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

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That's all well and good but thus far (as far as I know) there is no industry standard for battery placement nor size. Such a machine would need either an industry standard so it can work regardless of vehicle manufacturer or be highly adaptable.

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No, there is no standard. But physics and logic dictate that the battery should be located as low as possible and be easily accessible, so the undercarriage should be the de facto standard location for the battery pack. At that point, all that's needed is a hole in the ground, tooling for the pack fasteners, and a lift/jack to raise and lower the packs.

Fastening tools are easily and cheaply adaptable, so the hardest part to standardize on will probably be how to orient and place the packs. Mechanical guides, software, or a combination? Fully automated or manual? These are obviously details that need to be ironed out, but the way toward standardization is someone just needs to push ahead.

Standardization won't happen before they start being made and used. That happens after they are in use, we see what works and what doesn't, what's cheap and what's expensive. That's just how things go, we follow the money.

I think in the case of battery swap tech, worst case will be shops/stations pick a loser, and they end up with a hole in the ground and they kind of have no choice but to retrofit the "winning" tech into the hole.

The biggest question I think is how do these small shops keep batteries on hand before the sizes and configurations are standardized? But even that logistics problem is easily solved, it's just distributed inventory control. Contracts, partnerships, etc. As long as you can get the right battery to the right place in less time than it takes that vehicle to charge its own battery, you've got a money-making opportunity.