Yep, big rigs are just a couple of tires and brakes. No glass, shocks, computer systems, hitches, cabling for trailers, lights, body pieces, or anything else.
I get what you are saying, but do remember Elon made a huge point of saying they are going for massive reliability, and have a 1,000,000 mile warranty on this thing.
Do you think other semi-truck producers don't engineer for "massive reliability"? They do, and even then all kinds of parts break from time to time, as that is inevitable for physical machines in use. Unless Tesla packages their vehicles with a force-field generator and an "anti-wear-and-tear"-machine to prevent all malfunctions, I don't see how they would make significant leaps in anything other than the drivetrain. Predictive maintenance, which is already a thing in modern trucks also eases the problem of wear and tear failures.
The "unbreakable" glass felt mainly like a marketing gimmick, and I'll believe it when I see it. Also, keep in mind that two years in the future, when the truck comes out, "unbreakable" glass might very realistically be a feature competitors have caught up on.
I understand and don't disagree with what you are saying, but it is worth remembering the Tesla has an order of magnitude (or two) less moving parts than any of those existing big rigs. There are simply much, much less parts to wear out.
> Also, keep in mind that two years in the future, when the truck comes out, "unbreakable" glass might very realistically be a feature competitors have caught up on.
We're not discussing what competitors are doing. We're discussing how much maintenance the Tesla will need, which has nothing to do with competitors products.
If you want to have a discussion about if the Tesla is competitive, that's a whole nother thing
Big rigs are some of the most reliable machines in the world, they regularly rack up millions of miles while in service. And they take a hell of a beating while doing it.
All the other manufacturers have been "going for massive reliability" for decades.
New tires and rarely new brakes and you're good to go.
I'm sure any "servicing yard" will be able to handle that.