Geese fly in formation

  

It's more efficient that way.

 

Military jets fly in formation at least partly for the same reason; flying more efficiently uses less fuel, increases range, and costs less.  That makes me wonder about truckers.  There are a couple million trucks on our highways just in the U.S.  They can't drive side-by-side in formation like geese, but even staying single-file, out on the open road, there must be an ideal formation for trucks; an ideal separation for each truck to follow in the wind-shadow of the truck in front for maximum efficiency.  Remember the concept from the seventies?  "We got ourselves a convoy!"  A whole pack of trucks driving fast, nose to tail.  Like that, only smarter.

 

The technology exists to find the separation sweet spot.  The factories that run race cars know everything about how the air moves over, under, around, and through their vehicles on the track.  The technology exists to lock in a distance from another vehicle.  Our Jeep already does that with Adaptive Cruise Control.  Any tiny increment of additional efficiency would have a giant multiplier with all those trucks on the road.  I'd be curious to know if the sweet spot for trucks is a few inches apart, a few feet apart, or a few car lengths apart.  If the best formation is an endless string of trucks, it could be compromised with periodic breaks, to balance trucker efficiency with driver safety and convenience for everyone else on the road.

 

I wonder why they're not doing this already; or if they already are, but more subtly than I can detect.