"Road Trains" Ready To Roll 318
clickclickdrone writes to mention that "road trains," a system linking vehicles together via wireless sensors, could soon be rolled out in Europe. The system is designed primarily for cutting fuel consumption, travel time, and congestion. "Funded under the European Commission's Framework 7 research plan, Sartre (Safe Road Trains for the Environment) is aimed at commuters in cars who travel long distances to work every day but will also look at ways to involve commercial vehicles. Tom Robinson, project co-ordinator at engineering firm Ricardo, said the idea was to use off-the-shelf components to make it possible for cars, buses and trucks to join the road train."
What hath the free market wrought? (Score:4, Interesting)
If this catches on in America some gear heads are going to explode.
I know, right? (Score:2)
*shudder*
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Well considering the internet evolved from a government project I'd say there isn't going to be any heads exploding over this. Especially if it has military applications which it probably does. Reducing fuel expenditure is a tactical advantage and the vast majority of free market types still support the idea of the government fulfilling the role of national defense to some degree.
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Well considering the internet evolved from a government project I'd say there isn't going to be any heads exploding over this. Especially if it has military applications which it probably does. Reducing fuel expenditure is a tactical advantage and the vast majority of free market types still support the idea of the government fulfilling the role of national defense to some degree.
I doubt the military would use this, at least not overseas. Decreased fuel consumption isn't worth turning a bunch of small targets into one large target. An IED or RPG would go from hitting 1-2 Humvees to 3-6.
The national security benefit from reducing our domestic oil consumption by even 1% is pretty significant, though.
Re:What hath the free market wrought? (Score:5, Interesting)
Well considering the internet evolved from a government project I'd say there isn't going to be any heads exploding over this. Especially if it has military applications which it probably does. Reducing fuel expenditure is a tactical advantage and the vast majority of free market types still support the idea of the government fulfilling the role of national defense to some degree.
I doubt the military would use this, at least not overseas. Decreased fuel consumption isn't worth turning a bunch of small targets into one large target. An IED or RPG would go from hitting 1-2 Humvees to 3-6.
The national security benefit from reducing our domestic oil consumption by even 1% is pretty significant, though.
The US Army is already looking into something similar to this but not with the high-speed tailgating effect. They're using one lead driver to lead a group of radio-linked trucks so they can get several times the supplies moved with less exposure of personnel to hostile forces. I only did a quick search so here's what I came up with: http://www.controleng.com/blog/AIMing_for_Automated_Vehicles/14540-Robot_Convoy_Truck.php [controleng.com]
Re:What hath the free market wrought? (Score:5, Funny)
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... the vast majority of free market types still support the idea of the government fulfilling the role of national defense to some degree.
No, they just don't think about it. That would interfere with the "all government is evil" mantra that has been drilled into their heads by corporate media interests.
I just hope... (Score:3, Interesting)
That you can check the professional driver's safety record before joining the train.
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That you can check the professional driver's safety record before joining the train.
And his blood alcohol content? Which brings up a fascinating scenario. Could you bring an unopened booze bottle into a car and then join a train? Then chug the booze, with the plan that you'd sober up well before your 2 hour commute is over? But, something happens, and the train kicks you out? Now you're DWI, but its someone elses fault?
Or, even if no drinking was done in the car, if your digestion was slow enough that your BAC was below the limit BOTH before and after you joined the train, but while y
Re:I just hope... (Score:4, Interesting)
It sucks that this system even needs a professional driver to begin with. A better system would be fully peer-to-peer in that any two cars that happened to be traveling in the same direction could link up.
Of course that would break this company's buisness model, but it would make sense for the car manufacturers to implement it that way.
Re:I just hope... (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't check a railway train driver's safety record. Or a bus drivers or a taxi drivers. Yet you are putting your life in the their hands on the basis that you trust they are qualified from the job, haven't been sacked for being incompetent, and have some trust in whatever safety systems are in place. This is no different.
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I mean, what could possibly go wrong?
</sarcasm>
Funny coincidence (Score:5, Funny)
The plan is called "Sartre". My first reaction: What if there's No Exit?
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Re:Funny coincidence (Score:4, Insightful)
Hell, apparently, is other drivers.
Re:Funny coincidence (Score:4, Funny)
Any resident of Chicago or Boston would agree with that, I'm sure.
Tailgating to the max (Score:2, Insightful)
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road trains are stupid. (Score:4, Interesting)
You're handing control over to another driver, who may very well decide not to brake and cause a five car pileup, or worse. Also, there's no way to know the mechanical status of the vehicle -- what if one of them blows a tire, or runs out of gas, or the engine seizes?
What you should do is create a dedicated lane that is controlled entirely by computer, and you program your exit/entry point at that time, and let the signal and control computers handle traffic management. If an unauthorized vehicle enters the lane, sensors will immediately detect it, alert nearby drivers (and disengage), and send the police to go catch captain speedy pants and send him to a pants-down facility. Computers also do a much better job of fuel consumption and control... I mean, it'd basically be a packet-switched network, but with cars instead of pieces of data. It's a relatively benign IT problem.
As well, vehicle breakdowns would be handled a lot better because the system would be tied directly to the onboard computer and navigation systems: Just like lorries/semi-trucks operating on the road today. Having spoken to a commercial truck driver, I can tell you that the computer often knows about mechanical problems before the driver does, and their systems are pre-programmed to alert a dispatcher, who will send a rescue/repair vehicle out in situ.
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Sodding problem is I can't find any reference to it
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there's no way to know the mechanical status of the vehicle
the computer often knows about mechanical problems before the driver does
So which is it?
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What you should do is create a dedicated lane that is controlled entirely by computer, and you program your exit/entry point at that time, and let the signal and control computers handle traffic management. If an unauthorized vehicle enters the lane, sensors will immediately detect it, alert nearby drivers (and disengage), and send the police to go catch captain speedy pants and send him to a pants-down facility. Computers also do a much better job of fuel consumption and control... I mean, it'd basically be a packet-switched network, but with cars instead of pieces of data. It's a relatively benign IT problem.
Yeah, but remember, packet collisions are an ingrained part of network management. Makes the idea a BIT more scary :P
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I've seen at least half-a-dozen deer on the roads in the last couple of weeks. How is this going to work when one decides to run right through the middle of the train?
No chance in hell I would be a part of this.
Re:road trains are stupid. (Score:4, Interesting)
I've seen at least half-a-dozen deer on the roads in the last couple of weeks. How is this going to work when one decides to run right through the middle of the train?
Well, I imagine what would happen is that the driver about to hit the deer would brake hard. The computer would relay this braking information to the following vehicles so they would all brake at very nearly the same instant. The problem that arises is that different vehicles have different braking capabilities, so if the vehicle about to hit the deer can brake harder than one of the vehicles coming behind, then we'd end up with a collision, maybe even a chain of collisions.
Ideally, the vehicles in front should have their braking artificially limited so that it doesn't exceed the braking ability of any following vehicle. If that were done, then the computers could ensure that collisions in the train don't happen.
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You assume they would paying attention. From the article:
"Those in following vehicles could take their hands off the wheel, read a book or watch TV, while they travel along the motorway."
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You assume they would paying attention
If they aren't paying attention, and don't brake, then there's even less problem. They'll be moving a little faster when they hit the deer, true, but generally the amount of braking you can do in such a situation doesn't make much difference anyway, and that way the vehicles behind won't have to worry about braking hard.
The vehicle that hit the deer will be badly damaged and have to come to a stop, but it won't be such a rapid stop that the rest of the train behind it can't slow.
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If that were done, then the computers could ensure that collisions in the train don't happen.
Of course that makes collisions worse with any vehicle or obstruction in front of your 'train'... like, say, some wacko terrorist who steals a truck and then slams on the brakes in front of you.
This whole 'road train' idea is just stupid for so many reasons that I'm surprised that anyone other than 'private transport is evil' commies keep trying to defend it.
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Of course that makes collisions worse with any vehicle or obstruction in front of your 'train'... like, say, some wacko terrorist who steals a truck and then slams on the brakes in front of you.
It's possible. I expect that the lives saved by road trains, since issues of driver error would be largely removed, would vastly exceed those who might be killed by such events.
This whole 'road train' idea is just stupid for so many reasons that I'm surprised that anyone other than 'private transport is evil' commies keep trying to defend it.
I think it's a brilliant idea, and have thought so for years. I think it offers a way to get most of the benefits of public transportation while retaining the flexibility of private transportation.
Once the road trains get dedicated lanes, you can even start ramping the speeds up. If the trained vehicles are packed closely enough
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I mean, it'd basically be a packet-switched network, but with cars instead of pieces of data. It's a relatively benign IT problem.
What a great idea! Why not simply have Mr Speedy Pants organized into a packet that gets lost in transmission? The one that gets resent after the NAK can look alike but its still a new packet but perhaps without the hidden corruption!
Re:road trains are stupid. (Score:5, Funny)
I mean, it'd basically be a packet-switched network, but with cars instead of pieces of data.
Hey! Here on /. we use car analogies to explain computer technology - not vice-versa!!
road trains are *awesome* (Score:2)
You're handing control over to another driver, who may very well decide not to brake and cause a five car pileup
The following cars are electronically linked in, they would also brake and the whole train would come to a stop. As long as each car (including the lead) was restricted to brake at the same rate as the car with the worst stopping time no collision would ever occur. Besides, if the distance between the cars is small enough, even a discrepancy in braking power that wasn't compensated for would only cause a slight difference in velocity before a collision occurred. The impact would be minimal unless the last v
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"What if the "lead driver" rides the brakes, thus smoking my brakes/warping my disks?"
You do know that the default state of most cars is 'slowing down', right?
"What if something falls off / out of a car ahead of me (a more common occurrence than you'd think), can I quickly escape the train, and who is liable when by design I can not?"
Yes. The same person that would have been liable if the exact same thing happened today. And that's a stupid question, isn't it? Do you really think it will be designed as a de
Buy it now (Score:2)
You can already get this tech if you splurge for an S-class Mercedes:
http://www.benzinsider.com/2008/06/distronic-plus-and-brake-assist-plus-reduce-rear-end-collisions-by-20/ [benzinsider.com]
It would be a cool DIY project, too. Don't tell your insurance company.
Good general idea, but implementation... (Score:2)
FTA: Each road train could include up to eight separate vehicles. [...] The lead vehicle would be handled by a professional driver who would monitor the status of the road train.
This sounds like a major obstacle to me. One professional, presumably paid, driver to every eight vehicles sounds expensive and pretty impractical. What are they going to do, have you queue up somewhere waiting for one of these lead drivers to come along? I think that's taking the whole "train" analogy too far, one of the reasons I
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This sounds like a major obstacle to me. One professional, presumably paid, driver to every eight vehicles sounds expensive and pretty impractical.
No, the driver is not there to wait for cars wanting to form a road train. The professional driver is there because he has to drive the route anyway, transporting freight or whatever. Road trains will be formed spontaneously, when someone decides to join the truck and tailgate it. And as soon as the leading truck is heading somewhere else, you are free to leave the road train again.
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So you disengage from the truck so you can make your exit. This dismantles the entire train; you and everyone behind you must space out to normal separation. I have a feeling this could be pretty tricky with more than a couple cars involved, or if there's significant traffic or difficult merges. I'm trying to picture a maneuver like this taking place safely, for example, near the Mannheim exit on the inbound Eisenhower west of Chicago (formerly known as the Hillside Strangler... a few years ago more lane
Reminds me of a dream I once had (Score:5, Funny)
A generic couple were standing by the side of road, which was basically a piece of flat pavement cut into the side of a mountain. They were watching a garage inventor/scientist type explain his latest invention, a motorized luggage carrier. Sort of a motorcycle sidecar or luggage unit for people who didn't want to change the visual impact of their motorbike. It was an independent unit, had its own motor and fuel, and required only a slight modification to the motorcycle in the form of a radio transmitter. After that, it basically mimicked the motions of the "master" motorcycle.
Garage inventor gets on his bike, fires it up, and drives off. Sure enough, the other device (which I recall looking a lot like a large cooler on wheels) fired up by itself and followed. A few minutes later, the garage inventor loops back and drives by. Getting cocky, he waves at the couple. Unfortunately, he hits a rock and with only one hand on the handlebars, can't recover. He loses control, and drives off the side of the cliff. An unpleasant "crunch" is heard below.
Moments later, the motorized luggage holder comes along and dutifully throws itself off the cliff as well. A second "crunch" is heard.
The couple look down at the carnage and then leave.
Cue product liability lawsuit in 3... 2... 1 (Score:2)
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The car in the front is a professional, probably government employed, driver.
Now I REALLY feel safe...
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The car in the front is a professional, probably government employed, driver.
Somehow being in a 'train' of a hundred cars with a taxi driver at the front doesn't fill me with confidence.
Stepping stone to auto pilot? (Score:2)
I'm wondering if this is a workable step to an autopilot for cars? I would pay a lot to be able to hook up to a platoon and sleep a good portion of the trip. But it would seem like this might be workable as an interim step to an in-road sensor system.
The real trick would be making sure the driver was awake before releasing the car from the platoon. And what about the cars behind them? Also don't see how this prevents someone from cutting in between cars in the train.
I was driving ... (Score:4, Funny)
Train Wreck (Score:4, Interesting)
OK - imagine this scenario: a train is driving along, and something happens to car number 2/8. Hit by another car, flat tire, accidentally leans on the joystick [slashdot.org], whatever. The car veers out of control, unlinking cars 3-8. So now you have six cars being manned by people who were sleeping/reading/eating/daydreaming 10 nanoseconds ago.
I'm just sayin, I don't think you could pay me enough to get in one of those trains. Mythbusters did an interesting piece on saving gas by drafting. You could save a great deal of gas, but at great expense to safety.
Re:Train Wreck (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just sayin, every /. article with new ideas gets swamped by people stating absolutely obvious problems as if the people working on that project were all functionally retarded. I said the same thing just a few days ago but this article really brought the geniuses out of the woodwork like I haven't seen in some time.
I see what this is... (Score:2)
Theory versus implementation prediction (Score:3, Funny)
Theory: Sartre
Implementation: Kafka
Merging and Curves (Score:3, Insightful)
How would they expect this system to work at highway Merges ? Another fun thing is inclement weather and curves on the highway. My car can take curves at a much higher speed than a panel truck during high winds.
I can see where this would be useful on long straight highways, but otherwise very dangerous. Each car would also need a "safe return to park" capability which would
cause the cars to park themselves to the side of the road if the central control was lost, and the driver did not respond within a few seconds.
Include a gps unit that would alert people that their turn is coming up, and have the professional driver thing only be for testing , and add that capability to general car system.
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Instead, how about... (Score:2)
...a luxury coach, with family compartments, toilets, DVD players, all that stuff, and stick a six- or eight-car trailer behind it.
We can do that today.
I've seen this (Score:2)
I've seen this in operation already.
There was this camper with bicycles attached to the back, towing a car, towing a trailer full of moterbikes and canoes. If that isn't a road-train, I don't know what it should be called.
Done before (Score:2)
This has been done before, and better, in California. See Demo 97. [tfhrc.gov]
There's considerable military interest in follow-the-leader systems for convoys. The military routinely drives trucks around in big groups. The US Army has a system in test where the lead vehicle (usually armored) leads a group of driverless trucks. That's to reduce casualties, not labor.
The fundamental problem with most automated driving schemes is that they address driving on freeways, which people don't mind all that much. Automati
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The fundamental problem with most automated driving schemes is that they address driving on freeways, which people don't mind all that much. Automatically retrieving your car from a parking garage or lot and bringing it to you would actually sell.
Depends on where you live. Where I live, 95% of my driving is on freeways, and I rarely have to walk more than 20 yards to get to my car in a parking lot.
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The fundamental problem with most automated driving schemes is that they address driving on freeways, which people don't mind all that much.
Speak for yourself. I make a 5 hour drive once a month to see family and assuming a minumum level of safety, I would pay at least $5k for a system that kept the current lane, kept the current speed, and automatically slowed down to avoid accidents. Sure my drive would take just as long, probably even longer since it wouldn't go around slow vehicles in the fast lane, but that would be hours out of my life that I could spend doing any of a dozen different things.
Sartre ? (Score:2)
This will give an entirely another meaning to the expression "L'enfer, c'est les autres".
Fuel savings? (Score:2, Insightful)
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Well, if you take a train then need a car at your destination, you need to rent one or spend money on cab fare. If you have too much stuff to take in the train (e.g. moving house a long distance), a train is not an option whatsoever. There are also places with existing roads where building new heavy rail would be impossible or impractical or incredibly expensive.
Re:Ummm (use actual trains) (Score:2, Insightful)
Maybe there should be car-carrying trains. Or stop building sprawl. Anyway, actual trains are far more efficient than this could ever be.
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Maybe there should be car-carrying trains.
There already are. What makes you think there aren't?
Or stop building sprawl.
And the sprawl that already exists? Face it, its not going anywhere, so you'll have to deal with this issue. Trains aren't really going to work, unless perhaps they make them incrediblly fast.
Anyway, actual trains are far more efficient than this could ever be.
Since it's not even deployed, perhaps you should wait before passing judgement.
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And the sprawl that already exists?
Well, the nuclear powers are talking about reducing their warhead stockpiles. Maybe we could solve two problems at once.
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On/off loading is too hard/slow and train stations (at least here in the UK are often in a terrible location for car traffic). In theory it's a great idea but in practice it costs too much to set-up for businesses to bother. It has been done in France [raileurope.co.uk] (probably subsidized, but hey i'm a dirty socialist and think government spending money to reduce CO2 emission is needed) but the cars are moved on separate trains so it's no good for everyday travel.
Re:Ummm (use actual trains) (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly, this is a quick and dirty optimization for commuters. By just linking up on the fly and on the highway that's already being driven, any properly equipped cars can hop in instantly and follow the route they normally take. Loading onto an actual train takes time on both ends and requires the drivers to board/depart only at train stations, making it more effective for long distance (3-8+ hours). It also allows this to go all along the freeway you travel, rather than just along the rail lines, meaning more people would use a system tied to just the highway.
Of course, I can guarantee this system would limit travel speed to the legal speed limit, so this wouldn't catch on with the majority of commuters. Most cities, if traffic isn't moving 15mph, it's going 15mph faster than the speed limit.
Re:Ummm (use actual trains) (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds workable to me.
Re:Ummm (use actual trains) (Score:4, Funny)
Naw, killing the young is both a better deterrent to overpopulation, and easier because the ignorant good-for-nothing whippersnappers won't even see it coming.
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Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:4, Informative)
The lead vehicle is a purpose-built vehicle driven by a professional driver, not a 'passenger' of the train.
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Makes sense.. Guess I didn't read TFA up to the end !
But anyway, I am not 100% sure (but I am no aerodynamics physicist) of how efficient this would be *overall* as far as fuel consumption is concerned.
However, the undeniable advantage is being able to zap through traffic (because the road lane would have to be committed to this) - and possibly going above posted speed limits "legally"
But because one of the characteristics are that all vehicles are essentially tailgating each others, at high speed and with
Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:5, Funny)
Ok.. Made a fool of myself..
There seem to be overwhelming evidence that I was utterly wrong.. Ah well..
Since I can't mod myself -1 stupid, I'll just flog myself 10 times !
--Ivan
Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:4, Funny)
Wait! What? Did someone on the internet admit they were wrong?
What the hell is going on???
Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:4, Insightful)
This is not always the case. In some cases, the reduction of the drag from turbulence off the rear means that the leading vehicle also gets a benefit, though not as much as the following ones. This is true in stock car racing and in skating; I don't know about cycling.
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Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, lead vehicles benefit from this, too, just not nearly as much.
Even though vehicle aerodynamics have tried to combat it, there is a big negative pressure bubble forming your car's wake 'pulling' it backwards. Partially filling it with another vehicle's high pressure region where it 'cuts' the oncoming air helps.
Re:Fuel economy ? (Score:5, Informative)
Actually, the vehicle in front also benefits from the drafting. Not to the same degree as the trailing vehicles, but it gets a significant benefit none the less. See http://www.livescience.com/technology/070215_nascar_aero.html [livescience.com] for details.
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they forget to mention the *EXTRA* fuel expense for the leading vehicle that is basically towing the others..)
Fortunately, aerodynamics does not work like that. The reduced fuel consumption for the following vehicles is a result of reduced aerodynamic drag. Basically the lead vehicle pushes the air and forms a low-pressure wake behind it that the followers take advantage of. However, there is no additional drag penalty for the lead car. The only thing the lead car has to envy is the fuel savings that he doesn't get by being up front.
Statistically speaking, this would be mitigated by the fact that you should only r
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And given that the lead car in such a "train" (according to the article) is a professional driver operating a purpose-built vehicle, the only one incurring a drag penalty is the vehicle that was built and is operated specifically to accept the drag penalty.
Which leads to some interesting economics. If each car in the line enjoys a 10% increase in fuel efficiency, and you have ten cars in line, you are (at best) saving approximately the fuel that would have been consumed by a theoretical car that gets the a
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(they forget to mention the *EXTRA* fuel expense for the leading vehicle that is basically towing the others..)
Where is this magical extra drag coming from?
A line of well-designed vehicles has basically the same drag characteristics as a single long vehicle. The drag for a vehicle consists mainly of the pressure acting on the front and the vacuum acting on the back; a long vehicle and a short vehicle with the same general profile in these areas will have about the same drag. In a vehicle train, the first and last vehicles benefit the least—but still benefit some, since they only have to deal with the pressure
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(they forget to mention the *EXTRA* fuel expense for the leading vehicle that is basically towing the others..)
Oh look, someone who doesn't know what he's talking about by tries to sound like he does just got modded up. "Trailing cars fill in the lead car's low-pressure wake, thereby cutting down pressure drag."
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Birds do this all the time. If it didn't benefit the flock to form these cooperative formations then it would not have been selected for as strongly as it obviously was.
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They are certainly drafting. It's just that flying things disturb the air in a quite different pattern from ground vehicles. Staying right behind someone flying means being in the down-draft which is keeping the leader up, which means you have to work harder to keep yourself up. To the side you can catch a bit of up-draft from their wing vortices, in addition to less wind resistance.
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I'm sure they could... you know... take turns.
Truckers in general are pretty congenial amongst themselves on the road. It only takes a few minutes on listening to the CB radio to know they got each others backs.
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Nope. Not true. The leading vehicle experiences no extra drag at all, thing is it -is- to some extent towing the vehicles behind it, but if it wasn't it would instead be towing the -air- along, to the same degree. (that air being dragged along is, afterall, the source of the saved fuel for the cars behind.
5 cars driving close together really do use less fuel in sum, compared to 5 individual cars. It's -not- just a question of redistributing the consumption, there's real savings.
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Good to see this particular technology come to life. It's been discussed a bunch in the past. However, when I read the headline I thought of my fav alternative, actual TRAINS.
The idea is to extend the ferry boat concept to things like Amtrack. I live in Seattle and when I need to go to Portland I drive instead of taking the train at least in part because I'll need my car when I get there. If I could drive my car on to a train and wait in the train for the trip to Portland and then drive off once I arrive, I
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Since the lead vehicle will be driven by a professional driver there is a good chance it will be a semi. If it is, the owner can make additional revenue through advertising. Set up a big video board on the back of the truck and sell ad space. The cars behind are a captive audience. I can already see trucks heading to Vegas advertising casinos. Wait. Maybe I should get a patent.
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I would surmise that if such a large quantity of people could work via telecommuting those people that still must commute could do so very efficiently because of traffic reduction.
Autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles are a worthy goal but as the parent post points out if a significant portion of the population were permitted to telecommute traffic gridlock and associated pollution would plummet. There are also other benefits to this situation. Shorter commutes mean happier people. Combined with cleaner
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Anything which helps the commuters is welcome. Even if I don't use the train thingy, I'll have 8 people under the control of a highly-skilled, licensed driver. AND NOT in "texting while driving partial control" of their vehicle. THAT is an improvement.
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"telecomumting" = growing flowers remotely?
All humor aside, agreed.
Except there are a LOT of jobs that require personal presence, and carpooling has its limits.
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Quality!
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Yeah, I could see that. Everyone's on channel 6, and every car is called "linksys".
Re:Tailgating to the max (Score:5, Funny)
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Unless you're building in sensors that can check for each and every possible change to the front vehicles ability to maintain speed and safety.
An automated roadway seems a better bet than semi-autonomous 'trains' on an uncontrolled road. The 'trains' would by their definition need to interact in real-time with humans driving cars the old fashioned way. Trying to get a computer to react pro
Re:Tailgating to the max (Score:4, Informative)
They do say that the lead car of the train would be driven by professional drivers. of course that won't really help if a car in the middle of the train does something unexpected.
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except at 55-75 mph there's that much less room to react when the tire of the car in front of you blows out...
Yes, if that happens you hit them! But, you don't hit them very hard because they haven't had time to decelerate very much and your autopilot slammed on the brakes the millisecond they started to slow.
In the worst case, if the lead car suddenly loses a tire or something, the whole train probably collides, rather gently and then comes to a stop as a mass. Might scratch some paintwork, but unlikely to kill, or even hurt, anybody.
On a totally automated road system you would have trains like this separated by g
Re:Tailgating to the max (Score:5, Funny)
Here in Europe, we already use these trains during rush hour. They can reach lengths of many kilometers.
We call them traffic jams. And we don' need no stinkin' wireless link.
Re:Tailgating to the max (Score:5, Insightful)
Except that with this system, they don't need to be jammed. If everybody in the train presses the accelerator at once, knowing that the car in front of them will as well, everybody gets to move. You're not as limited by the following distance required by an unpredictable human driver and the unpredictable circumstances ahead.
Reducing inter-car distance reduces the amount of road you need because you put more cars on the same amount of pavement, and the same highway functions as a much larger road. But it only works if you get the humans out of the loop.
Of course it also provides opportunities for truly spectacular failures.
Re:Tailgating to the max (Score:4, Insightful)
"aimed at commuters in cars who travel long distances to work every day"
I have a better idea. Hook those road trains up to their houses, and move the houses closer to work. That will save a LOT of fuel, not to mention wear and tear on the infrastructure.