ok, so this is some oddball idea that could happen in 50 years. might never happen but i'll throw it out as a discussion topic. i always think about it while i drive

basically on the highway, you'd form a "train" with other cars.

for this to happen, we'd need cruise/lane control sytems. those are already here, if not coming in the near future. they'd let your car drive itself down the highway

each car/trailer would have a reciever on front/back. in the reciever would be a built-in electrical connection to control you car's speed, acceleration, and braking. you could hit a button to break the chain if you wanted to get off the highway or something. the cars behind you would catch up and connect to the car in front of you

the computer end would be fine...any car being "master" at any time with any car being able to take over if that one left. once you connect, your car listens to "master"

the benefits seem huge. you sit back and let the car drive at 70. even better that "auto-drive" you and the other cars/truck all share the same power and braking. an accident a mile up the chain has cars braking for an entire mile, evenly. up/down hills would all be shared by other cars in the train.

i could see it happening WAY down the road. thoughts?

 

i saw a program on this a while back, something with magnetic recievers embedded in the pavement. cant remember what it was called but was an interesting concept to say the least. i think the cars used were a bunch of buicks.

 

I don't think that would work here everybody wants to be first in line, and they will run over you and kill you to be 3' off your front bumper to go the same speed as you. Go figure!

 

Sir-Step away from the crack pipe-now!! <j/k>
Jay

 

tomtoc, back away from the high!

i want some of what you're smoking!

 

i never said it was logical or would happen anytime soon

 

that brings the fun out fo driving! it sounds like a neat idea and way down the road. but i would have to avoid it, i like shifting my own gears and controling my own speed, brakes

 

I have to agree with frakenford here. While some people who hate driving might like this idea, I enjoy driving A LOT and that would put me to sleep.

Another thing, a slight flaw in your logic. You say all of the participants contribute some of the power to the train using their vehicles, except if anyone except the front car accelerates around a turn, the car in front of the accelerating car would spin out because they would be pushing the rear wheels of the car in front of them out to the side. Does that make sense?

 

yeah it does. you would send them into the wall . it sure would make the drive more interesting though

 

I really believe this could be accomplished by cutting huge slots in the highway putting drop down pins in vehickes and making bumpers magnetic. LOL!!!!!

 

PS: Could you help me with my new meg-lev engine i'm inventing?

 

While the cars won't attach....your actually not too far off of the future. Using radar, gps, and optical sensors cars will be able to follow other cars and arrive at their destination by themselves. They're already testing semis that are programed to follow a grid painted on the back of the truck in front of them in europe. One driver....5 or 6 semis following him with no drivers...

 

There has been a lot of testing in germany and japan for this type of system. I saw a show that demonstrated E-class benz doing this successfully at 3-digit speeds with the lead car driven by a human and the following 2 cars driven by computer with minimal distance between them. The latter two cars reacted very well to the lead car, so even at triple digit speeds nothing more than a car length was needed between. I beleve not only were the two computer cars monitoring distance but they were communicating via high speed telemetry.

The problem I have with this system is if participants in a train I am attached to, maintain their own vehicles.

Not everyone is meticulous and pays attention to detail as you know by the number of lopsided POS cars dragging mufflers and bumpers down the highway puking oil fumes out the tailpipe.

 

yea i know we're halfway there with cars driving themselves. it just seems like if we were all connected, everyone's car would be a lot more efficient.

 

Tomtoc don't let everyone make fun of you. I too have though to connecting all cars on the interstate into trains. I've actually kinda done this with some of my friends by chaining our trucks together. We had a 99 Cummins as the locomotive, my '87 behind, then a 85 Chebby caboose. It was a long straight road and we didn't want to waste gas, when we were all going down the same 60 mile stretch.