Science & Tech

Everything We Know About Tesla’s Roadster and Semi-Truck So Far

by Dan Casey
Nov 21 2017 • 8:00 AM

Despite his claims that he doesn’t want to be compared to Steve Jobs, Elon Musk did a helluva job channeling the late Apple co-founder when he surprised the crowd gathered at Tesla’s semi-truck unveiling event with the ultimate “one more thing”: a second vehicle! And no one could have predicted that this mystery vehicle would be a supercharged roadster that can go from zero to 60 in 1.9 seconds, making it the fastest production car on Earth. On today’s episode of Muskwatch, your intrepid hosts Kyle Hill and Dan Casey are diving deep on the biggest automotive industry announcements in ages.

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The Tesla Semi

Tesla’s designers must be big fans of DC Comics, because the Tesla Semi truck looks suspiciously like the Bat-Truck that Scott Snyder and Greg Capullo unveiled back in 2015’s Batman #42. The massive vehicles come in two colorways—matte black and space grey (or whatever non-Apple name they actually have for it)—and boast some seriously impressive stats.

  • Maximum payload of 80,000 pounds over 500 miles at highway speeds, which is double what rivals Cummins and Daimler’s truck prototypes offer
  • Zero-60 mph in five seconds flat
  • Solar-powered “Megachargers” that will give 400 miles of range in 30 minutes
  • “Thermonuclear explosion-proof glass,” which could come in handy for the impending apocalypse
  • A center-seat cockpit with dual screens that allow you to monitor every aspect of the
  • Tesla’s signature autopilot system, which will soon make this scene from The Simpsons a reality
  • The ability to chain together in a convoy that will only require one human driver

The Tesla Roadster

Set to the sweet strains of the Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” the Tesla Roadster’s unveiling is one for the history books. Audience members were already drooling when Tesla’s head of vehicle design rolled out in a cherry-red prototype Tesla Roadster, but they lost their damn minds once they heard about the second-generation vehicle’s specs.

  • 620-mile range, which according to Elon Musk would let you travel from LA to San Francisco and back in one charge
  • Zero-60 mph in 1.9 seconds, which is lovingly referred to as Extreme Plaid mode for you Spaceballs fans out there
  • A quarter-mile time of 8.9 seconds
  • Top speed of 250 mph
  • 7,400 lb-ft of torque, which is roughly seven times what the Bugatti Veyron Super Sport has.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogbo0Vg5huM

They also lost their mind when they learned that this pretty vehicle would set them back a pretty penny. Tesla’s new Roadster will start at $200,000 with a $50,000 deposit required upfront. The good news is that if you hate money, you can pre-order one today. Production isn’t set to commence until 2020, but given the ever-increasing delays in Tesla 3 production, you’d probably get that car around the same time, so why not save up for the Roadster instead?

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What do you think of this week’s top stories? What else would you like to see us discuss on Muskwatch? Let us know in the comments below!

Images: Tesla

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Dan Casey is the senior editor of Nerdist and the author of books about Star Wars and the Avengers. Follow him on Twitter (@DanCasey).