Dive Brief:
- Tesla has tentatively set to unveil its electric semi-truck on Oct. 26 in Hawthorne, a suburb of Los Angeles, according to a Sept. 13 tweet from CEO Elon Musk, reported by Transport Topics.
- Reuters originally broke the news a month ago by obtaining emails exchanged between the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) and Tesla, which revealed that the company is planning to test the truck prototype in Nevada.
- While the truck revealed in October is likely to be a concept, not even a prototype, Tesla's innovative push into the commercial vehicle sector could be an indication of the company's attempt to increase profitability. While it is known thatTesla's new truck will be fully electric, it's still uncertain how much of the truck will be automated, if at all.
Dive Insight:
Tesla's announcement comes right after the tense Senate hearing on automated trucks last week, indicating that the market thinks automated trucks are here to stay and worth pursuing despite regulatory lag.
Lawmakers are suspicious about the safety of automated trucks and their potential to displace jobs, but that isn't stopping new innovation, especially from a company that's still struggling to align its supply chain to meet consumer demand. The carmarker is currently racing to produce its "more affordable" Model 3, skipping the prototype stage to cut supply chain costs and deliver more cost savings to the consumer. Tesla still hasn't proved it can pull off such a revolutionary feat, so it seems especially ambitious for the company to announce the unveiling of its next project so soon.
One thing is for sure: Tesla is confident in its status as the leading electric carmaker and is reinvesting its resources into new innovations. But because the company still isn't considered profitable — and still hasn't proved skipping the prototype phase in auto manufacturing is feasible, or that its supply chain will be able to withstand the company's accelerated growth — the future of Tesla's automated trucks is uncertain, especially in a regulatory world that may leave automated commercial vehicle regulation up to the states.
What Tesla's announcement also tells us is that automated vehicles are enticing to the trucking and auto industries, and it's likely the new tech will be integrated into the commercial arena before long, even as the trucking industry waits on a verdict from Congress regarding rules for automated trucks.