A big rig that looks like a spaceship

Mario Anzuoni/Reuters

The exterior and interior design of Tesla's cars is propelled by a sort of traditional regard for what a car is supposed to look like, although design chief Franz von Holzhausen has applied a powerfully disciplined minimalist approach to the job.

But cars and even the Model X SUV as, when compared with a tractor trailer, are small. They're frigates to the big rig's battleship, and that opens up some new aesthetics possibilities.

If you think about it, the only thing that Elon Musk's companies build that are as big as a big rig is SpaceX rockets, and of course they're much bigger. But the star-faring startup's space capsules are sort of semi-sized, so it might be worth it to look at them for hints for how the big rig will be put together.

I'm expecting something pretty out-there. As in, "Who needs a steering wheel?" The whole point of remaking freight transport isn't to electrify it — it's to eliminate drivers. That carries with it some grim prospects on the labor front, but we'd be naive if we didn't think that's what Tesla's future semi customers are after.

So the Tesla big rig's cab will be, I think, more like the bridge of a spaceship. There will be lots of screens so that if there is a human technician in there, he or she can monitor the truck's systems in the same way the helmsman and navigator of the Starship Enterprise do in the movies and on TV. If there are seats, they will be phenomenally cool. And for long-haul duty, the type of sleeping quarters that would be the envy of a luxury boutique hotel.

The rig will also have as different a vibe as is possible, I suspect, on the outside. Sleek and otherworldly. However, given that this will be a prototype, it will probably bear some resemblance to a regular old big rig, as Tesla will have had to consider that the vehicle will be hauling the sort of model-freight containers and trailers that are currently commonplace in the shipping industry.