this post was submitted on 26 Nov 2023
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My question is, "Why?"
Most of the time, including in the picture from this article, people would be towing something like a camper. To go camping. In a remote area. Which has no WiFi to begin with.
For generations, a hitch has been a sufficient tool for towing shit. I guess its simplicity just doesn't allow enough avenues to monopolize from. I can't possibly think of how Wi-Fi towing solves more problems than it causes, other than charging the consumer for shit they don't actually need.
Wi-Fi is just a wireless protocol. You PROBABLY don't connect to a stationary wifi access point that is a relay to the wider internet, you are probably using a wifi connection from the towing device to an access point in the tow vehicle that's tied into the CAN bus of the towing vehicle to relay things like position, speed, breaking, road conditions, etc.
You could pretty easily do this all with a local LAN without needing any external Internet access.
It's called Ad-hoc WiFi. This is how almost all dash cams work these days. They are the access point you connect to. You then use whatever app required to view the videos on it. This is how the trailer would work for control.
You mean cellular service, it has no cellular service. Wi-Fi is a communications protocol for communicating over short distances.
It's the router that generates the Wi-Fi.
No, they mean WiFi. Everyone knows what WiFi is. But routers don't grow on trees!
Routers aren't just lying around all over the place, dude...
The router would be a part of the car... You don't need an internet connection to utilize Wi-fi for local networks. It's literally just wireless LAN.
I'm not talking bout the Internet. Router as part of a car? That's an insane proposition.
Dude you're mind will be blown when you find out about wireless headphones
Bluetooth is a different matter. That might actually make sense.
No it's not a different matter
...Of course it is. Bluetooth is a totally different technology with different protocols and different uses. Bluetooth can be emitted by a single tiny on board chip with no need for a whole WAP.
I have a bridge to sell you
The theoretical use case is for cars without the capacity to tow. Either due to engine power, or lack of a tow ball. Effectively, it's a small, self driving vehicle, that can tow. It just follows close behind your care, and so needs far less in the way of navigation capabilities.
It's a stupidly small niche however. Anyone who could justify and afford one could do far better just by hiring a driver and tow vehicle.
That's not even mentioning that you can get hitch receivers that you attach to just about every car out there. Hell even back in the 50s it was common place to see a sedan with a tow hitch. Unless you're driving a car that struggles to carry itself up a hill the only thing stopping you from putting a hitch on a Prius or Challenger is your willingness to buy a receiver hitch and bolt it to the frame.
Given the likely pricetag, you're talking luxury cars and upwards. The owners don't want a tow ball ruining their car's look. They might also want to avoid the additional strain on the engine. I'm not sure how high end cars deal with low speed high torque situations, but I doubt Porsche does much testing with towing in mind.
True I only picked out Challenger as an example of how if you really wanted you can put a hitch on just about anything and engine power is rarely an issue. My bigger point is that if my 1956 bel air can haul a boat on top of being a generally heavy car your Prius can absolutely houl your couch. And if you're actually hauling heavy stuff every day then a truck/dedicated tow vehicle is actually justified.
I tow a lot with an EV and when towing my miles per kWh halve.
For EVs this fixes this range problem as you are no longer towing. Improving range while towing is important for people who tow a lot with EVs becoming more prevalent.
However you now have to charge the trailer and the car, which is a right pain.
Plus relying on wireless connection is just massively dumb.
There are trailers coming that conventionally hitch and have their own motor and battery. This improves range but now your trailer is massively heavier, more expensive, and requires its own charging.
Majority of EV public chargers are just not setup for pull through charging so you have to unhitch. Just painful even with motormovers to move the trailer off the car.
We should be working to reduce drag as this is the biggest issue for the trailer at motorway speeds, and then weight.
Without a mechanical connection, the tow bot could be remote controlled, or even have a handle on it, and be guided into a charging bay.
You have that already for trailers with motor movers, I have one in mine. Works with a remote control.
https://www.powrtouch.com/
It doesn't remove the total PITA of EV charging with a trailer on a non pull through space. I have to detach the trailer, move the car into the EV space, move the trailer into a EV space, start charging both bits, all while not blocking a busy EV charging area.
it doesn't solve it though, it just adds a second vehicle to the mix that can actually do the job. this is literally just a truck but worse, because now you need a car in front to carry passengers and steer this goofy thing. just rent a truck for the day and leave the car at home
Yeah no truck can fit another full sized car in the truck bed or something of similar size. In Europe you cannot even get something the size of a F150 let alone the really big trucks.
sure, but my point was the car is unnecessary in this scenario. you're already renting another vehicle to tow the trailer, get one with a drivers seat and passenger compartment instead of using 2 vehicles to move 1 trailer
Well you weren't in what I meant with my example, you already have a car, just get a tow bar fitted to it then you can use a trailer any time you need one. While its not suitable for everyone Its a really good idea if you are doing even irregular house maintenance or other big jobs and a trailer by itself is massively cheaper than hiring a truck.I can hire a trailer big enough to put a car on for £80 for 24 hours.
Agreed, if your car can do the job that's clearly the most sensible option. But either scenario this goofy robot solves nothing. Either your car can pull the trailer itself, or it should be left at home while you rent something that can. Deliberately renting a robot truck with no seats that forces you to also bring a car would be silly
I do occasional towing with my 4-cylinder car, and it reduces my mileage from about 30mpg to lower 20's (around 22mpg but varies by speed etc).
Everybody should get a trailer hitch on their car unless it's so low that it physically can't have one. I don't need a pickup truck anymore since I got a 5x8 light trailer for my car, and it also lets me use a rear cargo rack or bike carrier.
Oh agree completely, there are even places that will hire them to you so you could eveb make use of one infrequently without having to buy and store it. Most (UK) cars can tow an unbraked trailer with a 750kg limit, which is pretty sizable for a lot of household stuff.
I tow a 1400kg caravan (chosen as it's the lightest in class for its size) so you have to be careful around matching. But towing with an EV is godly as you have instant access to 100% of torque so you don't ever notice it pulling on the car.
WiFi just means "wireless" now, people call all kinds of wireless stuff "WiFi" when it has nothing to do with the protocol at all, like smoke detectors.
Maybe it works with Bluetooth, everything is better with Bluetooth, even WIFI
I was interested to discover that Android Auto will make Bluetooth and WiFi connections to your phone, just to be able to send and receive on both at the same time.
I wonder what the breakdown is, it probably wouldn't separate audio packets across protocols, maybe one gets relegated to instructions and metadata and the other is dedicated to audio? Or along service lines with different throughput requirements, like Maps on one and Spotify on the other? Or heck, maybe one is just for handshakes to establish the other.
Bluetooth does seem fine for handling audio, and at handling many devices simultaneously, so neither of those seem like good candidates for pulling WiFi in.
I could just look this up but I'm enjoying thinking about it.
So I don't need a truck to tow. Wi-Fi will be car to device, a self contained network.