It's also just an outright lie. But, I guess that doesn't matter anymore.
I did a little digging and it seems like there's a tiny kernel of fact at the core of this giant turd of a hype-piece, and that is the fact that they electrified this little spur line from Berlin to the new German Tesla factory by using a battery-electric trainset. Which is not a terrible solution for electrifying a very short branch line that presumably doesn't need frequent all-day service, even if it's a bit of a janky approach compared to overhead lines. But hand that off to the overworked, underpaid twenty-two-year old gig worker they've got doing "editing" at Yahoo for two bucks an article, and I guess it turns into "world-first electric wonder train amazes!"
For a second, though, I read the headline and wondered if Musk and co. had finally looped all the way around to reinventing commuter rail from first principles after all these years of trying to "disrupt" it with bullshit ideas like Hyperloop and Tunnels, But Dumber.
Honestly, I’d be more than happy if they just invented regular trains (even if their version would probably worse in ways not even imaginable as of now), because that would mean more money in train infrastructure.
So… yeah, you did it! You built something really cool and completely new! And don’t look over there, that’s just… copycats?
it's the Mireo Plus B from siemens. it's already in use in the north of germany since march of this year.
https://www.nordbahn.de/blog/so-isses/der-norden-begruesst-die-akku-zuege/there's nothing elon about this train, just that it's driving to his factory.
they are great for short distances that are difficult to electrify.
I guess if by a kernel of truth you mean an existing train was used on an existing track, then you could almost make it make sense? But since all of this existed before, it's just a lie.
I'll also point out that anybody introducing battery electric trains instead of just electrifying the remaining parts of rail is making an astoundingly bad choice, but that's almost certainly Germany and not Tesla.
Yeah but it's also far from new technology. Germany is mostly electrified rail, and having BE sets to bridge areas is not uncommon (in southern Germany you also get diesel electric combo units).
It's not a lie! It's technically the first thing anybody was stupid enough to name "giga train"!
You and I both know someone somewhere was that stupid before Musk. He isn't even original in what an idiot he is. 😆
Just wow… So if you look closely at the picture, you can barely see the number '563' on the train. If you have a look at list of locomotives and railbuses iof DB on Wikipedia, you can see that this train is a Siemens Mireo.
Now, let's take the headline apart. Is it the first all-electric trai… no! Is it the first accumulator train? Also no, as you can see in the list above, the class 515 exists and the Stadler Flirt Akku has been used on a line since October 2023, Is it the first Siemens Mireo Plus B being used? You guess what, nope. As an example, SWEG is using some of them to bridge non-electrified parts of the track since April 2024.
So finally, what is special about the Gigatrain? (gosh, I actually really dislike that name) In February 2024, the subsidary 'Smart Train Lease GmbH' of Siemens Mobility has been announced. There you can also lease two Siemens Mireo Plus Bs. Tesla is their very first client. That's it
Whoops, got longer as expected. In case I made small mistakes, feel free to point it out
Train nerds are a weird bunch.
Please never change.
So. It's Teslas first train. That they bought?
True innovators
That they leased
Also if you read the article, it becomes clear that they just copy and pasted the entire thing from a tesla fanboy Blog. It's this one: https://www.teslarati.com/teslas-all-electric-giga-train-in-germany-takes-first-trip/
I mean, I haven't seen a "Giga Train" before. Maybe it is the world's first.
Now I'm imagining the deal between Tesla and Siemens:
Siemens guy: alright Mr Musk, just sign these papers and the mireo will be leased to your company
Elon (in 8 year old voice): woo! I made a Giga train! Choo Choo!
Siemens guy: umm, okay... As I said, the train is a Siemens Mireo. Hopefully this lease agreement will benefit both of our companies
Elon: nuh uh! It's a Giga train and I invented it! Nobody ever had anything like this for getting around before!
They aren't saying it's the first electric train, they are saying it's the first all electric "Giga Train".
It's like how Bros kept trying to imply it was the first gay movie, or even first gay romcom, but it was the first gay romcom that was created and released by a major studio whose initial release was a "wide" release in more than one country.
Well then I would argue that that's some Giga Bullshit on their part.
Bros kept trying to imply it was the first gay movie, or even first gay romcom, but it was the first gay romcom that was created and released by a major studio whose initial release was a “wide” release in more than one country.
Torch Song Trilogy (1988)? The Birdcage (1996)? I don't know about "more than one country", but they were major studio movies with wide releases.
Ok I know when people say gay like that they mean gay male, but D.E.B.S. is one of the greatest queer movies ever made and is a romcom between two women. But it like many other classic queer movies wasn’t a major studio or anything
cutie little vroomie :)
Not much capacity though, so I guess the "Giga-Train" has that advantage.
The train also only runs between Erkner Station, and Tesla Sud, which is literally just the station right at the Tesla manufacturing facility in the area.
"It's also free to not just Tesla employees, but regular passengers as well."
That's great and all, but are everyday people taking trains to go see the outside of a Tesla factory, then leaving again?
lol. They’re promoting their employee shuttle. Classic Felon.
Well I mean, it IS a step up from my current jobs policy which is "Yes you need a car to get here, no we arent providing one and if you don't have one you don't have a job"
What the... this is so infuriating to a railfan. It's like they are trying to attach a 2x viewer multiplier by putting Elon-related keyword in it when Tesla has so little to do with it.
It's not a Tesla train, nor a battery from Tesla, nor operated by Tesla, not even a new route (but granted an expanded timetable)
I wish media hyped trains like this in general and not limited to implicitly attributing it to Musk (who made hyperloop specifically to distract from High Speed Rail, mind you)... "GIGA TRAIN brings commuters to work", "Hyper train first electric regional service in California - you won't believe the capacity!"
Now just imagine how the hype is for literally everything they've ever done, and it's on the exact same level. Once Tesla/Musk does something related to your field, it's abundantly clear what an absolute fraud he is.
I have been screaming this shit about neuralink but no one seems to listen
Generally, I'm against violence towards journalists - but dishonest and manipulative headlines like this tend to make me reconsider my stance, if but for a moment.
Now, imagine this revolutionary improvement: Find a way of putting the energy source outside of the train somehow, and save on weight by not hauling those heavy batteries around.
Christ, the amount of times techbros and tesla fanboys have accidentally "invented" trains and trams these past few years is beyond stupid..
Ok but that’s infrastructure and we don’t pay for that (for real though we need to upgrade our outdated catenaries)
Based on this dumpster fire of a headline, I think the take-away can only be that Siemens and other train manufacturers have to start calling their trains "OMEGA RAIL" and "CHUNGUS 3000" or shit like that so it's worth a news article.
Wait til they learn about twin story trains. Twice the capacity!
Edit: And the first gen, a bit less comfortable tho but more reliable.
WOW, what will the incredible Elon come up with next!? Dude comes up with all the great stuff we should have invented like ~50-100 years ago.
/s
It doesn't double the capacity. It's more a 30% increase. And, double-deckers are actually old. They date from the 19th century. In 1855, the Chemin de fer de l'Ouest introduced double-deckers on suburban lines of Paris.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voiture_Ouest_à_impériale
Modern double-deckers date from the 1930s, with the Voiture à étage Etat:
I know that train model, we had them here too; they're pretty heavy and expensive compared to the lighter rail models that many companies are buying now. It has quite a heavy frame compared to newer models.
I also suspect most tesla workers don't come by train anyway, so they don't need that much capacity.
If i remember right, they had multiple issues (forgot accessibility for one) and defects at first too. Though i quite like them.
edit: it was Bombardier?
https://www.nau.ch/news/schweiz/sbb-verargert-uber-verzogerungen-bei-bombardier-65462450
Is this like how Apple invented the headphones?
And tablets
And touchscreens
And Mp3 players
And Bluetooth earbuds
And small form factor PC stacks
God the list just keeps going. At least with them the marketing is annoying but the products are usually good. Instead of Elon promising the moon and delivering a pile of dog shit.
NO WAY! Did they just copy the Siemens Mireo and made it a double decker
It looks even more obvious in the German version of the site where the first picture is literally this one:
Edit:
Now that I have taken a closer look I question if the "Tesla" train is even a double decker or actually the Mireo
Edit 2:
And I am unsure if Yahoo just used a random train as their cover or if this is the Tesla train in question. I am so confused O.o
Edit 3:
Soo it's not a double decker and it is "Tesla's train" sooo... If I was Tesla I'd get back to the drawing board because I doubt Siemens will be happy with what they did here
From the industry journal I linked in another comment -- it's literally just an off-the-shelf Mireo Plus B. That's it. The only thing Tesla about it is that it's serving a spur line connecting Tesla's factory to the existing Berlin light rail network, and was presumably financed by them for the PR benefit of not having the workers at an electric car factory arrive by diesel train.
Yeah, I didn't expect much more of this, and then a bunch of those bored Yahoo Tech Bros think Elon would really make a train :')
That’s literally the train I use everything I get to uni (and back).
I think I see you in the window there, mate.
Sharp observation
The logo on the front is from the NEB, Niederbarnimer Eisenbahn AG, which runs in German province's of Berlin and Brandenburg. No way in hell the Muskrat MAGAT is going to build trains.
Apparently it runs from his battery factory and they provided batteries because the overhead line doesn't run that far. That's it. Everything else is normal German electric train.
Hype over fake news like this is one major reason how tesla's stock price has gotten as high as it has.
Lol how novel, I use an all electric train every work day, a Stadler Class 777/1 electric multiple-unit fitted with batteries (BEMU).
777 is unsafe! Use 755! /s
You are a gigachad that lives in the future.
I'll get a tattoo of that.
The far more important question however is:
Why tf did they use the color scheme of bwegt?
I may be an idiot, but I'm 99% certain that this color scheme is only used in Baden-Württemberg - a state that's like 500km away from the Tesla factory.
The train in the picture is the test train of Siemens that first ran between Herrenberg and Eutingen im Gäu in 2022 for the Land BaWü.
oh, Adam Something is going to have a field day with this.
He did use the term "Giga-Taxi" too
I imagine he's worn the fuck out ridiculing Melon Husk's bullshit.
Not so much that I've seen. I think he's taken the piss at the hyperloop bullshit but haven't seen much more.
We copied 1960 technology, declared it revolutionary and act as if we invented it all
The Apple Way.
I am amazed at how people ate still surpised...
Tesla paid about 15k for this article and money like that gets you a cute headline.
This is "journalism" 101, this is part of their business model.
Screw Elon
🎶 "I'm a connnnnn mann, or maybe I'm a god? Zoomin‘ round the planet, in my hyper loopin‘ pod..." 🎶
tesla launches train
hey ive seen this episode before; the ending sucked
Batteries are heavy, Surely there must another way to supply energy to the train...?
And what happens when it ends up in shark-infested waters?
Honestly, I'm flummoxed.
This "I'm smarterer than everyone" sarcasm is easy to say, but have you done a cost comparison between this and electrifying the line?
even Amtrak beat tesla
And that sadness says it all
Yahoo is just a terrible news source in general tbh
I think they do new aggregation rather than original reporting? Idk I haven't really looked at yahoo in about 20 years
Yahoo, like all home pages and web news sites are aggregators. Just like most websites these days. There are few original sources for international and national news reporting anymore. And the vast majority of websites simply buy the news they want.
It's one big circle jerk with everyone citing pretty much the same sources all the time.
Yahoo, the cowboys of journalism.
The train itself isn’t plastered with logos and tesla has no way to manufacture trains. What is this screenshot from?
Wait, Yahoo is still a thing?
Huge in Japan (though I think it's more that someone bought the rights to use the name rather than the yahoo of old IIRC).
Verizon bought out Yahoo actually. I still have an email account with them, though I never check it anymore.
How many bad forms of transportation do you think he has to saddle the world with to sate his ego about the hyperloop turning out to be a totally unworkable lie?
Hilarious they used 'giga' train. Rob and Elon just did that Diablo 4 stream the other day and Rob says 'giga' 6x per video. Clearly rubbed off on old Elon.
"Mind blowing" passenger train... If it would be able to teleport itself, sure.
I think the prompt was: write an article about this train and give it some extra oomph
What exactly are you taking issue with here? The train runs on batteries, and it's the first one in the world deployed, though the manufacturer, I'm sure, is hoping to sell to more operators than Tesla Germany.
The headline says worlds first all-electric train rather than worlds first all-battery-powered train. There have been many all-electric trains before. So the headline as written is incorrect.
Because the headline literally says "world's first all electric train", which it very much is not.
Nor is it the first battery powered train in the world or even first in Germany where this giga-train operates.
Besides the first all electric train bit, which is nonsense, it also touts the capacity of the train. It has 120 seats, which may be mind blowing to car heads, but for a train is rather on the low side. Regular passenger trains often have over 200 seats and many have more seats for the same length. For busy pieces of track 600 seats per train aren't unusual.
It really is like the author has never heard of trains before and has his mind blown by the concept.
Personally I think putting in batteries is kinda dumb, trains need so much infrastructure already and it's fixed in location. Adding a power delivery system (like overhead power lines like most electric trains have) is really easy. That way a lot of weight is saved, thus making the whole thing more efficient. You also don't need any special materials to make it, compared with huge batteries. And the wear components are a lot less expensive to replace.
Trains are quite good at carrying weight though, why do you think so much bulk material goes by rail?
There's room for batteries in the rail industry.
Diesel electrics rely primarily on dynamic braking. To save wear and tear on friction brakes, they convert kinetic energy to electrical, and then to heat in a giant resistor bank.
Add a couple battery cars, and dynamic braking becomes regenerative braking.
Theoretically, you could back feed the grid with that electrical energy, but if you do that, the train's primary braking system is now dependent on a connection to the grid, and that doesn't seem like a particularly good idea to me. All of the "stop" systems need to be far more reliable than the "go" systems.
