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Tesla Looking To Start Testing Autonomous Semi In 'Platoon' Formation (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Reuters: Tesla is developing a long-haul, electric semi-truck that can drive itself and move in "platoons" that automatically follow a lead vehicle, and is getting closer to testing a prototype, according to an email discussion of potential road tests between the car company and the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), seen by Reuters. The correspondence and meeting show that Tesla is putting self-driving technology into the electric truck it has said it plans to unveil in September, and is advancing toward real-life tests, potentially moving it forward in a highly competitive area of commercial transport also being pursued by Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] and Alphabet Inc's Waymo. After announcing intentions a year ago to produce a heavy-duty electric truck, Musk tweeted in April that the semi-truck would be revealed in September, and repeated that commitment at the company's annual shareholder meeting in June, but he has never mentioned any autonomous-driving capabilities. An email exchange in May and June between Tesla and Nevada DMV representatives included an agenda for a June 16 meeting, along with the Nevada Department of Transportation, to discuss testing of two prototype trucks in Nevada, according to the exchange seen by Reuters.
i.e. trains???
this whole idea reeks of fraud and thinly veiled bias
I can't believe none of you smart people haven't caught onto this.
Every week, Musk's publicists release something and it's published. It's to keep his name out their and perceived as being important.
He's about to issue junk bonds for Tesla but doesn't want to pay junk rates. How to do that? By being perceived as someone "who gets things done!".
That image was created by his PR firm.
What is it with people? They forget and Musk and Trump are using the same tactics that charlatans have used for centuries.
Sounds to me like they'll be trucks just like in Logan that just don't give a crap about anything on the road. Who needs horses and cattle anyway, or pedestrians
I'm not really sure where the comment saying that the cargo would be the battery comes from.
I'm not sure if they're talking volume or weight - I assumed that the same volume used by a traditional cab would be batteries (as I presume for manually moving the cab in small spaces, a controller, like the ones used for UAVs would be used). Another way to look at the question would be is how far could a Model S go with the front and back trunks as well as the passenger compartment full of batteries?
I wonder if he's thinking of the autonomous trailers in "Logan", where the cargo container was put on an autonomous bed - even then, there's a lot of volume/weight allowed for batteries.
Rather than just some vague comments, a better explanation and some numbers explaining the thought process would have been nice.
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
I don't know about anyone else, but I'm just going to be excited to share the road with a friggin train.
Can we NOT give military names to AI machines?
I've watched Terminator too many times to be comfortable with that idea.
It could get pretty exciting if you need to change lanes with one of these convoys going by...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I'm thinking this could be great for Australia with their big Road Trains...
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Platooning is nothing new. Every major truck manufacturer has worked on this to the point of proving the technology in a massive cross EU demonstration last year.
I'm quite disappointed to see this announcement as it displays a lack of originality, lack of striving for something amazing and above all is now yet another company doing their own thing because the truck manufacturers didn't work together on this.
I guess it's just me, but convoy driving is an awful concept. There's a line of semis, they block exit signs, and often times they block exits themselves, esp if the highway is a merger with crossing paths, as it's difficult to navigate over and find a space. I also imagine some of these looping onramp-exit combos would be freaking hell if you hit a convoy of these esp if they are merging and the exit (merging area) is short.
If your car is a tiny european SmartCar, you will not be safe once flocks of semis take to the highways.
Remember kids, if you're not paying for the service, YOU ARE THE PRODUCT THAT IS BEING SOLD.
From TFA: "If trucks at the back of the formation were able to automatically follow a lead vehicle, that could cut the need for drivers. "
In a tight enough formation it would also reduce wind resistance, greatly reducing energy consumption in following vehicles. Additionally, by alternating lead vehicles, total distance between battery charges would be vastly improved. This is how bird flocks can cover great distances.
But the result is that you have reinvented the freight train, with all the disadvantages of expensive energy robbing rubber tires, steep hills, city traffic, and the need to share the road with people like me. Look out!
...omphaloskepsis often...
What's the difference between a semi-truck and a full truck?
...personal vehicles do this too.
The scenario works like this:
You get in your car (or *a* car), and tell it where you want to go. Let's say it's a 50+ km journey using a motorway. Along the way, it's extremely likely that someone else, in another vehicle will be sharing a significant portion of your journey (that's why there's so much traffic on the motorways). So, each vehicle needs only to advertise its intended course, along the way, at regular intervals, then other cars join in - driving close enough to benefit from decreased wind resistance. In fact this benefits the lead car too, since such a configuration reduces the lead cars drag. When each car in the "train" needs to depart the train, it only needs to emit a warning signal a few seconds before hand, then maneuvers out of the train, whereupon the train reforms without that car in.
This has all kind of benefits for the passengers. Reduced cost, and nose. Increased safety. Probably faster journeys too.
> Volvo have been working on this for a long time.
Note that Volvo, Scania, Siemens and the Swedish State are betting on wire-electric trucks, not battery, because they argue batteries cannot provide sustained power in the several hundred horsepower and torque in the thousand newtonmeter range. (Remember that Tesla sedan broke down due to overheat on the Nurenberg Ring lap when they tried to drive it around at sportcars' pace, despite having nominally about 750bhp / 600Nm in 4-wheel drive mode.)
One version of the swedish wired e-trucks uses dual overhead catenaries with 750V DC supply. It looks a bit like an old railway electrification scheme called "sistema italiana" with dual panthographs on top of the cab. Another setup being tested uses road-embedded / narrow slit buried conductors with 800V AC. The trucks retain their usual diesel engine but only for for overtaking and last mile travel purposes.
Freight hauling seems to be going back to the concept of a train. A train of containers, moving on a fixed route, with limited human control. The reason it's appealing is because it's efficient, and the simplest way to move large amounts of goods from one place to another.
The reasons why hauling freight by train has been slowly been replaced by trucks over the last 50 years are many, but the most significant reason is the cost of maintaining the network of roads/rails on which the trains and trucks run. It is much cheaper to run a truck over a road because the costs of the road itself are heavily subsidized by state and federal taxes. The trucking company doesn't have to worry about the cost of construction or maintenance. The railroads have to maintain the rails, bridges, and have to pay taxes on the property the rails run on. That railroads are still in operation now, when their costs are so much higher than trucking, is a testament to just how efficient they are.
So it's not surprising that any type of long haul freight on highways would resemble a train, it's just a more efficient way of moving things.
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
the Army/Marines have been using this for Years (i think horses were used by the Marines in the beta versions)
I'm not sure my 2004 Impala 9C1 would do well at Nürburgring either, but it's got a FCO of 124MPH. And I would have to let up on the pedla for the same reason - overheat.
I'm thinking not many production cars could run a max speed lap, save for some econoboxen that have an anemic 4 banger for a speed limiter. Prius? Full out?
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
No worse than the 3-series missiles being randomly driven by college pukes.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
"(Remember that Tesla sedan broke down due to overheat on the Nurenberg Ring lap when they tried to drive it around at sportcars' pace, despite having nominally about 750bhp / 600Nm in 4-wheel drive mode.)"
Can fixed with better cooling & allowing regen to be turned off.
Pain is merely failure leaving the body
Once again, externalities.
Trucks do not pay enough taxes and fees to offset their impact on roads, other drivers, the environment, etc.
Trucks where I live are a fucking menace to anyone following the law, or even common-sense driving practice. 40-ton vehicles fucking tailgate me when I am 10-15 mph ABOVE the speed limit. In the right fucking lane!
Fuck the Truck.