Tesla Semi’s cab design makes it a ‘completely stupid vehicle,’ trucker says

A Polish trucker recently took to Twitter to explain why he thinks the Tesla Semi missed the mark in terms of being a practical vehicle for drivers to use day in and day out.

A Twitter thread shared by truck driver Tomasz Oryński on December 8, 2022, has gone viral for its breakdown of how the Tesla Semi, which recently celebrated its commercial launch, makes life on the road tougher for the person behind the wheel.

“I am going to tell you all why it is a completely stupid vehicle. And I won’t even want to talk about it’s carrying capacity or anything. I will just look at the cab from the practical point of view of someone who drives trucks for a living. Because it’s an opposite of being “built around the driver,” Orynski stated.

Driver’s Seat in the Center Could Cause Problems, Trucker Says

Orynski goes on to explore how the location of the driver’s seat in the cab makes everyday tasks more difficult:

“Driver sits in the middle. This makes overtaking or looking ahead more difficult. But also makes it impossible to reach out of the window to pass the paperwork or to talk with the guy in the gatehouse when you enter a port or a factory or, say, a tollbooth,” Orynski said.

Trucker Calls Out Head-scratching Door Placement

Orynski also argues that the placement of the doors on the Tesla Semi isn’t well thought-out in terms of driver comfort.

“The doors are in the back. You enter, hang your coat, and then have to walk a few steps forward to sit behind the wheel. This means that you are wasting cab space for a corridor basically. You can’t place a bed there so the driver can rest, because there are doors there … And if you want to get out from the right side, you need to go over the passenger seat that interlocks with driver’s seat so you can’t just walk in front of it like in a standard cab. And sometimes you need to get out to the right – I did it today as had deep snow on my left,” the Twitter thread continued.

Design Could Cause Dirtier Cab

Orynski suggests that the Tesla Semi’s cab design will result in a dirtier truck: “The fact that you have to walk around the cab means it will be full of mud. The good thing about getting straight into the driver seat is that you can shake the snow or the mood when getting up there, and even if your boots are still dirty, only this little piece of floor in front of driver’s seat gets dirty. You can kick your boots off there and then walk around the rest of the cab barefoot, as it remains clean. Nope, not in Tesla. Unless you want to change your boots everytime you enter the cab which would be really stupid.“

Windshield Woes, Mirror Mishaps

Orynski’s gripes continue. He says that the Tesla Semi’s angled windshield could mean bigger blindspots. He also says that the sloped windshield will make it harder to clean off snow and could cause the cab to overheat (which will require more air conditioning, shortening the electric truck’s range).

He also argues that the fact that the cab gets narrower in front means that the side mirrors will need very long arms, making them hard or even impossible to clean from the driver’s seat.

“I can go on. Bottom line is that this vehicle is a rich boy’s toy, not a practical, working vehicle because its designers have no clue about the realities of transport,” Orynski concluded.

See the full thread below.