91–100 of 104 posts
We could have cable-slots at every uphill, and if there is too much traffic, all energy goes just to moving cars. But they have now acquired kinetic energy and can harness it at next downhill section with breaking generators.
Why cant they just supply kinetic energy? Cars have electric generators themselves. It would be cheaper and safer, just basic cable-car technology. The end-product is kinetic energy, anyway, so basically lossless. We could have cable-slots at every uphill, and if there is too much traffic, all energy goes just to moving cars. But they have now acquired kinetic energy and can harness it at next downhill section with b…
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At high velocities (> 40 km/h?) the main drag comes from aerodynamics (turbulence, air viscosity…), not rolling resistance.
perhaps with autonomous cars and rails the cars can follow each other very closely so improves aerodynamics too.
Why cant they just supply kinetic energy? Cars have electric generators themselves. It would be cheaper and safer, just basic cable-car technology. The end-product is kinetic energy, anyway, so basically lossless. We could have cable-slots at every uphill, and if there is too much traffic, all energy goes just to moving cars. But they have now acquired kinetic energy and can harness it at next downhill section with b…
I guess this would be very costly and have too many risks of damaged cars and/or injuries by a broken cable.
It could be made even safer with magnetic coupling. The cable has strong permanent magnets and you can attach to these or use alternating magnetic field to generate energy.
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Sure, but you'll be disconnected for that and you're going to have to reconnect on the far side. That's going to cause some arcing and wear. On the plus side, self driving cars will have something to aim for. Provided there isn't any snow or ice to deal with.
Arcing from a rail that when filled with salt water gives off 1 volts up at road level?
Arcing may also occur under high current situations with low voltage as long as an arc forms early in the disconnect (just test it on your car battery)
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> Moving goods from the train to the truck is not a negligible cost. Really? I was under the impression that this was one of the primary benefits of standard shipping containers.
That goods transfer costs would be negligible?
I hope Sweden and Germany can make a common DIN Deutche industri normen standard for charging electric vehicles on roads. There would be an added benefit if we could build rail tracks among the electric guidance line. Rail tracks to lower the rolling resistance, metal on metal vs rubber on asphalt. We would then have a hybrid car rail track which should make it easy for autonomous driving. The aim would to bring down…
Let's just only have train tracks? We can still have electric trucks for the last mile, but then they won't need electrified roads. Long-distance goods transport with trucks is such a ridiculous concept, it's really time we just face it: it only ever made sense because the state funds the roads and road repair from general taxation, we have ridiculous subsidies for the fossil fuels that make it run and trains had the…
I think you're grossly underestimating how spread out truck destinations are. You would have to have a very extensive rail network to get cargo anywhere near all the destinations where it's currently trucked. And if the rail network doesn't fall within X average distance of every destination, the value proposition of this idea rapidly becomes negative.
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> Moving goods from the train to the truck is not a negligible cost. Really? I was under the impression that this was one of the primary benefits of standard shipping containers.
That goods transfer costs would be negligible?