[ale] [TOTALLY OT] road trains - what I've been squawking we need for years - fewer drivers!

[Jim Kinney]

http://www.motorauthority.com/blog/1051865_self-driving-cars-take-a-step-closer-to-reality

So imaging telling your car "take me to work" and it is automatically merged
into a bumper-to-literal-bumper train of cars moving at highway speeds until
it is automatically disengaged for your safe exit. 60% of the energy used by
a car is to push the air out of the way. By having the air moved by the lead
car, all cars put in a bit in the train and the overall fuel needs drop by
the number of cars in the train. the longer the train the less overall fuel
is needed by all cars in the train to cover a fixed distance (up to a
point).

This bunch is making it work with current release cars. For maximum
efficiency, cars will be the same shape, flat on the front and back with
maybe a way to alter the shape of the front and back if they are the lead or
trailing car to improve wind resistance.

The fewer idiots we have piloting cars, the few wrecks so we can make them
lighter. The lighter the car, the less fuel is needed to move it.

I welcome our robotic overlords (as long as it's not running a variant of
windows :-)

-- 
-- 
James P. Kinney III
I would rather stumble along in freedom than walk effortlessly in chains.
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