Jay Leno has posted a particular video on his Jay Leno’s Storage channel through which he will get to drive the Tesla Semi Class 8 electrical truck, one thing he had been eager to do for a very long time.

His want got here true due to Tesla Chief Designer Franz von Holzhausen and Tesla’s Senior Supervisor of Semi-Truck Engineering Dan Priestley, who each briefed Jay concerning the electrical truck earlier than letting him drive it.

As you’ll be able to think about, the 42-minute lengthy video is an efficient watch and an awesome supply to be taught attention-grabbing stuff concerning the Tesla Semi. For instance, von Holzhausen says the design staff took inspiration from high-speed trains for the Semi, extra particularly Japan’s Shinkansen, or “bullet prepare.” 

This partly explains why the Semi achieved an excellent drag coefficient for a Class 8 truck of round 0.4 – in comparison with roughly 0.8 for conventional diesel-powered vehicles. A few of you most likely know the Shinkansen half already, however that is the type of stuff you’ll be able to anticipate from the video.

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With Jay being the real automobile man everybody is aware of and loves, he shortly bought all the way down to the important query of how a lot horsepower the Semi produces. Priestley says the system horsepower is round 1,500 however famous that the Semi by no means places all that energy down to be able to save the tires and favor effectivity.

Driving off within the Semi with Dan Priestley within the seat behind him, Jay Leno was amazed by how related the truck is prefer to drive to a daily Tesla automobile, despite the fact that the sheer measurement of the factor made him really feel he was “driving the Empire State Constructing.”

Jay was additionally shocked by the Semi’s brisk acceleration, and Priestley says Tesla wished to develop a truck that may sustain with just about any kind of site visitors, which is precisely what the Semi is able to doing.

The video’s climax comes when Priestley tells Leno that he can tow one other Semi if he likes, a low-roof model of the truck that had been utilized in Nevada for warm climate testing and was now ready on a trailer by the aspect of the highway.

Utilizing steerage from the cameras and following Priestley’s directions, Jay was in a position to hook up the trailer fairly simply. After driving off, he was amazed by how straightforward it was to drive a 60,000-pound mixture automobile. Head over to the video to be taught extra concerning the Tesla Semi and what it’s really prefer to drive.