Wal-Mart ships and moves lot of stuff being the world's biggest retailer. The corporate Goliath still always looks for ways to cut costs and it seems it's trucking fleet is no exception. The company recently showed off a Futuristic Carbon Fiber Truck Concept on it's corporate Youtube channel.
The concept truck's design is meant to be more aerodynamic and efficient compared to today's current big rigs. The cabin is shaped to cut through the wind more with sliding doors and a sloped and circular shape and design. In addition there is a unique cockpit where the driver sits in the middle for a better range of visibility along with screens instead of a dashboard to customize the driver's preferred displayed information. There is full sized comfortable sleeper and quarters for the drivers too.
What's most most interesting about Wal-Mart's concept truck is the trailer. Wal-Mart claims it is the first time a truck trailer was made completely of carbon fiber, a material you usually only see used on supercars and race-cars due to it's high cost to manufacture. In addition they built two 53 foot sheets of carbon fiber for each side of the trailer. Wal-Mart claims this is the first time carbon fiber panels this large have been built and this likely accurate, as I assume the cost to build the panels was more than building a supercar or race-car. In addition the front of the trailer is convex helping increase the aerodynamics. Unsure of why they don't build convex trailers now as that would make a lot of sense.
Introducing the Walmart Advanced Vehicle Experience concept truck
While Wal-Mart might be the disdain of many people hopefully they are serious about innovating tractor-trailer trucks to improve efficiency.
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