As a bunch of gearheads, I figured you would like this: Kenworth SuperTruck 2
 

I saw this and thought it seems revolutionary. Seems like it has doubled fuel efficiency among a multitude of other innovations. Pretty amazing engineering.


https://www.kenworth.com/innovation/st2/

My first thought when I looked at link: Cylons built that truck.

Pretty cool, though.

I'm ok with Cylons. Funny comment.

I spent 2 hours tonight trying to figure out how to engage the PTO on a Kenworth gravel truck… I’ll keep my Mack, thank you.

This is pretty cool but Tier 4 emissions are already too much electronics for most owner operators, this is next level.

Yea ! Cab-Overs again.
But human drivers are going to be a thing of the past pretty soon for most stuff.

Very much influenced by the Tesla Semi that Elon promised 5 years ago. The center seating, digital mirrors, aggressive styling.

I'd like to see on in real life.

(An aside, living in the great north woods, I think it'd be great if some aerodynamicists would work on the effects of rain water spray coming off of big rigs; try to mitigate the "liquid wall of death" that's thrown up by all those big tires.)

Interesting, hybrid, is that a first in semis?

doubled fuel efficiency at 12mpg. First thought is "wow, that's horrible!" But then upon further reflection, 12mpg actually sounds pretty phenomenal. I think there are SUVs that don't get much more than that, and old cars from the past that got far less. So for a semi to get 12, that sounds pretty amazing. Granted, I don't know what the range of real world fuel economy is for semis today.

Fuel efficiency-
Is highly a contested and misconstrued application, totally dependent
on amount of tires on the road , load, load coefficiency (CO), and of course weight and terrain.
There are tires called Super singles which are very wide and replaces the two tires set up.
This works because there are two less side walls, I am told.
At times I could get near 10 and 12 MPG with an old series 60.
with a low pro trailer that weighed in about 10K.
However, Put my usual payload on it (a Big Boat) it would take a drop as boats are parachutes.

Can’t imagine a mobile mechanic being able to diagnose let alone fix one of those when it breaks down on the side of the highway.

Reboot it......LOL

Looks good but way overdue. Think Luigi Colani

Our newer firetrucks are a technical nightmare with all the electronics/computerized bs on them. Always issues and in the shop. They suck.

Meanwhile, old ones that we sold or donated are still going strong.

.

hybrids are 25 years old, like this isnt confusing. :rolleyes:

Hybrid semi's have been around 25 years?

Are you thinking that semi mechanics have a lot of experience working on Priuses, or are you thinking that Prius mechanics are also called out to work on semis? I'm just curious what logic/reasoning you're using.

oh no, mechanics specializing in trucks are going to have to ... learn to work on trucks?

like there isnt anything new here. if toyota can train their techs and everyone else can work on prius' then there is no reason why a truck tech can't work on this.

i dont get it. why would you defend someone being **** at their job? "oh no, they will have to learn the new model year and how to work on it" worlds smallest violin playing.

I'm not defending anything.

You made the statement that hybrids have existed for 25 years like that means that semi mechanics should have 25 years of history working on hybrids. But if hybrid semis have never existed before and semi mechanics are unlikely to have ever worked on a prius or any other hybrid, then your statement is an invalid argument.

What the introduction of this technology that's new to semis (and probably implemented differently than on a passenger vehicle) means is that you may have a very limited number of folks that have gone out and gotten training on this new to the group technology, and the remainder of the mechanics are going to be trying to get up to speed on a system that's likely to be very alien and complex. For a time, it's probably going to be extremely difficult (and probably expensive) to get trucks with this new technology fixed on the side of the road by a mobile mechanic. In 25 or 10 years, it may be old hat so that everyone can do it, but that won't help the early adopters. Hopefully, they'll have factory support of some sort (I'm guessing these rigs won't be cheap, hopefully, they'll include support).

no, i said hybrid technology is not new, its 25 years old. therefore, we know how to work on it. like its not new technology. that means 1. we know how to engineer it to be reliable, and 2. we know how to train people to work on it.

there is nothing new here. a short period of training and there should be no issues. because its already all been pioneered, yes, even the working on it part.

Settle down guys. A John Deere is harder to work on than both combined (see what I did?). They will get worked on IF they ever get built.

true.
FIFY
"therefore, some people know how to work on it."
there may be thousands of folks that know how to work on it, but for anyone that has never worked on it before, there's likely to be a learning curve. On top of that, the entire group of semi-mechanics are probably not all going to be able to go to the "how to work on a hybrid semi" class before those monsters hit the road, and possibly even not within the first year or two that they are on the road, so that means that probably a sizeable portion of the semi-mechanics aren't going to be able to work on them from day one.
reasonable assumptions that may or may not be true. The theory behind hybrid technology probably doesn't change much from application to application, but it's entirely possible that the implementation in a semi could be substantially different from the implementation in a prius or Cayenne hybrid as the application is very different. But maybe it's exactly the same other than being bigger.

Not only are not all of the mechanics going to be trained before these beasts hit the road, but my guess is there's not going to be a mad rush for every semi mechanic to get into that training on day one if it's just one, new, expensive rig that's got the technology.

This was a good conversation.

Have a good one!

In the class 8 world, it will be brand new.
Not only will it be a new job skill to repair these things, , but there is also no manpower to learn it.
Developing enough torq to haul even 500 miles on batteries will be an economical hurdle to be seen.
As I see it, it will take at least 3 more trucks per load
One on the charger so when the other arrives it gets switched out.
This is not an EZ transition.
It will completely cause a reorganization of freight.
There will be no such thing as empty deadhead miles.
A whole new coordination of freight will have to manifest itself.
It will absolutely eliminate the few owner-operators left.
Plus the cost of these HUGE charging stations? It is not 120 ,220 or 440 to charge these things in a aloted amount of time , it would be huge power.
And Punk? You have no clue as to what you are dribbling over as per usual.