What kind of emergency? This is a "restricted" lane, so the only vehicles that should be there are other vehicles on rails, so they can't go any faster than the one in front of them. They can use adaptive cruise to maintain spacing, or even better some kind of peer to peer network to coordinate their speed as well as entry/exit from the lane.
As for using the rails for power, I'm not sure you are considering HOW many batteries it would take to power a semi-tractor trailer rig. Air resistance is proba bly over 90% of the energy requirement, switching to rails saves energy, but less than 10%. By my calculations each truck will require roughly 1 ton of Li-Ion batteries to go 100 miles. To go 500 miles, it would need 5 tons, in addition to 5 tons of cargo it can't carry, 5 tons of batteries is a LOT. Using powered rails means they never need to stop to recharge. Since they don't have to worry about driving around vehicles, etc. You won't need a driver when it's on the rails, so even if you dont use autonymous trucks, the drive can sleep while it's on the rails. With powered rails the truck only needs enough batteries to get to/from the highway, 1 ton will probably be sufficient (since it can charge them while on the rails) December 3, 2020 2:25 PM, "Peri Hartman via EV" <[email protected]> wrote: > Very interesting idea. Would it be possible to design something that allows > that transition: to and > from rails ? It would need to be able to make the switch in a few tenths of a > second in order to > respond to emergencies. I've seen the track work trucks which have rubber > tires and steel wheels > that can be lowered, but they don't have quick action. Maybe a similar > mechanism could work, > though. > > As for electrifying, that sounds unnecessary. True, there would be a lot of > wind resistance eating > up energy, but overall the efficiency should still go up dramatically and we > are already reaching > the economic point of using a large battery for long hauls. Or, am I wrong on > this: is the majority > of energy, at 70mph, used to push wind ? > > Another consideration: with good "autopilot" software, drafting becomes > possible. That means a > series of trucks could approach the efficiency of a train, as far as wind > resistance goes. If wind > resistance is the major player, here, then the steel rails aren't needed. > Just do the drafting. > > Then, there's the cost consideration: how much would it cost to put in high > quality rails on the > long stretches of the Interstates ? A lot. > > Peri > > << Annoyed by leaf blowers ? https://quietcleanseattle.org >> > > ------ Original Message ------ > From: "Peter VanDerWal via EV" <[email protected]> > To: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]> > Cc: [email protected] > Sent: 03-Dec-20 9:07:07 AM > Subject: Re: [EVDL] 'All's not well with UK public charging' / Autonomy > >> If that's the case, then they aught to embed steel rails in the lane. The >> truck can get to/from the >> lane on rubber tires and then switch to steel wheels on steel rails. Much >> better efficieny, reduce >> wear on tires (saves money) and less micro-partical pollution. >> >> As an added bonus the rails could be electrified to power the trucks so they >> don't need to haul >> around tons of batteries. Power could be derived (at least part of the time) >> by using solar roofs >> for those lanes. >> >> This, of course, would make too much sense to ever be implemented. > > _______________________________________________ > UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub > ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html > INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org > Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA) _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub ARCHIVE: http://www.evdl.org/archive/index.html INFO: http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
