Tesla reveals plan for ‘new kind of pickup,’ heavy duty truck

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Updated Jul 25, 2016
A hilariously awful mockup of the future Tesla pickup from Jalopnik.com.A hilariously awful mockup of the future Tesla pickup from Jalopnik.com.

Tesla’s highly anticipated and highly teased “Master Plan, Part Deux” was published Wednesday and confirms after much uncertainty that the automaker will be producing a pickup and a heavy-duty truck.

In his blog at tesla.com Elon Musk writes that the company will be making “a future compact SUV and a new kind of pickup truck.” Musk has hinted before about producing a pickup.

RELATED >> Tesla execs talking again about making a pickup truck

Heavy-duty transportation is also a goal of Musk’s.

“In addition to consumer vehicles, there are two other types of electric vehicle needed: heavy-duty trucks and high passenger-density urban transport,” Musk writes. “Both are in the early stages of development at Tesla and should be ready for unveiling next year. We believe the Tesla Semi will deliver a substantial reduction in the cost of cargo transport, while increasing safety and making it really fun to operate.”

Musk speaks to autonomy in the latter half of the blog. He states that the beta moniker attached to the Tesla Autopilot should not be interpreted in the normal sense.

“This is not beta software in any normal sense of the word. Every release goes through extensive internal validation before it reaches any customers,” Musk writes. “It is called beta in order to decrease complacency and indicate that it will continue to improve (Autopilot is always off by default).

“Once we get to the point where Autopilot is approximately 10 times safer than the US vehicle average, the beta label will be removed.”

While Musk points out that neither Ford nor Tesla has gone bankrupt, his praise is tempered by self-effacement that may bait a critic or two.

“Starting a car company is idiotic and an electric car company is idiocy squared,” Musk writes.