Is Walmart's WAVE Concept Truck The Fuel-Efficient Future Of Semis?

Green Car Reports via autos.yahoo.com ^ | Mon Mar 3, 2014 | Stephen Edelstein

[posterchild]

Heavy-duty trucks spend more time on the road than passenger vehicles, so improving their efficiency can have a major effect on emissions--and their owners' bottom lines.

That's why Walmart is getting into the truck-design business with the WAVE--Walmart Advanced Vehicle Experience--concept.

With its aerodynamic cab, the WAVE certainly doesn't look like any other large truck currently on U.S. roads.

[cripplecreek]

Looks like every other truck of the future I’ve seen over the past 30 years.

[jch10]

Cool! I’ll be looking for one.

[Army Air Corps]

But is it nuclear powered? ;-)

[SamAdams76]

[GeronL]

Looks sort of like a big hornet

The eyes I mean

[Wyatt's Torch]

An increase in fuel efficiency of 35% would be a great cost savings for them.

[2CAVTrooper]

Where is the driver supposed to hide the lot lizards?

[fso301]

Looks nice except for when the driver wants to have a conversation with a passenger.

[cripplecreek]

Its going to have to be. Modern trucks are already riding the knife edge between fuel efficiency and cost effectiveness. One has to give to increase the other.

[musicman]

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[BlueDragon]

It's an ultra modern cab-over with a big toe in the front?

Driver will be the first to arrive on the scene of an accident...

[libertarian27]

Pretty Cool Looking
With a 'Prius Catcher' too!

[Army Air Corps]

I can see a weekly TV show - Super Truck! The weekly tales of a nuclear-powered semi and its driver who solves murder mysteries and fights crime while haulin’ his load.

[Carriage Hill]

“lot lizards”

LOL!

[Army Air Corps]

Kinda funky. It has a space pod vibe.

[Lx]

Looks like a semi ran over a Veyron.

[Army Air Corps]

Perhaps the inspiration for a Knight Rider-ish weekly TV show.

[The Great RJ]

I have long wondered why semi trucks were not more aerodynamically designed. I have see fairings on the top of the cab to apparently reduce air turbulence in the area between the top of the cab and the trailer, but the front on the truck always seems to be a flat surface. I remember that experiments in the 1930s with making the front of steam locomotives more streamlined failed to produce any significant improvements, but with today's computer assisted designs could a truck like the WAVE become more common?

[Army Air Corps]