Robotic Convoys and the Future of Truck Washes Pondered

Over the years, I've written a good bit on truck technologies, and I've also driven a motor coach that has a truck front and to every city in the nation. I've also been in the truck wash business, and parked at numerous truck stops, and had my truck washed at competing truck washes, at least 100 different locations. It seems to me that in the future, especially with all the latest robotic and following technology now being used in autonomous robotic vehicles, that eventually trucks will be driving only 3 to 4 feet bumper-to-bumper down the highway at 70 miles an hour.

Obviously this makes sense to ditch the coefficient of drag, and increase the airflow efficiency over the vehicle. It takes an incredible amount of energy to overcome the air resistance when driving down the highway, and that means it takes more fuel. However the truck behind the first truck doesn't have to overcome all that air pressure because they are drafting behind the first vehicle. To better understand this consider how the bicycles line up in a row while racing in the Tour de France, the lead rider battles the wind resistance, and the other riders sail along in the slipstream using very little energy, and take turns, everyone wins, and they can go much faster with less energy spent. Essentially it's the same concept.

Now then, let's go back to the truck washing industry because as these robotic trucks are driving along at 70 miles per hour down the highway bumper-to-bumper they will all reach their same destinations and location at the same time. There may be 20 in a row perhaps traveling through the night when no one else is using the highway, as that would be the safest way to play it. This means they will all show up at the truck stop at the same time to get fuel. It also means that on long hauls across the country and it will cause delays refueling due to long-lines, and also challenges with these vehicles at the truck wash.

Therefore, it appears to me that someone needs to be on the leading edge of this future technology and start designing robotic convoy truck wash systems. In other words, all of the trucks would stay aligned and go through the truck wash facility like an assembly line, still just a few feet from the bumper of the vehicle in line with them. There would need to be a little bit more space to get a rotating brush between the vehicles, or human truck washers with enough space to use their brushes.

Okay so, I envision a time where the robotic trucks will pull into the truck wash, and increase the separation from 3 to 4 feet to perhaps 10 to 15 feet and as they pull out of the truck wash, these truck washes will have to have longer ingresses and regresses in order to handle a 20 truck plus convoy.

There should also be a quantity discount for washing that many vehicles in a row, because it's essentially washing one gigantic long truck, and this is something truck washing companies will have to consider in the future and it will indeed change the dynamics of the industry somewhat. Indeed I hope you will please consider all this and stay on the leading edge of future technologies in your industry as well.

Lance Winslow has launched a new provocative series of eBooks on truck washes and the Future of the Trucking Industry. Lance Winslow is a retired Founder of a Nationwide Franchise Chain, and now runs the Online Think Tank; http://www.worldthinktank.net