Can someone with more technical expertise than me comment on the following:
Last night unveiled autopilot, but not fully autonomous. Still, as Tesla gets closer to autonomous, it seems that the company at some point could add the capability for Model S's to essentially team up and drive a distance like LA to Las Vegas in close proximity so as to greatly reduce drag and increase range. Part of the question is really how close would a following car need to be to reap a substantial benefit and whether current capabilities of the sensors and software could soon be adapted to capture that benefit safely. The S drag coefficient is already low. At the same time, the wind resistance faced by a car is the cube of the wind speed, so a following car on a 75 mph highway out West may be able to very substantially increase range (even more so if there is a 10-20 mph headwind). A car traveling 75 mph using power typically required at 45 mph would a big deal.
Thoughts?
Last night unveiled autopilot, but not fully autonomous. Still, as Tesla gets closer to autonomous, it seems that the company at some point could add the capability for Model S's to essentially team up and drive a distance like LA to Las Vegas in close proximity so as to greatly reduce drag and increase range. Part of the question is really how close would a following car need to be to reap a substantial benefit and whether current capabilities of the sensors and software could soon be adapted to capture that benefit safely. The S drag coefficient is already low. At the same time, the wind resistance faced by a car is the cube of the wind speed, so a following car on a 75 mph highway out West may be able to very substantially increase range (even more so if there is a 10-20 mph headwind). A car traveling 75 mph using power typically required at 45 mph would a big deal.
Thoughts?