this post was submitted on 04 Apr 2026
326 points (98.8% liked)
Technology
83452 readers
2814 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I thought Tesla was going to start building robots, instead of cars.
/somewhat sarcastically
This is my stupid fucking friend who can’t get off Elons nuts at all. It’s fucking sad. He literally bought a model Y the other day despite me telling him Rivian is about to release a competitor because he thinks he can add it to the robo taxi fleet in a year or two. God I love him and am sick of this shit.
To be fair, we will have full self driving by the end of the year, according to Elon every single year for the last decade.
Facts.
I have one of those ~~friends~~ acquittances. Glow in his eyes when he talks about Elons great deeds. He also just bought a Y-model, because Elon was treated unfairly, even though he's in large debt due to a grand business opportunity that went south.
This anecdote provides insight to Tesla's remaining sales strategy. Like the stock itself, all there appears to be is hype and promise.
To be fair, I’m waiting on the R2 as well, but I’m strapping in for first generation fit and finish issues galore. Rivian hasn’t surpassed Tesla in software or aftermarket flexibility.
Surpass Tesla in software?
Most of us want less software not more
That's why everyone is so hyped about Slate. Less of this garbage is a paid feature these days.
What? No fart button on the tablet?
The slate software is in no way going to be the industry standard. Car manufacturers are all looking to create parasitic software for their cars.
Slate is DOA based solely on how terrible the range will be.
Slate is a good niche, its range is fine for the purpose its supposed to fill
Imagine a fleet of them for a lawncare business paired with a 30-42" standup electric mower rig
Cost of operations would be dittly squat, could be further buffered with solar and replacememt parts dirt cheap. Roi would be extremely quick and then it'd be pure profits
People are already doing that with used Teslas pulling trailers (yeah its funny to see, but the people doing it have shown their numbers and its pretty nuts)
Whats not fine about the Slate is no awd version. On an EV it's a minimal endeavor to make that work so there's really no excuse
Having experienced awd I will never personally own another vehicle without it if I have a choice. Especially a truck. My driving conditions are way too harsh to not have it
The long range model’s EPA range is 240mi, so 120mi while towing, more like 100mi considering that you absolutely cannot run an EV 100 to 0, and that’s best case scenario. That maximum 100mi is not enough for a day of landscaping.
Not talking about towing
Talking about a bedspace only, 1-2 man crew setup
A Bobcat ZS4000 Stand-On Mower 48″ is a 64" long mower for example, so it should juuuust fit in there, but to be safe I mentioned smaller, though personally if I were to do something like this I'd want a greenworks electric, costs half as much as the truck
For sure, you'd see a range drop, but it shouldn't be anywhere near as severe as pulling a trailer
A small standon, a ramp to get it on and off the truck, a rack with a trimmer, edger, hedger, blower, pruner, mini chainsaw, maybe a delta powerbank or gas generator to recharge the tools as you drive about or they're in standby
I'd expect a drop in range about 25-30% with that but not as severe as a pull behind trailer
~130-150 miles of range is doable if you plan the route and cluster clients, which any Semi-competent business owner who could afford a fleet of these would be capable of doing or paying someone to manage the routes
Every other EV has a 50% range penalty while towing. This won’t be any different. The ~85 kilowatt hour battery in the state truck is the same-ish capacity as the model Y, but has 2/3 less range total than the model Y. Sadly, there’s no way that it’s more efficient than the model Y.
That said, for sure using the bed would be more efficient, but now you’re talking about using gas tools because there’s not enough capacity in the truck to charge them up between jobs. They needed to make this thing the “model 3/Y, but a truck”, but they failed even at that.