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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.
Trains, but in the middle lane on the freeway, blocking other vehicles from merging.
"Platoon" sounds cooler than "lined up".
If they're in the middle lane, how are they blocking other vehicles from merging?
Any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed into law if it acquires the political power to do so.
Oh, I'm sure you could manage to squeeze in.
Have gnu, will travel.
A large convoy packed nose to tail will do it. You're gonna miss your exit. They will have to put the convoy in the left lane, out of the way from the on/off ramps.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
i.e. trains???
Less than 1% of businesses are located on a railroad line. For long haul it might be worth using multi-modal, but for less than 1000 km the delays and queueing on both ends may be too much.
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.e. trains???
Less than 1% of businesses are located on a railroad line. For long haul it might be worth using multi-modal, but for less than 1000 km the delays and queueing on both ends may be too much.
This is for military logistics use. Hey you automated idiots, follow me!
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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
<Prototype electric semi's batteries run low, and it struggles to make it up the hill>
Elon Musk: Are you quitting on me? Well, are you? Then quit, you underpowered fucking smart-car-looking piece of shit! Get the fuck off of my highway! Get the fuck down off of my highway! NOW! MOVE IT! Or I'm going to rip your lug nuts off, so you cannot contaminate the rest of the world! I will motivate you, Prototype A, IF IT SHORT-DICKS EVERY CANNIBAL ON THE CONGO!
I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
Mercy sakes, I think we got ourselves a convoy...
"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.
I'm sure they didn't think of adding a feature that could see a turn signal and let a vehicle in.
Pack it up boys, some Slashdotter just destroyed Tesla's business plan.
sheesh, years and years of research into self driving vehicles.. billions upon billions of dollars spent.. and we're just now reaching the level of the soccer mom?
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.
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...
I think the kinds of bulk shipping businesses that need a platoon of trucks are much more likely to be situated on a railroad line than average.
The trucks do not have to all have the same origin or the same destination. A truck can join or leave a platoon much easier than a railroad car in a train.
And Tesla aren't first on this anyway, Volvo have been working on this for a long time.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
Hmm, seems like since AI doesn't need sleep, it could maintain (rock) such a formation through the night.
Not necessarily - bumper-to-bumper offers considerable fuel efficiency savings(only the first deals with significant wind resistance), especially for big blocky cargo vehicles. And autonomous vehicles have the reflexes to do that safely.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
...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.
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
That's what speed is for, when you are booking though the night..
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
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.
Their they're isn't there. So there.
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
Trucks already convoy.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Get back to us, Elon, when you can duplicate what Volvo were doing a year ago - 1600 km, 4 borders.
http://www.transportengineer.o...
"Cock Up Your Beaver" does not mean what you think. This sig is intended to clog filters and annoy do-gooders
Can you read?
Platoon formation. You think that means let merging cars in?
Wanna buy a bridge?
CB and in between two truckers. Man, the mileage was great for that trip. They kept letting me in, much of the way across I-40.
"So long and thanks for all the fish."