bay and swap batteries then get back to work.

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Yeah, you get basically non-stop productivity out of a robot, so let's call it 8,000 hours per year. Even if it's replacing a few minimum-wage workers, you're saving $65k/year in labor costs, absolute minimum. You don't have to worry about safety and the associated costs. Error rates are lower, along with those associated cost savings.

As the tech continues to advance and continues to get cheaper, more and more manual labor jobs will be replaced. It's inevitable, people, and trucking is a prime target for the next big robot takeover. It's juicy as frick.

So all you posters going "but this" and "but that"... you're not the first person to think of whatever little problem you think you see, and none of these problems are anywhere near show-stoppers.

It's going to happen, and the only real hurdles are political and legal. The economics and technology are there.