Sustainable eHighways for Trucks Could Be the Answer to the Increase In ....

Sustainable eHighways for Trucks Could Be the Answer to the Increase in Freight Transport - by Federicco Guerrini/ Tech/ Cutting Edge/ Forbes/ forbes.com

"The world’s first public road project with electrified highway trucks is being conducted in Sweden, and will soon be replicated in California as well.

Sweden’s Minister for Infrastructure Anna Johansson and the Minister of Energy Ibrahim Baylan recently inaugurated the first eHighway system on a public road, a two-kilometer stretch of the E16 highway north of Stockholm.

The trial will last two years and was born from the collaboration of Swedish truck manufacturer Scania with German company Siemens . Two diesel hybrid vehicles have been adapted to operate under a catenary system, similar to the one used by streetcars and trolleybus, which connects the vehicles to the grid, providing clean power and cutting down local emissions..."


Image credits: Scania CV AB


Richard

Interesting test over 2 kilometers, but impracticable over city-to-city distances. Far better to simply put existing trailers on existing railroad flatcars for the majority of their transit distance. Carriers still have to have diesel tractors from origin of the load to the railhead, and from the destination railhead to the delivery. So instead of one diesel tractor and driver, you have two to handle one load of freight.

Jim

Paving the Way for the Autonomoust Truck - by Charles Tilton/ Automotive/ otto/ self-driving trucks/ autonomous vehicles/ TC/ techcrunch.com

"Google has long held the spotlight in developing driverless technology; however, with the emergence of Otto and Elon Musk’s announcement of a Tesla Semi, “driverless trucks” are coming to the forefront of the autonomous vehicle conversation

One major reason the trucking industry is so interested in driverless technology is a chronic shortage of truck drivers, which is threatening to get worse as the Baby Boom generation hits retirement age.

But despite the increased spotlight on autonomous trucks, the reality is that trucking technology still has a long way to go before we see trucks on the road without drivers.

In the meantime, many new technology advances are already helping with the driver shortage by expanding the impact of today’s drivers — while also making trucks and highways safer...."




Richard

RE: the original article....

This will never work in the US. How are they to be expected to block the fast lane if only the truck lane is wired?