Tesla hasn’t said a word about a semi-autonomous/self-driving-equipped Tesla

When revealing the production version of the Tesla Semi, the automaker announced a lot of things about the electric truck, but didn’t say a word about it being equipped with Autopilot/Full Self-Driving technology.

This despite being equipped with the required hardware.

When Tesla first announced the Tesla Semi in 2017, the automaker was still early in its autopilot and full self-driving efforts, but the automaker has already announced that all production vehicles moving forward will eventually be capable of self-driving with updates. future programmes.

The automaker hasn’t gone so far as to talk about self-driving when it comes to the Tesla Semi, but the company announced at the time that it will be equipped with an improved Autopilot system.

That was the slide from the original electric truck reveal trailer:

Besides the safety features that autopilot can enable, Tesla also announced that the Tesla Semi will be able to achieve a kind of convoy mode where you can have multiple semi trucks independently follow each other closely on the highway.

Here’s a quick video of the feature released at the time:

5 years later, and now that the production version of the Tesla Semi has been unveiled, Tesla has removed all reference to the autopilot-equipped electric truck or this convoy mode from its website.

Tesla also didn’t mention anything about advanced driver assistance features during its presentation about the production version of the Tesla Semi.

While Tesla didn’t say anything about it, the hardware seems to be there to make it happen. Minimal Duck posted a video on Youtube that takes a closer look at the Tesla Semi trucks at the event and they are equipped with a wide array of cameras.

Firstly, there are 3 cameras on each side mirror:

One of them is used to feed the side views inside the car and we expect Tesla’s goal is to eventually be able to remove the mirror portion of the side mirror to use the camera feed and just improve aerodynamic performance.

Here you can see the side camera feed inside the Tesla Semi’s cockpit:

As for the other two cameras on the side mirrors, they appear to be equivalent to the fender and B-pillar cameras in the autopilot sensor suite found in Tesla’s passenger cars.

It also appears that Tesla has integrated the same three-camera array found at the top of the passenger car windshield in the Tesla Semi:

So, it looks like Tesla has recreated its suite of Autopilot/FSD cameras in passenger cars in the new electric truck.

It also appears that Tesla has added a camera in the Tesla Semi’s front bumper:

In conclusion, Tesla appears to have integrated the Autopilot/FSD hardware suite into the Tesla Semi, but it isn’t talking about enabling self-driving capability like it does in passenger cars.

Take Electric

I might have an idea of ​​why Tesla doesn’t want to talk much about autopilot or self-driving when it comes to the Tesla Semi since now, and most likely for the foreseeable future, it’ll need truck drivers to join it in the car.

This can be more difficult to achieve if you talk about eventually replacing them with features that are already inside the electric truck.

This isn’t really transparent, but it worked.

Either way, I think truck drivers don’t have much to worry about for long. It’s not clear that Tesla’s full self-driving isn’t ready just because there’s no one behind the wheel, but truck drivers are doing more than just driving. They have responsibilities for where they get their load and where they deliver and what in between didn’t run automatically.

I think for years to come truck drivers will see some tasks related to their jobs automated, including driving to some extent, but it will still be needed for probably over a decade in my views..

If anything, I see the Tesla Semi making truck driving a more fun job.