Ford has just revealed a new concept for a totally electric semi truck to take on Tesla.
Usually we hear about Ford concepts from their various design studios in England, Germany, or practically anywhere in the US. This is the first time we get to see a concept from Ford’s Turkey studio: Otosan Design Studio. And what they’ve cooked up for us is something truly amazing: a fully electric commercial truck.
Right off the bat, you’ll notice a certain similarity between the F-Vision Future Truck, as it’s being called, and Tesla’s electric semi. It shares the same futuristic look and ultra-aerodynamic qualities that an electric semi has to have in order to be taken seriously.
And while the F-Vision looks like it’s playing catch up with Tesla (and in many ways, it is playing catch up), the F-Vision will have a whole bunch of space-age technology that will definitely set it apart.
Starting with level 4 automation. Level 4 is just below level 5, where a driver is completely unnecessary and the truck can drive itself 100% of the time. Level 4 means that the truck can basically drive itself 100% of the time, but it still has some human-centered controls in case a person wants to climb aboard and get behind the wheel.
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How they manage to do that is a bit of a mystery, however. There don’t appear to be any door handles on the F-Vision, and while there seem to be some rectangular divisions on the bodywork that might be doors, we don’t know how they’re actuated. It might all be by key fob, or possibly telekinesis.
It has no side mirrors and instead replaces them with cameras that look backward. The windows that cover the front of the car aren’t actually painted: they’re electrochromic glass that can turn the same color as the truck itself. This way when nobody is behind the wheel, the truck can just turn the windows dark and you’ll know there’s only a robot at the helm.
We don’t have any performance stats since this is just a concept truck. Although, Ford might be a little gun-shy to put numbers to this thing given how Tesla’s Semi can do 0-60 in less than 5 seconds.