Don't you think if they just put larger mirrors on either side like 1 of the demonstration trucks (in reveal) had that that would be the same benefit. I mean if today in existing trucks you are sitting close to the left door and have a mirror on passenger (right) don't you have to look *all* the way across the cab to see that mirror in backing up? See my confusion?
A driver NEVER blindsides into a dock/parking spot unless there is absolutely no other possible option. Drivers back into docks using their "good side" - that's the side the driver is sitting in. Why? Because
beyond certain angles with the trailer, mirrors become useless - all you can see in them is the side of the trailer on the drivers side, or absolutely nothing useful whatsoever on the passenger side. At that point,
we actually look out the window to see the back fo the trailer and maneuver accordingly. Yeah, line of sight while reversing - the KISS method. Impossible on this Tesla setup.
Again, I'm sure in Teslas perfect world they envision cameras being the magic solution here, but it is not. Cameras get dirty, as per my earlier suggestion. They stop working, they get smashed/broken, or they just don't provide the angles the drivers need to actually accomplish backing into an extremely challenging (sometimes more than 90+ degree) dock.
The trucking industry is not as "behind the times" when it comes to technology as many who are not actually in the industry might think. The centre seating position is just dumb and provides basically no benefit to the driver, with MANY negatives.
Want another example? About 15 times every day I pass paperwork to someone in a security booth, or I have to use keycards to open gates, etc. Good luck doing that in one of these Teslas without fully parking (brakes applied and out of gear) and then walking in a hunched up position inside the cab over to the window, and then back again.
Again, unless you've done the job you wouldn't really grasp all the issues with this design. This is JUST the beginning. Lets not even mention the proprietary trailers required to actually get the range claims, etc etc.
