Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Sorry driver less trucks are fully legal now in Texas. Fact of life. And that is sufficient to get the driver less trucks fully established. Other states will fall into line so as not to lose business.
No, they're not. There is a driver in the seat - that's not "driverless" by definition. It is not legal in any state to have trucks with no drivers in the cab.
What they're doing is no different than me driving my car with adaptive cruise and lane departure on and me having 2 hands on a sandwich.
No, they're not. There is a driver in the seat - that's not "driverless" by definition. It is not legal in any state to have trucks with no drivers in the cab.
What they're doing is no different than me driving my car with adaptive cruise and lane departure on and me having 2 hands on a sandwich.
l
Check the TX law again. Only requirement on a truck is that it obeys the traffic laws. there is no requirement for a driver. And the safety drivers will not be in the drivers seat.
"These drivers also guide the trucks on and off the highways, and into distribution terminals; most companies working on automated trucks have focused on simple highway driving, and plan to leave urban driving to humans for the foreseeable future."
When it comes to simple highway cruising I would agree they have 99.5% of that covered. But truck terminals are not right on the highway, you actually have to take an exit and navigate through some city streets sometimes to get there.
"self-driving" is not a success until they can actually remove a driver from the cab for 100% of the trip. That is the whole point, isn't it? If you still need a driver in the seat the whole time what exactly is the savings with that?
The savings could come from the truck working longer hours than the driver.
Such as driving from one end of the country for 8 hours, sleeping in the sleeper
cab while the truck drives long highway stretches overnight, then taking over at the other end of the country and dropping off the load.
l
Check the TX law again. Only requirement on a truck is that it obeys the traffic laws. there is no requirement for a driver. And the safety drivers will not be in the drivers seat.
Yeah, but who can guarantee a truck can actually follow the law 100% of the time? That's why all of them are still putting drivers in the cab. (Not to mention the massive liability if something happens with no driver, and the other issue of driverless trucks still not being able to go dock to dock.)
The savings could come from the truck working longer hours than the driver.
Such as driving from one end of the country for 8 hours, sleeping in the sleeper
cab while the truck drives long highway stretches overnight, then taking over at the other end of the country and dropping off the load.
No doubt....that's the whole point. Trucking companies have massive driver shortages and not enough talent so that's the carrot for them. Problem is, actually getting to that point is going to take a while. Even if the trucks get to the point where they can run properly 100% of the time, they have a bunch of legal issues to take care of. (Insurance, too, as no insurance companies will insure driverless trucks right now and they don't want to. They still want someone behind the wheel 100% of the time.)
very few people drive 1000 miles in a day so that is a unnecessary requirement......400-450 would be more than enough
I disagree....
I live in western NY, and one of my colleagues from work, used to own a condo unit in North Myrtle Beach, SC, which he would rent to friends and family. The distance is roughly 825-835 miles, depending on what part of my town you live in. Several times, some of my friends/co-workers and I booked the unit for a "long weekend", to play some golf.
We'd head out right after work, on a Wednesday, drive the 14 hours, straight through, and arrive early Thursday morning. Play golf through Sunday afternoon, get a good night's sleep, then leave early Monday morning, and drive straight through, again, and get home in the early evening. Back to work on Tuesday morning. Couldn't do that with an electric car....in fact, given the range of most electric cars, that trip would involve at least 4 days, just for the drive!!
I live in western NY, and one of my colleagues from work, used to own a condo unit in North Myrtle Beach, SC, which he would rent to friends and family. The distance is roughly 825-835 miles, depending on what part of my town you live in. Several times, some of my friends/co-workers and I booked the unit for a "long weekend", to play some golf.
We'd head out right after work, on a Wednesday, drive the 14 hours, straight through, and arrive early Thursday morning. Play golf through Sunday afternoon, get a good night's sleep, then leave early Monday morning, and drive straight through, again, and get home in the early evening. Back to work on Tuesday morning. Couldn't do that with an electric car....in fact, given the range of most electric cars, that trip would involve at least 4 days, just for the drive!!
I have doubts that this is a common occurrence for most people in the US.
Even in that situation, did you not once stop for food, gas, or going to the restroom? You’re right that it takes most though not all electric cars currently on the market quite a bit more time, but the rate of improvement has been rapid in terms of range capacity, speed of charging, and ubiquity of fast chargers. If we use the entry level Nissan Leaf as an example, the debut 2011 base trim was 73 miles of range with charging maxed at 3.3kW which took 8 hours to get from empty (well, “empty”) to full charge. The Nissan Leaf in 2018, not the pricier extended-range Leaf+, was 151 miles of range with charging maxed at 50kW and with chargers being far more ubiquitous. In 7 years, the trip you outlined went from 11 or 12 charging stops at 8 hours each to 5 or 6 charging stops at an hour each for what is certainly not the longest range or fastest charging vehicle on the market. It’s still a hefty time premium over a gas car, but it’s much more manageable and it’s likely that the next revamp makes the difference negligible.
In your edge case, there are vehicles that can do it with two or three stops at a fast charger, but I think there’s a pretty solid argument that it is an edge case that will quickly become easier to do for more EVs in the next five years.
Last edited by OyCrumbler; 08-22-2019 at 08:16 AM..
I have doubts that this is a common occurrence for most people in the US.
Even in that situation, did you not once stop for food, gas, or going to the restroom? You’re right that it takes most though not all electric cars currently on the market quite a bit more time, but the rate of improvement has been rapid in terms of range capacity, speed of charging, and ubiquity of fast chargers. If we use the entry level Nissan Leaf as an example, the debut 2011 base trim was 73 miles of range with charging maxed at 3.3kW which took 8 hours to get from empty (well, “empty”) to full charge. The Nissan Leaf in 2018, not the pricier extended-range Leaf+, was 151 miles of range with charging maxed at 50kW and with chargers being far more ubiquitous. In 7 years, the trip you outlined went from 11 or 12 charging stops at 8 hours each to 5 or 6 charging stops at an hour each for what is certainly not the longest range or fastest charging vehicle on the market. It’s still a hefty time premium over a gas car, but it’s much more manageable and it’s likely that the next revamp makes the difference negligible.
In your edge case, there are vehicles that can do it with two or three stops at a fast charger, but I think there’s a pretty solid argument that it is an edge case that will quickly become easier to do for more EVs in the next five years.
People that believe this must not have kids. In a gas car, you pull over at any exit you want and you even have a choice of what side of the street to use. If you had to pull over to for a kid to use the bathroom anyway, just top off with gas while you’re there. Pulling over just because you need a recharge just after the kids fell asleep because the next one isn’t for a hundred miles is annoying.
With EV’s even the most ubiquitous and fastest chargers require a bit of planning. Even then you have to determine which charger you pulled in at, how fast does it charge, is there even a spot to charge, can your car even handle the speed that it charges at (or do you need to start looking for a new one to use the fastest chargers). Unless where you’re going also has a destination charger (most family and friends’s houses don’t have a charging station for guest to use), then you have to top off just before you get to your destination just to have some range for driving around the area you drove to.
People that believe this must not have kids. In a gas car, you pull over at any exit you want and you even have a choice of what side of the street to use. If you had to pull over to for a kid to use the bathroom anyway, just top off with gas while you’re there. Pulling over just because you need a recharge just after the kids fell asleep because the next one isn’t for a hundred miles is annoying.
With EV’s even the most ubiquitous and fastest chargers require a bit of planning. Even then you have to determine which charger you pulled in at, how fast does it charge, is there even a spot to charge, can your car even handle the speed that it charges at (or do you need to start looking for a new one to use the fastest chargers). Unless where you’re going also has a destination charger (most family and friends’s houses don’t have a charging station for guest to use), then you have to top off just before you get to your destination just to have some range for driving around the area you drove to.
Which part? I wrote multiple things in there. If there's a general idea that there aren't people with EVs with kids who take roadtrips? I think that can probably be shown to be false.
If you're talking about the lack of fast charging stations, yes, that's definitely something that needs to be changed for the set of people who frequently take long road trips in order for them to consider EVs. That is true. What is also true is that these fast charging stations are proliferating fairly rapidly and with faster charging times (along with longer ranges so you need to charge less often). Think about the situation between the 2011 Nissan Leaf and the 2018 Nissan Leaf and how doable this trip was. It seems extremely unlikely that there isn't going to be a further expansion of fast charging stations, charging rates, and range increases.
Electric vehicles are happening....but for me, the real Key would be low electric rates and/or a good PV Solar Array on my roof. We pay high electric prices (20 cents) so an electric car doesn't make sense.
Also, it would be the pull of electric AND self-driving (to whatever extent) that would pull me in. We are 65 and fine driving now but if Tesla has their stuff really upgraded in 5 year or so I might be a customer for the safety part alone.
For many people the range is not relevant - that is, the 3/4 of people who probably never go anywhere far. Even in those cases, it's often a two car family so having one EV works.
We just bought some new cars (one a hybrid) - I would have considered a Tesla 3 if it was about 10K less with all the self-driving stuff....
For now I'd say most who care about these things (pollution, etc.) should go hybrid and get 44-55MPG
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
