Tesla Motorway Convoy

[robbo100]

I was wondering, does anyone know if Tesla have looked into using multiple Tesla vehicles, on the motorway, so that the front vehicle becomes the master Autopilot vehicle, allowing other Teslas to tailgate the leading car, to reduce drag and minimise power usage.

One would think it would be reasonably easy to create a link between multiple cars, and when the front car needs to brake, the other cars do so at exactly the same time, and keep a "safe" (non zero) gap between the cars.

Clearly there will be regulatory issues, and no doubt some interesting user and user interface issues to overcome, but it could make a really big impact on long journeys.

Could be super cool to have a string of Teslas, all with a small gap between them, safely helping to save the planet :-D

 

[MrBadger]

It’s called platooning.

I was nearly involved in a project back around 2016/17 with trucks. Technically it was feasible (it basically required lane keep assist, dynamic cruise control and a specialised communication system) but iirc there were a number of concerns (eg debris being kicked up from truck in front damaging following vehicle) but more importantly human behaviour of vehicles interacting with effectively a long immovable train - a particular issue around on/off ramps.

 

[RowdyMY]

True on the size issue. A*holes and indecisive/inattentive drivers will always be an issue.

It doesn't take but 2-3 though to see huge gains. What if it was capped at, say 3 max?

Back when I was younger, dumber, and bulletproof my buddy and I did this manually driving on I-20 from LA to TX. I normally averaged 17 mpg in my F-150 FX4 Super Crew. Got 31 by staying about a foot off his bumper while he used cruise control and I drove manually. IIRC he got ~25 as the lead and that was just with 2 of us.

...hand wave at the tech and confidence checks required for now. I know latency and comm surety would be a thing in addition to the computer power required for vehicles of different size/weights/configs including brake and tire wear. Academically speaking it's an interesting thought.

 

[KArnold]

If you aren't the lead dog, the view never changes. Personally, I think I would hate this even if I trusted the tech. There's more to life than being efficient. I'm sure others would jump at the opportunity.

 

[mangrove79]

This is the weirdest idea I've read on this forum, no offense to OP, but just strange reading it. It doesn't make any sense from so many different perspectives.

• How often do you have a string of families in the same city wanting to go to the same long-distance destination at the same time?
• What's the chance that they all have Teslas? (maybe in 20 years when adoption is 100%, but still they won't be all Teslas)
• Do all cars in the motorcade have bathroom breaks at the same time? If one person in one car ate something bad and need to go right away, your armada would all exit at the same time, or all stop on the side of the road? That would be funny.
• At what speed would you actually see noticeable gain in drag reduction for the following cars?
• And at how close of a following distance to realize that gain?
• If some driver squeezes in between that chain link of cars, then all hell will break loose. The chain is essentially useless. We all seen aggressive drivers that can literally squeeze into any gap.
• If you're talking about a following distance of less than a car length (at above 70mph or 110kmph), you're creating a "wall" of cars that could prevent other cars from exiting.
• Phantom breaking is still a thing. At a super-tight following formation, it's anyone's guess whether there is enough time for your "signal transmission" before the following car rear-ends the one in front. LOL.

Autonomous driving as depicted in I, Robot is the future of driving IMO, where perhaps cars do communicate to maximize efficiency and avoid accidents. I can see a million reasons for that future, none of which is reducing drag and minimize battery usage.

 

[Daniel in SD]

This is the weirdest idea I've read on this forum, no offense to OP, but just strange reading it. It doesn't make any sense from so many different perspectives.

• How often do you have a string of families in the same city wanting to go to the same long-distance destination at the same time?
• What's the chance that they all have Teslas? (maybe in 20 years when adoption is 100%, but still they won't be all Teslas)
• Do all cars in the motorcade have bathroom breaks at the same time? If one person in one car ate something bad and need to go right away, your armada would all exit at the same time, or all stop on the side of the road? That would be funny.
• At what speed would you actually see noticeable gain in drag reduction for the following cars?
• And at how close of a following distance to realize that gain?
• If some driver squeezes in between that chain link of cars, then all hell will break loose. The chain is essentially useless. We all seen aggressive drivers that can literally squeeze into any gap.
• If you're talking about a following distance of less than a car length (at above 70mph or 110kmph), you're creating a "wall" of cars that could prevent other cars from exiting.
• Phantom breaking is still a thing. At a super-tight following formation, it's anyone's guess whether there is enough time for your "signal transmission" before the following car rear-ends the one in front. LOL.

Autonomous driving as depicted in I, Robot is the future of driving IMO, where perhaps cars do communicate to maximize efficiency and avoid accidents. I can see a million reasons for that future, none of which is reducing drag and minimize battery usage.

Tesla is the 2nd best selling brand here in California. At any given time on the freeway there are multiple Teslas in sight. There's no reason you would have to know the people you're platooning with. Presumably platooning would take place in the left most lane so as not to block traffic. The vehicles would drive close enough together that no one could squeeze in. Tesla Vision solves phantom braking.
The only way I see any of this working is having a dedicated left lane for platooning with cars entering and exiting the lane while under computer control. Not only would you get efficiency gains you'd also increase throughput.
There have been studies on truck platooning with modest efficiency gains. Truck Platooning Evaluations

 

[ThomasD]

Too many things to go wrong. Lead truck blows a tire and swerves a bit. Do all other trucks swerve even though there is no danger to the trucks behind the lead truck? Will heavy vehicle spray from wet roads affect the sensors on the following vehicles?

 

[mangrove79]

Tesla is the 2nd best selling brand here in California. At any given time on the freeway there are multiple Teslas in sight. There's no reason you would have to know the people you're platooning with. Presumably platooning would take place in the left most lane so as not to block traffic. The vehicles would drive close enough together that no one could squeeze in. Tesla Vision solves phantom braking.
The only way I see any of this working is having a dedicated left lane for platooning with cars entering and exiting the lane while under computer control. Not only would you get efficiency gains you'd also increase throughput.
There have been studies on truck platooning with modest efficiency gains. Truck Platooning Evaluations

Maximizing traffic efficiency/throughput and minimizing accidents are definitely two big reasons for full computer-controlled autonomous driving. Platooning would fall into that as a traffic pattern. But the OP was entirely based on the premise of reducing drag and saving power, and therefore saving the planet, which seemed to me as a big stretch. You're arguing something that's very different from the OP, and makes more sense.

Tesla vehicles all have the lowest drag coefficients among all production vehicles on the road, ~0.20-0.23 I think. Semi-trailers on the other hand, have the highest CDs, up to 0.90. Even with the most unrealistic traffic, track, speed, following distance and other conditions, the study showed a sub-10% fuel saving. If you translate that into real-world settings, that gain will probably evaporate to zero or even negative.