| Tailgate for Mother Earth! |
| Written by Hank Green | ||
| Monday, 16 July 2007 | ||
 OK, don't actually tailgate. It doesn't generally save gas unless you're a NASCAR driver. The idea, of course, is that drafting reduces your coefficient of drag. However, in highway circumstances, you'll likely have to accelerate and brake so frequently that any savings would be lost. And then, there's the chance of a crash, and totaling a car was never good for the environment. HOWEVER! That doesn't change that drafting could save fuel. The trick is, handing control over to your car. According to a couple of engineers at Jadavpur University, caravans or "platoons" of vehicles traveling less than a meter apart can significantly reduce the coefficient of drag for all but the first vehicle. Theoretically, the cars could intercommunicate, telling each other when to speed up and slow down based on the actions of the lead driver. The other cars in the platoon would then simply be on auto-pilot, with sensors always on the lookout for possible collisions. Sound scary to you? Yeah...me too. For now I think I'll stick with saving gas by, y'know, not driving as much. Via Physorg See Also: -Automated Intersections-
Comments
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written by Peeples , July 16, 2007
Mythbusters
written by Andrew Pritchard , July 16, 2007
Mythbusters (These guys: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0383126/) recently did an episode where they explored this. Turns out that you can save around 30% on your gas by tailgating a truck. Of course (as has been pointed out) you WILL total your car, and probably kill yourself if you try and do it!
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written by jack , July 16, 2007
its an idea worth exploring. doesn't have to be totally autonomous. could just have it linked up to the front ctrl wise.
evacuated tube travel is the way to go. and a mag lev train from la to ny through an evacuated tube. ever wanted to go 10,000mph for almost free? (slowing down of one train can help speed up the other).
Other benefits
written by Ryan Baker , July 17, 2007
There are a lot of other environmental benefits possible once you have computer controlled cars.
It also reduces all the braking/acceleration loss. It also allows more intelligent routing to prevent congestion (idling car = waste). It also reduces people's urgency to arrive at a destination (reading a book, an extra 5 minutes is no big deal), and allows speeds to be chosen for efficiency rather than lead footitis. I'm suffer this condition, except when on the bus/train. Taking it to the next level, I had an idea a while back at a few things you could do if you combined computer controlled cars with a modular seperation of the passenger/luggage area from the suspension/propulsion, which I wrote about at: http://ryan-technorabble.blogs...ncept.html
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written by Erik , July 17, 2007
Actually, there is a tremendous amount to be said for the wasted, excessive capacity of our auto culture. In addition to the efficiency of drafting, can you imagine employing the extra horsepower our vehicles possess, while highway driving? Think of a conveyor belt, collectively powered by all our grossly excess engines, and when we jump on the highway, our wheels turn rollers, which in turn drive the 'highway belt' like a collective hamster train. We'd use a fraction of the energy we're now hogging, increase safety, reduce stress, and have time to read, think, make cell calls, etc. We just need to work out the capital inv't and getting on & off the highway belt.
Dude
written by Robert , July 17, 2007
There have been products out there for truck drivers that control the speed of trucks based on the radar that monitors the truck ahead and adjusts speed. Nothing new. I am not sure if they actually brake a truck if the one ahead stops very fast. I only now I machined some hardware for a company that makes them.
AI cars for efficiency and better Qualit
written by culprititus , July 17, 2007
DARPA Grand Challenge is developing auto-pilot for cars. They already achieved driving by GPS waypoints through the desert 100 miles. This year begins the city-driving portion including obeying traffic laws and dealing with congestion and pedestrians. With this technology and others already in production (Adaptive CC/GPS/3G wireless/WiMAX etc) personal AI driven vehicles are starting to appear quite feasible.
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This sort of thing would be much more easily implemented with a fixed guideway personal rapid transit system -- especially one that isn't above ground. The more potential collision objects are taken out of the equation, the easier it is.