Skip to main content

On Improving Delivery Infrastructure

You've seen the trucks strung along for miles on the open road. Long lines of 'em bringing goods to the masses. Watching them, I had some thoughts on how to improve things...


  • Reduce conflicts: give them their own lane, accessible only to trucks;
  • Improved eficiency: allow them to couple together a longer string of trailers, so that only one truck is pulling many trailers;
  • Improved energy generation systems: design them with a hybrid drivetrain system, like maybe the diesel engine drives an electrical generator, and the traction motors are electric instead;
  • Improved safety: the driver can manage the traction energy but instead of rubber on asphalt we use some kind of rail system to guide the rig to limit traffic conflicts; the the truck/trailers will be guided by these rails;
  • Give the truckers a horn that they can honk at cars at intersections.

I'm shocked no one has ever thought of this before.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

On "Microsquirting" the Porsche 914 - Part 2, Which Aftermarket Fuel Injection System?

Which Aftermarket Fuel Injection System? Return to Part 1 Scenario: two Porsche 914s, one 2L 4-banger street car with stock engine, one 2L 4-banger race car with modded engine. Greg's street 914 The street car engine has a fully-functioning Bosch D-Jetronic system, but as noted in Part 1 I don't trust it. It seems to work great at times but every now and then, usually when I'm an hour away from home, it'll have this massive burp and run bad for a bit. Makes me nervous. And it seems to be extremely sensitive to fuel selection; a couple times it just did not like the fuel I got from some stations. The race car's engine is modified and uses dual Dellorto carburetors. I have given thought to preparing prepping it to SCCA's Limited Prep Production regs, which requires fuel injection using the stock throttle body and intake manifold. Combine the two needs and maybe I can mod the street car and learn something about EFI in the process that could apply to

On "Microsquirting" the Porsche 914

Bosch D-Jetronic The Bosch D-Jetronic system is pretty cool, especially when you consider it was designed in the 1960s. "Computer"-controlled electronic fuel injection with manifold pressure sensor, intake temperature sensor, crankshaft (well, distributor) angle sensor, and throttle position sensor/switch. It uses constant fuel pressure and flow, so only injection duration needs to be modified to control air/fuel mixture. It measures incoming airflow by monitoring the intake manifold pressure; engine speed, temperature, and other factors are monitored for the purpose of fine-tuning injection duration. Ignition is by a standard cam-driven distributor with an internal D-jet-specific pickup for the crank/cam angle position. This "speed-density" D-Jet system was used on many cars of the period, including Volvo, Jaguar, Volkswagen, and of course, the Porsche 914 (1.7L and 2L engines only; the 1.8L used L-Jetronic -- "L" for "luft" or "air&qu

On "Microsquirting" the Porsche 914 - Part 3, The Design

The Design Return to Part 2 Recall my design parameters so far: Use the stock intake manifold(s) and throttle body; Use stock injectors; Use stock fuel pump and pressure regulator; Replace D-Jet components only when it makes sense; Upgrade fuel injection only, ignition to follow later; Bolt-on wherever possible so others can install it; Should not require permanent mods to stock components (so it can be reverted); Price-sensitive -- keep as inexpensive as possible. I quickly learned early on I had one conflict: the D-Jet system uses "low impedance injectors" and the Microsquirt system needs "high impendance injectors". I'll lead you to this link if you want to learn the difference but it basically comes down to electrical resistance. I could use the D-Jet injectors if I added a resistor pack -- which is exactly what VW/Porsche did when they used similar injectors on the L-Jet system for the 1.8L 914 engine.  FiveO High Impedance Injectors