The one thing I don't understand is: "Why don't we make all trucking semi-local?"
It would seem with modern automation that you could place relay stations at roughly 250 mile spacings so a driver can pick up a trailer near home, drive 4 hours out, drop off trailer, pick up new one, drive 4 hours back home, drop off trailer, and go home.
This seems like a much easier nut to crack than autonomous driving. Real estate in a lot of flyover country in America is really cheap. And it has other advantages like gasoline and service are at specified points. Basically, treat trailers like IP packets.
What am I missing? (I suspect some sort of CapEx/OpEx accounting tomfoolery that means everybody wants everybody else to take the risk of actually owning things.)
It would seem with modern automation that you could place relay stations at roughly 250 mile spacings so a driver can pick up a trailer near home, drive 4 hours out, drop off trailer, pick up new one, drive 4 hours back home, drop off trailer, and go home.
This seems like a much easier nut to crack than autonomous driving. Real estate in a lot of flyover country in America is really cheap. And it has other advantages like gasoline and service are at specified points. Basically, treat trailers like IP packets.
What am I missing? (I suspect some sort of CapEx/OpEx accounting tomfoolery that means everybody wants everybody else to take the risk of actually owning things.)