General > General Technical Chat
The highway where trucks work like electric trains, can this actually work?
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SiliconWizard:
This looks highly ridiculous, in particular in terms of maintenance, resistance to truck crashes (yes they actually happen, unless you live in a fantasy world stuck inside Excel sheets?), etc. Oh and what if there's a power cut on the highway? You're just stuck there? Or would the trucks still have gas engines just in case? Getting stuck on the highway happens - for instance when it's heavily snowing - and it's not fun. The guys in this case usually leave the engine on to get heat and electricity.

Railway is certainly a much better option, and was actually heavily used for goods transportation in a number of countries. That was the case over here, until road transportation got relentlessly promoted - for reasons that would require other threads to develop - and now railway transportation is still used, but much less.

I understand that in some countries, the railway network is not so great. But just think of the cost of this mess (and again maintenance and risks) compared to the railway.

Oh, but to make this idea even more idiotic, why not couple it with a solar roadway?
Kleinstein:
The trucks still have a battery and the ones currently used likely also a diesel engine. The plans are only to have the overhead lines on some highways that are heavily used by trucks, so the trucks can get away with a smaller battery. 

I still don't think it is a good idea - the existing railway system is more suitable and needs less energy and less drivers.  It would make little sense to build if only infrequently used and only locally. It only works in large scale.
macaba:
I think this fails KISS, particularly when there is a more convenient technology (large batteries without rare earths, charger power generated from renewables).
If this system gets rolled out, there will be a move back to battery only within 10-20 years.

Ed.Kloonk:
The economics the guy uses in the vid doesn't instil a lot of confidence. Too many Hail Mary predictions in there. It will probably eventually be made to break even but not for the monetary reasons tabled.
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