Stranded Tesla Semi Spotted Just Weeks Ahead of First Deliveries
The Tesla Semi is just weeks away from delivery after years of delays and promises by CEO Elon Musk. Could some problems be looming?
Better late than never, right? That's the attitude with the Tesla Semi, which is finally getting its first official deliveries in December. For those keeping track, that's one year later than expected by PepsiCo, three years later than originally promised, and five years after originally being revealed to the public.
However, ahead of the deliveries, it would appear that Tesla may have run into a small snafu on public roads when another truck driver spotted a stranded Semi on an on-ramp in Fremont, California last week.
A YouTuber by the name of Serge The Car Hauler had his camera rolling when he supposedly spotted a broken-down Tesla Semi blocking the on-ramp to Interstate 680 in Fremont California—just two miles away from Tesla's assembly plant. The Semi was spotted along with a Tesla service van behind it, a big rig tow truck facing the wrong way, and an International semi parked at an odd angle with a trailer.
It wasn't immediately clear if the Semi was actually broken down, or if there was something else afoot that required it to be towed. Serge wasn't exactly sure of the exact nature of the problem himself, however, he was quick to assume that it was broken down.
Jack James Towing, which owns the recovery vehicle that was on site, confirmed to The Drive that it did tow a Tesla Semi from this location last Tuesday, but it did not have any details of what may have been malfunctioning when the tow occurred. The towing company says that it dropped the truck off at a warehouse in Fremont roughly one mile away from the assembly plant. The warehouse address provided by the towing company appears to be vacant at the time of writing.
The video, which shows the truck just after the one-minute mark, can be seen below:
Now, it's not uncommon for new vehicles to have issues. The Tesla Semi—which has been more than five years in the making—will have bugs and kinks that need to be worked out before its release just like many other new vehicles. However, it being a commercial vehicle with delivery dates looming in the coming weeks, it's important that Tesla discover and remedy any problems as quickly as possible to avoid costly downtime for customers like PepsiCo that are expecting CEO Elon Musk's promises of efficiency and cost savings to be true.
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