Today’s Pickup: Tesla involves carriers in electric truck design

Good day.

Every time Tesla founder Elon Musk speaks, something newsworthy results. On Tuesday, during the company’s shareholder meeting, Musk updated investors on a number of initiatives and also pushed back against critics of the Tesla Semi electric truck.

“A lot of people don’t think you can do a heavy duty long-range truck that is electric. But, we are confident that this can be done,” Musk said.

To be unveiled in September, Musk said that several large trucking companies have been involved in the development of the truck. “We’ve shown it to a number of organizations that buy heavy duty trucks and they all love it,” he said. “They just want to know how many can they buy and how soon.”

Did you know?

Despite all the proclamations of autonomous trucks replacing drivers, the Bureau of Labor Statistics predicts 5% growth in the number of truck driver jobs by 2024.

Quotable:

“It’s not a mystery, they already know it is going to meet their needs because they …told us what those needs are.”

– Elon Musk, Tesla founder, on fleet expectations for the Tesla Semi

In other news:

Georgia Supreme Court rules taxes on fuel are not restricted to road use

The Georgia Supreme Court has ruled that local retail and use taxes on fuel does equate to “motor fuel taxes” per the state’s constitution, and therefore the money does not have to be spent on infrastructure. (Landline Magazine)

Tech tsunami hitting supply chain

Supply chain professionals are saying that the amount of technology infiltrating the supply chain is like no other time in history. (Transport Topics)