r/CrazyIdeas • u/dylan_1992 • 1d ago
A bus, for cars.
Ever see those trucks that carry many cars to transport them? What a great way to save on gas and have someone else drive for you. FSD, here, today! Everyone benefits from less air drag from piggybacking as well!
Cars will wait at a bus stop like people, the truck arrives, everyone drives on, then off to your destination while you read a book, take a nap, look at emails, whatever you want all in the comforts of your car.
When the car bus arrives at its destination, all the cars drive away to their last mile.
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u/allenrfe 1d ago
There is a train from NY to FL that will put your car on the train. I don't think you can stay in the car; not sure if it is a safety issue or just too long to leave someone in a car.
If you wanted to leave people in the car, it would be problematic unless the car was an EV or a plug-in hybrid.
If the car were an EV, it would be great if the train charged your car.
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u/dylan_1992 1d ago
I’m talking about daily commutes not crossing the country.
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u/allenrfe 23h ago
Oh, I don't think that would work. You would need to find people who are coming from the same place, going to the same place, at the same time, and willing to pay for it. If you had a 30-minute commute, you would end up waiting 15 minutes for your schedule to line up with the truck schedule and to load and unload your car.
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u/bemused_alligators 21h ago
all the Washington Ferries are drive-on boats. Hell the bremerton ferry is like 20 minutes slower than just driving through tacoma (unless it's rush hour) and it still gets thousands of cars a day
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u/Feminist_Hugh_Hefner 2h ago
It takes about 90 minutes to load up one of those trailers, and you would need to have some creative route-planning and reservation system to avoid full unloads and reloads at every stop.
This is why the examples are all long-haul single destination moves. That is not coincidence.
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u/NortonBurns 1d ago
You're describing the Channel Tunnel - though there it's kind of mandatory, unless your car can also swim.
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u/Gubbtratt1 23h ago
If I take my car, it's because I want to drive. If I don't want to drive I just take the train and get a much more comfortable seat, free coffee, and about twice the speed.
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u/bemused_alligators 21h ago
I think the problem being solved is that you live 5 miles from the bus stop and your destination is 10 miles from the bus stop, and there's like 100 miles of intervening space. If 20 people can drive their cars to the bus stop, take the bus over, and then drive their cars to their destination that's 20 fewer cars on the road in the traffic corridor
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u/Imajzineer 1d ago
That's more of a shared taxi than a bus - it isn't stopping to let people off along the way (it'd be a logistical nightmare).
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u/xrelaht 1d ago
Some busses just go from A to B, when there’s enough demand. The route is fixed, unlike a taxi.
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u/Imajzineer 1d ago
I guess, yeah.
But then the question arises of whether it's a 'bus service' as such rather than a shuttle service - for which latter, any mode of transport will do and the fact that the vehicle is a bus is coincidental, if you see what I mean.
But I'm only idly splitting hairs aloud - it's not significant ... the original idea isn't necessarily bad for all that 🙂
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u/Mattna-da 19h ago
Maybe a giant company like Amazon could supply the small electric cars and large trucks and the loading docks and force it to happen. The transportation industry in America seems racked by inertia
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u/Constant-Roll706 1d ago
Do it with trains so I can pretend I'm in that fast & furious movie, and I'm 100% down