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Tesla Semi’s strong demand could expedite the release of the pickup truck
The all-electric Semi truck could very well be the most disruptive vehicle in Tesla’s lineup. Since its unveiling, the Tesla Semi has garnered reservations from some of the United States’ most prominent businesses like FedEx and PepsiCo. During the Q1 2018 earnings call back in May, Elon Musk and CTO JB Straubel noted that the company had received around 2,000 pre-orders for the vehicle.
Some of the trucking market’s veterans remain skeptical of the Semi. A spokesman for Cummins Inc., one of America’s premier engine-makers, recently stated that they do not see all-electric trucks like the Semi being viable alternatives to diesel-powered long-haulers anytime soon. Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Diesel Technology Forum trade group, also expressed doubt on Elon Musk’s claims that the Semi would be cheaper to run and operate than its diesel-powered counterparts.
Regardless of these doubts, Tesla is pushing on with the development of the electric truck, with Elon Musk stating during the Q2 2018 earnings call that the company has made significant improvements to the Semi since it was unveiled last November. The Semi’s customers also appear to be completely on board with their adoption of the all-electric trucks. Earlier this year, it was even announced that some of the Semi’s biggest customers such as PepsiCo and Anheuser-Busch are working with Tesla to develop and install a network of in-house charging stations for the upcoming vehicle. These stations would be spaced close enough to ensure that the trucks would be able to traverse their routes without any range issues.
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- The Tesla Semi spotted in Chicago. [Credit: Rec1pr0city/Twitter]
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- The Tesla Semi spotted in Chicago. [Credit: Rec1pr0city/Twitter]
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- The Tesla Semi spotted in Chicago. [Credit: Rec1pr0city/Twitter]
The Tesla Semi sighted at Chicago’s Rolling Meadows Supercharger. [Credit: Rec1pr0city/Twitter]
Just recently, the Semi visited yet another customer. This time, the all-electric truck traveled to trucking giant J.B. Hunt’s headquarters in Arkansas, where it was showcased to the company’s employees. Just like the truck’s visit to PepsiCo’s Texas facility earlier this year, employees of the trucking company were able to get up close and personal with the vehicle. Social media posts from individuals in attendance during the Semi’s visit show that J.B. Hunt’s employees, contrary to being skeptical of the vehicle, appear to be excited about the electric truck. Tesla critics would find it difficult to dismiss J.B. Hunt’s authority in the trucking industry as well, considering that the company has been in the transport industry for more than 50 years, and that its current fleet is comprised of over 12,000 trucks and 100,000 trailers and containers.
This strong, positive reaction from America’s premier hauling companies bodes well for the Semi. It remains to be known how many reservations Tesla currently has for the vehicle, but there’s a very good chance the pre-order list is significantly longer than 2,000 units today. That said, the anticipation surrounding the Semi might result in the release of one of Tesla’s most highly-anticipated vehicles to be expedited.
Elon Musk was present on Twitter during the weekend, and while interacting with his followers, Musk noted that the electric car company may be able to release the Tesla pickup truck earlier than expected. Initial expectations point to the Tesla Truck being released sometime after the Model Y is unveiled. Considering that the Model Y is expected to be unveiled sometime in 2019, there is a fair chance that the Tesla Truck’s official unveiling would be scheduled for 2020 at the earliest.
Maybe …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) August 25, 2018
Elon Musk did note last year that he is thinking of making the Tesla Truck a smaller version of the Semi. This means that Tesla would likely be carrying over some of the Semi’s elements to the pickup truck. Since the Semi already shares components with the Model 3, such as its powertrain, doors, and air vent design, it seems safe to assume that Tesla is planning on using the Model 3 as a template for the pickup truck as well. This is a strategic move for Tesla, since by the time it starts producing the Semi and the Tesla Truck, everything connected to the Model 3 and its components would likely have been smoothed out by the company.
Thanks to the lessons the company learned from the Model 3, the Semi (as well as the Model Y, which is also expected to be based on the Model 3) might very well see a less troublesome rollout. If Tesla manages to pull this off, it could provide an opportunity for Tesla to bring the pickup truck to market sooner. If that happens, Elon Musk’s tweet about an earlier release for the Tesla Truck could very well prove accurate.
Tesla released the Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite to owners of Hardware 3 or AI3 vehicles today, adding several new features to the vehicles that were once believed to be capable of unsupervised self-driving.
Now, Tesla has released this modified suite to older Tesla vehicles, adding plenty of new features and capabilities.
Here are the full release notes for the suite:
- Distilled the intelligence from HW4 V14 into HW3. This allows HW3 to directly learn how to handle scenarios using HW4 V14 as a guide. This process unlocks the improvements that have been made to HW4 including Reinforcement Learning (RL) and offline models for HW3.
- Improved both proactive and reactive responsiveness across a wide variety of categories including navigation handling, merges and forks, pedestrian interactions, traffic lights, and vehicle cut-in scenarios.
- Improved general comfort in nominal scenarios through fewer false slowdowns, smoother steering and more consistent lane centering.
- Introduced parking, unparking, and reversing capabilities.
- Added Arrival Options for you to select where FSD should park: in a Parking Lot, on the Street, in a Driveway, or at the Curbside.
- Speed Profiles are now available at all times, to further customize driving style preference.
These improvements, according to Tesla’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, help distill the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of AI3.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
He added:
“It includes destination options and speed profiles on city roads, but more importantly significantly improved safety. We hope you’ll enjoy it, once the build ships wide.”
FSD v14 Lite is now rolling out to AI3 early-access customers. Based on the feedback, will rollout to more customers over the next few weeks.
This build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute config of AI3. It includes destination…
— Ashok Elluswamy (@aelluswamy) June 29, 2026
Tesla will continue to roll out the v14 Lite suite more widely in the coming weeks, the company said.
Tesla has finally released its Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ suite for older cars that equip the Hardware 3 or AI 3 chip, which have not been able to handle the newest versions of the company’s driver assistance software.
Tesla officially started releasing the v14 Lite suite to owners in the Early Access Program last night. The company’s Head of AI, Ashok Elluswamy, said that the rollout will continue over the next few weeks. The build distills the driving behavior from AI4’s v14 series into both the camera and compute configurations of an AI3 car.
🚨 Tesla is releasing v14 Lite for AI3 owners who are in early-access
This will give AI3 cars the ability to experience new FSD features like parking preferences. https://t.co/pp6Q5FOKoz pic.twitter.com/tqexMB8SVy
— TESLARATI (@Teslarati) June 29, 2026
It also includes a variety of new features that were available to AI4 cars running v14, including:
- Start Self-Driving from Park
- Arrival and Parking Options
- Speed Profiles
The release is highly anticipated because those owners with AI3 vehicles were early adopters into the FSD platform and were promised that their cars would be capable of achieving Full Self-Driving.
However, Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted during the company’s recent Q1 Earnings Call that these vehicles would not be capable of achieving unsupervised Full Self-Driving, which is what Tesla had originally said.
Owners were not pleased with this answer, or the idea that their commitment to buying the suite outright for thousands of dollars would not yield the ability to drive without operating the car. Tesla gave some solutions for this, including a discount on a new car, or an upgrade to an AI4 or AI5 self-driving computer and new, upgraded cameras.
Tesla owners do not seem pleased with these options, as they require giving the company more money.
Nevertheless, it is important to note that Tesla came through for owners here by releasing v14 Lite before the end of Q2, something it had promised owners during the previous Earnings Call. Tesla has had trouble keeping up with timelines, but this is a big achievement for the team.
Tesla released what analysts believe the company will report in terms of deliveries and energy deployments for Q2, but the figures seem to confirm a long-standing theory on the company’s vehicle division.
For years, Tesla was just looked at as a car company. Now that it has established itself as a powerhouse in energy, AI, and tech as a whole, the company is now less hellbent on achieving quarterly growth, on a sequential basis, at least from a major standpoint.
Tesla topped out its annual deliveries in 2023 at 1.81 million, and in the two years since, the company has reported a decrease in deliveries for the entire 12-month term both times.
With Tesla delivering 358,023 cars in Q1, a 6.3 percent increase over Q1 2025, but falling short of Wall Street expectations at 365,000-370,000 units, the narrative around vehicle deliveries and their importance continued to change earlier this year. Some might say it is convenient, but others might say it is the typical evolution of a company that continues to change over time.
For Q2, Tesla’s delivery consensus estimates sit at 406,024 units, analysts believe. They were surveyed from Daiwa, DB, Wedbush, Cowen, Canaccord, Baird, Wolfe, BMP Paribas, Goldman Sachs, RBC, Evercore ISI, Barclays, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, Truist, UBS, Jefferies, JPM, Needham & Co., HSBC, and William Blair.
Credit: Tesla
Tesla is also expected to report deployments of 13.8 GWh this quarter.
The change to Tesla’s overall narrative now leans less on vehicle deliveries and more on its other projects. Most notably, Tesla’s Robotaxi project has taken the priority over most of its other business ventures, and investors and the public are more concerned about the deployment of vehicles into the fleet, the operation of a driverless ride-hailing service, Cybercab production and operation, and expansion into new cities.
Tesla analyst realizes one big thing about the stock: deliveries are losing importance
This big narrative switch happened when Tesla indicated it was looking at making transportation a service by launching a ride-hailing service that will operate using Tesla’s Full Self-Driving suite. Once unsupervised operation begins, Robotaxi could be a new way for people to get around, all without a driver in their car.
Instead, they will rely on the billions of miles Tesla has accumulated from its real-world fleet.
It is important to note that Tesla remains significant in the automotive sector, and deliveries must continue as they have for years. Tesla still has a strong automotive business and needs to execute further on all facets to keep its investors happy.
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ Release Notes: new capabilities and features
Tesla Full Self-Driving v14 ‘Lite’ for older cars finally gets released
