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It’s likely profitable and better for the environment if we get electric self-driving trucks on private highways. 70% of freight is moved by trucks. https://w
by melling 4y ago
It’s likely profitable and better for the environment if we get electric self-driving trucks on private highways. 70% of freight is moved by trucks.
https://www.trucking.org/economics-and-industry-data https://www.trucking.org/economics-and-industry-data
- YawningAngel 4y agoThis analysis is immensely US-specific
- melling 4y agoIt would also work in China, of course. In fact, I would expect them to implement it first. https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/07/28/self-driving-tech-company-ponyai-plans-to-deliver-robotrucks-in-china.html https://www.cnbc.com/amp/2022/07/28/self-driving-tech-compan...
- acdha 4y agoTrains are an order of magnitude more efficient, however, and there’s a huge cost & environmental impact to building those extra highways. What we should be doing is more intermodal work where long-distance trucking is replaced with rail & local delivery.
- melling 4y agoYes, everyone knows trains are more efficient. They’re at full capacity and have been for decades. It’s very difficult to add train capacity. So, let’s not derail the conversation with your better idea that’s never gonna work
- acdha 4y agoThis is not even close to true unless you’re going to rescope your comment to focus on a few very specific chokepoints. There’s tons of unused mainline capacity because years of crew efficiency improvements mean the railroads are running fewer longer trains. More importantly, however, climate change means that we can’t continue to ignore externalities. Redirecting road expansion projects into rail construction would be necessary even if it wasn’t cheaper.