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Tesla Semi Unveiled: 500+ mile range, Bugatti-beating aero, 2019 production
Tesla CEO Elon Musk unveiled the company’s highly anticipated semi-truck Thursday night on an airport hangar adjoining the company’s Design Center in Hawthorne, CA. It’s the California-based electric car maker’s first foray into the commercial trucking industry.
Before a packed crowd of thousands, Musk revealed industry-disrupting details of the Tesla Semi.
The Tesla Semi can accelerate from 0-60 in 5 seconds, without cargo, and 20 seconds with a full 80,000 lb. load, more than twice as quick as a traditional diesel truck. The Semi can also traverse a 5% gradient at 65mph, compared to 45mph for diesel trucks. This is all powered by the truck’s four independent electric motors says Musk. “You can lose two of the four motors, and the truck will still keep going. In fact, even if you have only two of the four motors active it will still beat a diesel truck.”
Tesla Semi-Reveal before the big curtain drop (Photo: Teslarati)
In addition, the Tesla Semi has a .36 drag coefficient, compared to the standard of .65-.70. Musk compared it to a Bugatti, noting that the semi-truck beats the supercar’s .38 drag coefficient. “Overall, the Semi is more responsive, covers more miles than a diesel truck in the same amount of time, and more safely integrates with passenger car traffic,” says Tesla in its official announcement. The company also highlighted the fact that the Semi benefits tremendously from the regenerative braking that can recapture 98% of braking energy into the battery.
The Tesla Semi’s development has been led by Jerome Guillen, VP of Trucks and Programs. He has led the development of the truck since January 2016, and prior to his current role was VP of Worldwide Sales and Service and was the Model S’s Program Director & VP of Vehicle Engineering. While it may seem odd that Guillen jumped from Sales and Service to leading the development of an all-electric semi-truck, it’s worth noting that before joining Tesla, he was Director of Business Innovation at Daimler and General Manager of Freightliner (Large manufacturer of class 8 diesel semi-trucks, owned by Daimler).
Musk also pointed out that it takes 15 minutes for traditional diesel-powered semi-trucks to fuel up, where as a Tesla Semi can charge 400 miles in 30 minutes, which is provided by “Megachargers“. The Megachargers run on solar power and Tesla has guaranteed electricity rates of $0.07 per kWh with Semi owners.
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- The Tesla Semi’s interior. (Credit: Tesla)
The interior of the Tesla Semi has one seat positioned in the center and provides drivers with unparalleled visibility. The seat is surrounded by two touchscreens that reminisce the ones found in the Model 3 sedan. Tesla’s semi-truck will also be equipped with Enhanced Autopilot which Musk notes will provide safety by automatically pulling over and stopping when truckers are in danger.
The Semi also has a small front truck, “because why not”, said Musk. The glass windshield on the Semi is thermonuclear resistant glass, which Musk says is a big deal because semi-trucks often have their windshields crack twice a year (which renders the truck undrivable). It can be assumed that this incredible glass could be related to Tesla’s nearly indestructible Solar Roof glass development.
Tesla claims that the semi will cost 20% less per mile compared to diesel trucks, costing $1.26/mile versus $1.51/mile . But that wasn’t all. Musk announced convoy technology that will further reduce the cost per mile driven for the Tesla Semi, even beating the cost of rail-based transportation.
“Tesla Semi can also travel in a convoy, where one or several Semi trucks will be able to autonomously follow a lead Semi.”
While Tesla didn’t unveil the price of the Semi, Musk noted that the semi-truck is expected to save operators $200k on fuel alone over 1 million miles. This resonated with fleet owners as Jerome Guillen pointed to some important guests at the event, stating that they had “placed a lot of reservations”. First production of the Tesla Semi is expected sometime in 2019.
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
