Walmart Concept - Space Truckin'

Let's just say U G L Y with a capital U

 

Although I am not a Walmart driver, i commend what Walmart is doing to shake up the transportation industry, finding numerous ways to bring efficiency to a lazy industry with little or no motivation for innovation. Like this Walmart current day effort in Canada:

http://www.greenretaildecisions.com...ada-enters-phase-two-of-supercube-truck-pilot

 

Reminds me of the movie Alien

 

So sad.... Seriously gets me down seeing new crazy things like this. Wish we could go back to the days when seeing a 379 or a W9 was a common thing

 

If Peterbilt and/or Walmart wish to create and operate such a truck, then let it done with PRIVATE funding, not tax-payer funds, much like how Peterbilt has done by pushing their LNG powered trucks when there is virtually no infrastructure in place, and each LNG station is costing more than $3 million dollars each to build, with you guessed it, TAX-PAYER FUNDS!

Let the free market decide if such a truck is practical. In the past 5 years, Peterbilt has made a push to get larger fleets to buy their trucks. The problem is what they are putting on the road has been trucks riddled with mechanical troubles, especially with their Paccar motor. They cannot even get the EGR to function correctly, yet they are going to master an unproven hybrid technology when previous hybrids they have sold have flat out failed!

While I was at UPS Freight, the corporate bean counters began buying all Peterbilt trucks back in 2010 for the Honda Motors dedicated account I was working for at the time. These 30 trucks that were purchased have spent as much time in the shop as on the road. I was a test driver for an LNG powered truck back in 2012. It sucked so bad that UPS sent it back to Peterbilt and canceled the pending orders for more LNG trucks.

It seems to me that Peterbilt is turning into the International Navistar of current time. They want to get their trucks into larger fleets, yet are delivering trucks that do not have the same build quality of years past. Quantity instead of quality. That is what led to International Navistar losing much of its business with large fleets such as J.B. Hunt, Schneider, and even Walmart back in 1999.

I used to be a big fan of Peterbilt trucks up until a few years ago. Memo to Peterbilt: Cabover trucks in the USA died back in the 90's! There is no desire for them to return anytime soon! Go risk your own capital on some pipe dream of a truck! ..... and it is butt-ugly too!

 

Those were great trucks! Excellent build quality too!

Don't let this crazy stuff get ya down! It is more about getting attention than ever actually putting such a truck on the road. I have seen crazy designs at the truck shows in the past 20 years. The extra computer technology inside the truck is made to look like it is more practical, when it is not. I doubt you will see an electric powered truck in our lifetime. The enormous cost is not worth the huge investment, especially considering the lack of infrastructure in place to support them on the road. . Even with huge amounts of tax incentives, they will still go unsold just like the few model electric cars on the market. Maybe after Mr. Fusion has been invented we will see electric trucks!

 

Wonder what it's like to alley dock that sucker in a tight spot?
Hell, I imagine.

Though, seeing the turbine driven dyno running electric motors is not surprising at all; audi has been playing around with that technology and some of it is going live in their vehicles shortly.

 

Man, the looks of this thing is freakish, to say the least. It does have a very commanding cabin view however. I just wonder how hot it would get inside that egg when the summer sun is beating down on it. Of course there would be a no idling policy in place, so I guess the yoke would be on the driver.

 

I've often wondered if the technology used in a modern diesel locomotive could be adapted to a truck. A diesel turning a generator powering traction motors.

Adam