3 ms·
Hmmm, I'm not sure the equation is so obvious. If you don't have a driver, then the vehicle amounts to just a couple motors, batteries, and sensor arrays. It
by fpgaminer 9y ago
Hmmm, I'm not sure the equation is so obvious.
If you don't have a driver, then the vehicle amounts to just a couple motors, batteries, and sensor arrays.
It doesn't make a difference if the battery is located in the front "truck" part of the convoy, or whether it's distributed throughout the trailers.
For a very long chain of trailers, you probably want a set of motors for every trailer right?
And as you've speculated, there's going to be a sensor array in every trailer.
So basically, you have motors in every trailer, batteries in every trailer, and sensors in every trailer. At that point ... why do you need a "truck" on the front and/or why are they connected at all?
- rgbrenner 9y agogood point.. but that depends on the cost of the sensors, motors, etc. You could have a reduced set of sensors on the trailers, and more advanced set on the tractor.. and that may be cheaper than adding advanced sensors to every trailer.
- copperred 9y agoDropping a trailer vs waiting for it to be unloaded? I dunno. I agree with what your saying. Just moving stuff is obviously faster than waiting around for loading and unloading. At what point does the idle electric truck start to cost less than a simple trailer.
- jsjohnst 9y agoThere's an "easy" solution to that too, you make it a flat bed electric self-driving trailer which takes a container similar to sea shipping containers on top. Then you don't: - have the unnecessary truck cab in front - cost of the trailer being unused while loading / unloading - potentially drastically change shipping containers received from over seas.
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoModular self propelled trailers are already a thing for moving heavy equipment they're just not for road use so most of HN will never see them. You usually have a 100-500hp diesel running a big pump and hydraulic motors at the wheels.