The other day, I was reading about how Hertz Rent a Car and Zip Car have gotten together to help promote ridesharing with a car rental industry flair. Some of the more evangelical types who like the idea of car sharing felt as if Zip Car and their founders had sold themselves out to a large Corporation. I’m not sure I buy that argument, because I know Hertz is a huge company, and can give the infusion of capital needed to take it to the next step. They already have a superior management system set up, and a long-standing solid business model.
Well, Zip Car was an interesting concept, so too are other car sharing concepts. One that I like is being operated at Stanford University, and I feel in the future they will also 康齒堂lihkg find ways to make cars more efficient for the users. Now then, I’d like to come up with another innovative concept, one which also uses smart phone apps to reserve car efficiency. What I propose is a coupling of the truck industry with passenger cars. You see, over the road trucks have a lot of power, and once they get going it’s very easy for them to pull a little more weight. Let me explain how I got this idea of mine and how it might work.
There was an interesting article titled “Wing-Tip Coupling at 15,000 Feet – Dangerous Experiments,” by Bud Anderson published in Flight Journal in December of 2000.
This is where large aircraft are able to allow smaller aircraft to attach to their wings, allowing them a free ride, or more efficiency. It turns out the boost in airflow saves a tremendous amount of fuel. Okay so, what if you are traveling behind a large truck and you took out your smart phone and took a picture of the barcode on the back of the truck trailer, and then used your smart phone to call in and reserve the opportunity to be towed to your next location – all this using the app – in real-time as you drove down the highway.
Let’s say you are traveling from Florida up the coast on the major freeway. Your smart phone would reserve a spot, and if the trucking company was able to handle your request to go the distance required, then a tow bar connection and coupling apparatus would be lowered, and you can drive your car up to the tow bar, and once hooked up you could simply put your car in neutral and it would tow you along.
You the driver would be billed for each mile at a much lower rate than you’d pay if you had to buy the fuel for yourself – everyone wins – and the trucking company makes some extra money while you are towed in the truck’s slipstream without the challenges in the coefficient of drag equation. Okay so, I have drawings and sketches of how all of this would work to make it completely safe. If you’re interested shoot me an e-mail.