If the cab-forward layout is allowed for the big-rigs, why not in light-duty ones?

[freebeard]

Speed limits based on momentum: Big rigs can only go 20mph, but motorcycles can go 200mph.

[/jk]

[Hersbird]

Or just like train locomotives, multiple drive or even push engines are controlled from a single engine. You can have some powered for acceleration and hill and then shut down when cruising.
I don't want big rigs going 20 mph, first shipping goods would cost a much more, and in many places everybody would have to go 20 and then there would be even more head on crashes from passing.

[CFECO]

Originally Posted by freebeard

Speed limits based on momentum: Big rigs can only go 20mph, but motorcycles can go 200mph.

[/jk]

The rest of us can go 110, the price of everything skyrockets, and good fresh food is a memory.

[freebeard]

[/jk]

It was s'posed to be a joke.

To put it back ontopic, I've been thinking I should do this to the front of my VW van, sort of a partial trolley-top:



Narrowed up until the door hinge line is viable and with the stagnation point dropped until the headlights aren't submerged. Foam-filled bumper inside.

Wouldn't it have a dieselpunk locomotive vibe?

[Cobb]

How a bout something like this minus the cow catcher?

[niky]

Originally Posted by Hersbird

Or just like train locomotives, multiple drive or even push engines are controlled from a single engine. You can have some powered for acceleration and hill and then shut down when cruising.
I don't want big rigs going 20 mph, first shipping goods would cost a much more, and in many places everybody would have to go 20 and then there would be even more head on crashes from passing.

Better to have multiple cars linked to a single engine... or to do car trains as some are proposing, using car-to-car peer networks and radar-guided cruise control.

Would be too... socialist for some... but imagine how much fuel we could save? Radar-guided cruise control can already make this possible. All we need is failsafe measures for when the front car/driver experience terminal software/humanware problems.

I would very much like the ability to drive my car onto the highway and seamlessly merge into a passing mega-train... take my hands off the wheel... read a newspaper, eat breakfast, nap... then pull out of the train manually (the gap closing behind me as I go) at my exit to drive to my destination.

[freebeard]

Cobb -- The cowcatcher would be easy, the cab would be a lot of work. I don't like showing sketches, so I Photoshopped this withiin an inch of it's life; so I could show what I mean.

Would be too... socialist for some... but imagine how much fuel we could save? Radar-guided cruise control can already make this possible. All we need is failsafe measures for when the front car/driver experience terminal software/humanware problems.

I respect your opinion, but IMHO that would never scale as a socialist endeavor. Single point of failure and all. What would scale is anarchism. Code is law and flocking fish and birds show it's possible.

[Hersbird]

Originally Posted by freebeard;414759


I respect your opinion, but IMHO that would never scale as a socialist endeavor. Single point of failure and all. What [I

would[/I] scale is anarchism. Code is law and flocking fish and birds show it's possible.

I'm not positive what you are saying but the better example to a highway would be spawning salmon. Still we are currently at the limits of human anarchy on our highways. We need electronics to improve our own reflexes and some over ride of bad human behavior like over reacting to changes. Maybe that is what you are actually saying.

On a side similar note I'm pretty sure a group of Mercedes testers was pulled over around these parts doing 100mph bumper to bumper in a drafting chain, I wonder if they were having fun until Montana highway patrol stepped in?

[niky]

Originally Posted by freebeard

I respect your opinion, but IMHO that would never scale as a socialist endeavor. Single point of failure and all. What would scale is anarchism. Code is law and flocking fish and birds show it's possible.

Hmmm... as evidenced by the peloton in bicycle racing, wherein dozens of riders ride wheel to wheel every race for miles without incident, flocking is a pretty smart way to use the road and conserve energy. Also more egalitarian, as the lead car changes more fluidly, allowing equal distribution of savings.

Well... it works until someone falls down in the middle of the pack. Still single point of failure.

If cars were much more intuitive to drive, or if drivers were better, we could conceivably drive in such close proximity on the highway. We do it while walking, instinctively... we do it while biking or skating... hell... in big groups on motorcycles, people do it as second nature... why not while driving?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIthEM6pDqw

A radical rethink of how we design cars could yield extreme benefits in terms of fuel efficiency and passenger capacity on roads, without resorting to full automation or a removal of human autonomy.

But if automation is good enough to support flocking without making the driver feel like they have no control, that's good enough for me.

[Frank Lee]

Just think... 2x ? 3x? 4x more people on the roads? Oh Happy Day!