7 ms·

Also: the physics of high-speed cars makes the concept of cars traveling as fast as bullet trains totally ridiculous. The fact that a car is self-driving doesn'

• jellicle 14y ago
  Friction losses aren't significant. These cars are limited by aerodynamic drag power -- this scales as speed^3, and dominates all other losses. No. "Of the energy output of fuel in a car engine, 33% is spent in exhaust, 29% in cooling and 38% in mechanical energy, of which friction losses account for 33% and air resistance for 5%. By comparison, an electric car has only half the friction loss of that of a car with a conventional internal combustion engine." So, meh, even if magic self-driving cars had zero air resistance, they're only 5% more efficient than non-self-driving cars.
  • uvdiv 14y ago
    These cars are limited by aerodynamic drag power... I mean future self-driving cars travelling at bullet-train speeds. For these, losses are dominated by drag.