[ale] [TOTALLY OT] road trains - what I've been squawking we need for years - fewer drivers!

[Jim Kinney]

http://thefrustratedcommuter.blogspot.com/2010/11/eu-sartre-aka-road-train-is-coming.html

This link has a decent video clip talking much more about the groups
involved.

On Tue, Jan 18, 2011 at 10:51 AM, Jim Kinney <jim.kinney at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1051865_self-driving-cars-take-a-step-closer-to-reality
>
> So imaging telling your car "take me to work" and it is automatically
> merged into a bumper-to-literal-bumper train of cars moving at highway
> speeds until it is automatically disengaged for your safe exit. 60% of the
> energy used by a car is to push the air out of the way. By having the air
> moved by the lead car, all cars put in a bit in the train and the overall
> fuel needs drop by the number of cars in the train. the longer the train the
> less overall fuel is needed by all cars in the train to cover a fixed
> distance (up to a point).
>
> This bunch is making it work with current release cars. For maximum
> efficiency, cars will be the same shape, flat on the front and back with
> maybe a way to alter the shape of the front and back if they are the lead or
> trailing car to improve wind resistance.
>
> The fewer idiots we have piloting cars, the few wrecks so we can make them
> lighter. The lighter the car, the less fuel is needed to move it.
>
> I welcome our robotic overlords (as long as it's not running a variant of
> windows :-)
>
> --
> --
> James P. Kinney III
> I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
>
>
>


-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
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