
As trucking moves to wide-scale adoption of alternative fuels, it's becoming clear that we will need a little bit of everything to keep our wheels turning as greenly as possible. Deborah Lockridge and Jim Park explore the pros and cons of today's most promising alternatives to diesel: battery electric, fuel-cell electric and renewable natural gas.
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Penske Truck Leasing has had an electric truck trial and evaluation project underway in southern California since 2017. They are trying to understand everything that would go right and everything that could go wrong with integrating several classes of electric trucks into a traditional fleet environment. Penske's head of fleet procurement and planning, Paul Rosa, shares his experience, so far.
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If you think diesel is dead, or even on its last legs, you may come away with a completely different point of view after listing to this episode. Allen Schaeffer is the head of the Diesel Technology Forum, and one of diesel's greatest proponents. He explains why diesel engines aren't going anywhere anytime soon.
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Renewable natural gas is methane gas produced by decomposing organic matter from sources like landfills, dairy farms, and wastewater treatment plants. It can be economically collected and used to power trucks. Hugh Donnell of natural-gas engine maker, Cummins Westport, describes the challenges and benefits of wider RNG adoption as a truck fuel.
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The National Transportation Safety Board doesn't investigate every truck crash but digs deep into some for insight that could help prevent future crashes of a similar nature. Robert Molloy, the director of NTSB's Office of Highway Safety explains why it investigates certain crashes and shares some of the conclusions drawn from two specific truck accidents.
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Season 4 rounds out our first year of podcasts. This season we look at the future of fuel, including battery electric and renewable natural gas, and our tried-and-true diesel engines. We also have one special episode that's bound to put you to sleep. And HDT Editor in Chief Deborah Lockridge joins host Jim Park for a rousing discussion on alternative fuels, the cover story from our October issue.
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Special Report: While there are currently only few dozen robotic or autonomous trucks on America's highways, the Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance is already thinking about the logistics of enforcement. Our guest, CVSA's Will Schaefer, muses on how to keep robotic trucks on the straight and narrow.
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Waymo Via, the Google-car spinoff that operates tractor trailers, is inching closer to full deployment of its driverless long-haul trucks. Founder and head of the self-driving trucks business, Vijaysai (Vijay) Patnaik, joins Jim Park to discuss the current state of the technology and how Waymo's decade of experience positions it well for public and industry acceptance.
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If you buy the hype, you might think driverless trucks are just around the corner. Dr. Mary "Missy" Cummings is a professor at Duke University and the Director of Duke's Humans and Autonomy lab. She says she's 100% behind robotic trucks in the long term, but warns that significant work remains to develop safe, robust and reliable self-driving cars and trucks.
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Staying healthy while living in a truck is tough at the best of times. Add the stress of living under a pandemic, and staying healthy and positive becomes doubly difficult. Nutrition and wellness expert Sergio Rojas shares his thoughts on how diet, fitness, proper sleep and even meditation can help improve health and wellness and reduce stress.
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