Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/696174
other at any given moment. To attract owner operators, Milton went all-in on cabin comfort. NMC says its cab is 30 percent larger than its more traditional counterparts, and its aerodynamics reduces the drag coefficient by nearly 5 percent over most trucks currently on the mar- ket. The Nikola One's cab features a sliding mid-entry door, a full-size fridge and freezer, electric climate controlled cabin, 15-inch touch screen infotainment display, 10-inch instrument cluster display, 4G LTE internet and Wi-Fi, over the air soft- ware updates, panoramic windshield, sunroof, two full size beds, micro- wave and 42-inch television. Each of the features will be powered by the truck's 320 kWh battery pack, alleviating the need to idle or run a separate generator. NMC claims the driver could theoretically stay in the cab with all the amenities on for almost a week without draining the batteries enough to initiate the turbine charge. The Nikola One's proprietary hard- ware and software also features pla- tooning capabilities. Once testing is complete and government regulations allow, a single Nikola One driver will have the ability to virtually hitch and lead up to five driverless Nikola One trucks through NMC's wire- less vehicle network and self-driving technology. "[The lead driver will] send a com- mand and within 30 milliseconds it goes straight to the motor," Milton adds of the response time of the platoon. "If for whatever reason the trucks experience a communication failure, the trucks would pull over as soon as it was safe to do so." Virtual Hitch/Fleet Convoy technol- ogy is part of the truck's hardware, and Milton says every Nikola One will come with it built in. Milton says he expects truck deliv- eries to begin in the next 24 to 36 months. He wouldn't disclose the number of trucks on order, only call- ing it "substantial." "With the first batch [of deliveries] we will work with owner-operators on testing," he says. The first truck has been built and it is currently being tested internally. It will then undergo regular field trials to validate the technologies used. "The truck is a lot more simple than a diesel … take a Tesla car, for example," Milton says. "If you tear apart a Tesla, there's really not that much to it. Because it's a lot more simple, the software needs to be a lot more robust." • 10 www.bigrigowner.com J U LY 2 0 1 6 Cover Story Trucks equipped with a 150 gallon CNG tank, like this model, will be eligible for "free fuel" for their first million miles, NMC says