When you are out driving between cities do you see lots of other people going in the same direction?
Of course you do!
What a waste of fuel.
And because of the following distance we must maintain for safety reasons, think of all that momentum being wasted with fighting air resistance.
I don’t want to share a car with a stranger, but is there a way we can stay in our own cars but still benefit from fuel savings?
Yes.
Introducing the “Car Train”.
How to make your car “Car Train” capable
The Car Train kit consists of:
- Electromagnets for the front and back of your car
- An iPhone (and a dashboard mount to hold it)
- The iPhone application “Car Train” (warning: not invented yet)
- Hardware which provides control of brakes and accelerator to the Car Train software
How “Car-Train” works on the open road
- Find someone going a similar speed, in the same direction and click the “Create Car Train” button to announce your intention to link cars
- The software finds cars to connect with, and then the computer will manoeuvre the cars so they can connect by electro-magnet
- The front car is always the primary car. Once the cars are connected, the primary car takes over the brakes and accelerator of the other cars
- If a car in the “car-train” has a turn-off approaching they punch a button to disconnect from the car train
I’m no engineer, but I’m pretty sure this will work.
What do you think? Can you spot any holes in this system? Do have ideas of how to make it better?
Write your ideas in the comments below.
