When we talk about fuel economy, hybrid cars tend to take the center of attention for most folk, although electric cars too, have their fair share of fans. However, what about large semi trucks in the vein of Optimus Prime? Those hardly get any kind of love and for obvious reasons, their fuel economy is not exactly the best in the world to begin with. Having said that, wind resistance plays a role on the highway, too, and trucks that travel close together to reduce wind resistance might save fuel but increase the risk of accidents, which is why the introduction of robotic assistance when it comes to regulating a truck’s speed and braking controls might help.
This particular system would not be too far off the market from adaptive cruise control setups that luxury vehicles feature in recent times, but it has the added advantage of a wireless link set up between the vehicles in order for drivers to be able to check up on one another.
Peloton Tech has come up with this particular system, where the lead truck will be driven as normal as possible, with the following truck relying on its human driver to operate the steering. Robotic technology will take over the throttle and brakes to make sure that the truck remains 33 feet all the time from the lead truck, and with Peloton system’s instant reaction time, the risk of an accident is reduced dramatically.
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