Inverse - ⚡️ DIY Tesla Semi

Wednesday

Sept 07 2022

Just as many of us are considering buying an electric car for a greener commute, truckers soon hope to sport the semis of the future.

Elon Musk thrilled the trucking community in 2017 when he announced the Tesla Semi, a fully electric ride with 500 miles of range. Fast forward to 2022, and the company has delayed their production deadline multiple times.

Chace Barber decided he was done waiting, and collaborated with other truckers on a DIY solution. Keep reading for a preview of Barber’s new vehicle, which will be unveiled September 9 — and may beat Tesla in the race for sustainable semis.

What's New

Anniversary

Science

45 years ago this week, Voyager 1 began its journey into history

NASA’s iconic Voyager 1 space probe blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Base on September 5, 1977, with a mission to study and explore the outer Solar System and points beyond. Today, it is the most distant spacecraft from Earth at a distance of about 14.6 billion miles away from Earth and continues to speed away at about 38,000 mph in the direction of the constellation Ophiuchus.

Voyager 1 was dreamed up as a part of NASA’s Grand Tour of the outer Solar System that would visit all of the outer planets including then-planet Pluto. Two ships kicked off the Grand Tour, when Pioneer 10 was sent to Jupiter and Pioneer 11 was sent to Jupiter and Saturn. The exorbitant costs of each of these unique spacecraft made NASA reconsider the Grand Tour and instead came up with Mariner Jupiter-Saturn, later renamed to Voyager.

William Kurth, a research scientist at the University of Iowa’s Department of Physics who was a co-investigator on the Voyager program, tells Inverse, “back then, launching two spacecraft (Voyager 1 and Voyager 2) was more of a risk mitigation because if one failed, you still had mission.”

Electric Vehicles

Innovation

Tesla's Semi took too long — so these truckers built their own version

To Chace Barber, the semi-truck of tomorrow doesn’t look like Tesla’s super-sleek rendition, a battery-powered streamlined spaceship on 18 wheels. Instead, he thinks the future should borrow from the past: Barber wants to trick out a long-nose 1962 Kenworth for the electric era.

He recently went viral with a TikTok showing off his creation. “It’s been five years … since we put our deposit down on that Tesla electric semi,” he says in the clip. “Now, a bunch of TikTok truckers built their own electric truck in about six months. What’s taking so long, Tesla?”

Musk announced the Tesla Semi in 2017 and promised it would be ready to ship by 2019, prompting companies to reserve models ahead of time. He has continued to push back that deadline, and it wasn’t until earlier this month that customers learned they will (allegedly) begin receiving their sought-after vehicles later this year. But Barber is done waiting.

Take a closer look

STREAMER SECRETS

Gaming

Myth reveals why so many streamers are ditching Twitch

Ali Kabbani is the most upbeat streamer around.

Known online as Myth to his 4.56 million YouTube subscribers, Kabbani rose to fame on Twitch as the popularity of Fortnite reached its peak in 2018, becoming the second-most followed streamer on the platform at the time. Carving out his niche in a sea of spikey-haired, shooter-playing trash-talkers, the 23-year-old has built a devoted audience by combining his gaming skills with undeniable charm.

With his recent move to YouTube and break with TSM, Kabbani is working to make his community one he is proud to represent. He’s gone on to excel at games like Valorant and Fall Guys, playing with massively popular content creators like Hasan Piker and Imane ‘Pokimane’ Anys. And he hasn’t let the changing whims of the algorithm get him down.

Kabbani spoke to Inverse about his optimistic approach, his evolution as a streamer, and what it has been like moving to YouTube.

Reel Science

Television

Netflix’s The Sandman portrays a very real sleeping illness — but does it get it right?

Humans inhabit the waking world, yet we spend a third of our lives sleeping, and, often, dreaming. We know there are definitely health risks associated with oversleeping. But what would happen if you simply went to bed one day and never woke up?

As it turns out, this farfetched premise might have a semblance of scientific truth — and it’s a key plot point in Netflix’s sci-fi fantasy epic, The Sandman, based on the Neil Gaiman comic book series.

In the show’s pilot episode, we’re introduced to Morpheus or the “Lord of Dreams,” who controls people’s slumbering visions. When he leaves his realm and travels to the waking world to reign in an out-of-control nightmare, an occultist captures him. While Morpheus is locked away for decades, people descend into a sleeping sickness known as “encephalitis lethargica.”

In a recent Twitter thread, writer Mark Sumner said the show’s illness is rooted in a real-life disease that afflicted millions a little more than a century ago. But just how true is the show’s depiction to the real-life illness? Inverse spoke with scientific experts to unpack the sleepy science behind this strange, fascinating show.

Stunning

Space

New Webb image of the Tarantula Nebula is an early Halloween treat

Just in time to kick off Spooky Season, the James Webb Space Telescope brings us this eerily gorgeous full-color image of the Tarantula Nebula.

It looks like a hulking cosmic spider lurking amid the stars of the Large Magellanic Cloud, a nearby galaxy — at least in the wavelengths of light our eyes can see. In the longer wavelengths of infrared light, the clouds of gas and dust look more like a tarantula’s burrow, lined with spider-silk.

And like a tarantula’s burrow, the Tarantula Nebula (more formally known as 30 Doradus) is full of young waiting to be born. Perhaps fortunately for all of us, it’s massive, bright young stars — not hungry baby space spiders — that are preparing to burst free from the silken filaments of their nurseries.

DETOX

Mind and Body

Can you drink coffee without staining your teeth?

If you missed a dentist appointment or two over the course of the pandemic, you may have noticed more stains on your teeth than normal. That can lead to self-consciousness, which is one of the reasons teeth whitening products are such a big business. In 2021, the global industry for teeth whitening products reached $5.2 billion.

While those products can certainly whiten teeth, they can also be pricey and leave your teeth uncomfortably sensitive. A more wallet-friendly option is simply to try to prevent stains from occurring in the first place. Inverse spoke to two dentists about what causes stained teeth and ways you can mitigate or prevent them.

Learn more

Meanwhile...

Ancient ice volcanoes may have stained Pluto’s moon blood red

An uptick in jellyfish sightings is an eerie herald of climate change to come

'House of the Dragon' Episode 3’s White Hart scene, explained

'Rings of Power' Easter egg may reveal The Stranger’s identity

Today in history: ESPN, the cable network dedicated to sports, debuted on American television September 7, 1979.

Song of the day: "Songs from the Voyager Golden Record"

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Inverse - ⚡️ DIY Tesla Semi

Older messages

🚀 NASA scrubs SLS launch again

🧠 Let’s talk about measuring emotions

🛰 NASA gets Voyager 1 talking again

🍿 'The Rings of Power' is a new fantasy classic in the making

🚀 Failure to launch

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