Build back better proposes 6 billion to electrify post office fleet 70%

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

School buses should be designed to perform their function efficiently and be mass produced on a highly automated manufacturing line, for instance.

Stainless Steel monocoque bullet-proof Cyberbus!

[JSH]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

The delivery vehicle should have automatic start/stop and be a hybrid. Then the ignition should be enabled/disabled with a proximity fob worn by the driver. That would eliminate stopping/starting the engine and all but ensure 100% compliance with those rules, and save a lot of time in the process.

That's what I'm saying though, is that it appears almost no thought was given to efficiency with regards to ubiquitous and routine tasks like delivering stuff to people's residence.

It amazes me that we continue to modify existing platforms to perform a function rather than purpose build them. School buses should be designed to perform their function efficiently and be mass produced on a highly automated manufacturing line, for instance. They should be electric by now. Whoever successfully builds one and solves the infrastructure problem stands to be a billionaire, as there's how many busses in the world as a market?

School buses are built on a highly efficient assembly line purpose built for the task. In the USA Bluebird and Thomas Built Bus split the volume and both offer electric buses that few districts buy because they are focused on initial cost instead of total operating costs.

[Piotrsko]

You forgot International busses and maybe 1 or 2 others, but they're ditto. Huge resistance to anything not conventional by school boards until forced by state mandates.

School busses are monocoquue

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

School busses are monocoquue

Aren't the bodies a semi-monocoque design, like most airliners, assembled over a ladder-frame?

[freebeard]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

School busses are monocoquue

But are they bulletproof? "Won't someone think of the [occupants]?"

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Something like the dead-man switch of a jet-ski? BTW another feature which could also eventually make a comeback is the stand-up driving ability.

The old Jeeps before the LLV had an ignition cutoff tied to weight on the driver's seat. They ended up all disabled pretty quickly but that was back in the day when safety was job 3 or 4. Mainly the problem was cutting off while just reaching a little for some mail. I don't know, it was before my time here.

On a side note, I saw where the Rivian Amazon delivery van with already poor range gets really bad when the heater or AC is used. Supposedly not an insulated pre-production van but it's taking a 40% range hit in the real world. Guess what's never going to happen? Delivery drivers not using the AC even on a mild day warm, or the heater on a mild day cool. San Diego is the only place they will see the 120 mile range.

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

The old Jeeps before the LLV had an ignition cutoff tied to weight on the driver's seat. They ended up all disabled pretty quickly but that was back in the day when safety was job 3 or 4. Mainly the problem was cutting off while just reaching a little for some mail. I don't know, it was before my time here.

I took a Fiat Argo taxi which featured start-stop and a manual transmission today. A car developed for "emerging" markets featuring such tech, so it might not be much rocket-science to implement, even though it lacked some sort of cutoff tied to the presence of the driver aboard.

[Piotrsko]

Originally Posted by cRiPpLe_rOoStEr

Aren't the bodies a semi-monocoque design, like most airliners, assembled over a ladder-frame?

The busses I have driven, the frame is just a structural tie, the whole body is one piece, but that is wrinkle wall busses. I suppose that could be semi.

[freebeard]

A full length subframe?

[Piotrsko]

Depends on whether it is front engined or a pusher. Pushers the frame is a couple of foot shorter on both ends,ending somewhere around the wheels, conventional it is just the rear that's shorter.