New Video Shows Drivers Running Tesla Semis "At Least Two Shifts" Near Giga Nevada

In these videos you see Tesla Semis coming and going, which seems like a good sign that the production of the Semis is well underway, although the volume is still small. Zanegler says "Drivers are running them at least two shifts, including Sunday. It's 5:00 pm and the second one is heading west on I80 towards California (The highway grade on I-80 over Donner Summit). He also shows some other Tesla Semi trucks, and even fully loaded vs empty ones.

In one of the video we see a Tesla Semi coming to a stop sign, and then making a sharp left turn with good acceleration.

Recently we learned in the news that Tesla had recalled the Semi trucks from PepsiCo noting the door open warning indicator only displays when the vehicle's parking brake is not engaged and the side door is not fully latched. Now, these Semi trucks in Zanegler's new video, don't seem to be part of those recalled trucks because those recalled trucks are painted with images from Pepsi and Frito-Lay. However, these trucks are in white color. So perhaps they are going to new customers or Pepsi, which, in recently interview to CNBC, said its going to increase the number of Tesla Semi trucks from 37 to 100.

In that interview Pepsi told CNBC that the Tesla Semi trucks, they have received, don't have autonomous features activated yet. "The autonomous functionality of Tesla is not specked for these vehicles. They have the hardware capability. We'll get to that down the road as an additional capability," said PepsiCo's VP Supply Chain Mike O'Connell to CNBC.

In the same interview, PesiCo also revealed that Pepsi Tesla Semi is delivering Frito-Lay products around 425 miles per charge. It also delivers Pepsi out of its Sacramento warehouse on 100 mile daily routes, going directly to stores, and 300 to 400 mile runs to other warehouses.

"The contents that the Frito-Lay Tesla Semi trailer can weigh about 45,000 pounds is really the accepted weight and potato chips are made of a lot of air," said one of the Frito-Lay executives to CNBC.

How, do you think Tesla Semis and electric semi trucks will change the trucking industry in the next 5 to 10 years and when will this change further accelerate? What if when full self-driving autonomy comes to the Semi trucking industry? What will happen to nearly 3.5 million truck drivers in the United States (and who knows how many million in the world)?

Armen Hareyan is the founder and the Editor in Chief of Torque News. He founded TorqueNews.com in 2010, which since then has been publishing expert news and analysis about the automotive industry. He can be reached at Torque News Twitter, Facebok, Linkedin and Youtube.

Reference: Zangegler/Twitter.