Image: Geely/Farizon/Amazon
Geely’s commercial vehicle arm, Farizon Auto, showed an interesting new concept truck in Shanghai called the Homtruck that only looks somewhat like an H.R. Giger alien, though still significantly more like such an alien than most semi trucks, including upcoming EV trucks. There’s lots of fascinating ideas shown in the truck, including a very well-appointed sleeper section and the ability to have swappable batteries or a methanol-hybrid drivetrain.
Image: Geely/Farizon
The truck is called the Homtruck—a portmanteau of home and, you guessed it, truck, because Farizon noted that truck drivers tend to spend an awful lot of time in their trucks, so perhaps it should be something like a home.
From Farizon’s press release:
Based on careful analysis of driver working conditions and itinerary, Farizon Auto has designed a cockpit that applies the concept of home and optimizes space to create a driving and a living area. The design includes a bathroom complete with a shower and toilet, single bed, refrigerator, tea maker, kitchen, and even a small washing machine. The ergonomic seat design and high-definition camera help ensure drivers are well-rested and well-focused, whereas an intelligent AI assistant coupled with full 360-degree cameras help to keep the driver aware of any issues around the vehicle whilst in motion or whilst stationary.
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Hey, nice use of “whilst” there, Geely PR team.
The interior of the truck does seem nice from these images—I believe they’re renderings—and does show a stylish shower/bathroom/sink area.
Image: Geely/Farizon
The kitchen they mention is accessible outside of the cab, kind of like a fold-out camping kitchen, which I think reduces the appeal a lot, as it would force you to only use it in good weather and likely while wearing pants, two constraints I would not want to be beholden to as a trucker.
Image: Geely/Farizon
The overall design I think is quite striking, even if it does feel a bit H.R. Giger-ish. The lighting and grille designs are interesting, and the grille seems to contain some manner of programmable lighting, in case you really need your truck to display a sine wave, for some reason:
Image: Geely/Farizon
The truck does seem to have been designed with aerodynamics in mind, but that design seems to rely on a specially-designed trailer, something that seems pretty unlikely to expect in the world of trucking.
Image: Geely/Farizon
Sure, that trailer integrates well and looks cool, but the vast, vast majority of truck trailers are big, wind-hostile boxes, so I’d be curious to know what sort of aero benefits are to be had with conventional trailers, too.
The concept is supposed to offer multiple drivetrain options, and there’s some notable points here:
The Homtruck’s architecture can carry a number of powertrain options including range extender, methanol hybrid and pure electric with battery swapping option based on government standards recently released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Technology, allowing for the Homtruck to be charged at service stations across highways in minutes rather than a substantial amount of time.
While a methanol hybrid is interesting, the battery-swapping option is the most compelling idea for me, especially this part: “battery swapping option based on government standards recently released by China’s Ministry of Industry and Technology.”
I think some degree of battery standardization is a great idea, especially for the end-users of EVs, and I’ve written about that before. I’ll look into China’s battery standards and hopefully cover that more in the future, because I think batteries are too important for the future of EVs to just leave proprietary, with every manufacturer developing their own.
Image: Geely/Farizon
I’m not talking inside-battery tech standards, just dimensions, connectors, and output.
This truck is still at the concept stage, so grand schemes of Level 4 automation are expected:
Within a growing number of selected routes, the Homtruck will be able to utilize L4 hands-off autonomous drive functions and will also introduce convoying features for longer journeys which allow trucks to communicate with each other to maintain safe speed and distance that will lower operator stress levels. Hardware sensors such as lidar, millimetre-wave radar, ultrasonic radar will be standard equipment along with 5G and V2X communication. The Homtruck will also be fully capable of being upgraded overtime using Over the Air (OTA) software upgrades.
Image: Geely/Farizon
While I think there’s still some development that needs to happen before this is in place, long-haul trucking is an excellent use case for Level 4 automated driving solutions.
EV trucking is coming, no question, so it’s good to see these kinds of concepts. Plus, it’ll help us get used to the gut-level horror of seeing these giant Xenomorph heads coming at us on dark, rainy highways, so we can drive without constantly shitting our pants in terror.
Source: https://jalopnik.com/geelys-new-massive-methanol-ev-semi-truck-only-looks-a-1848035644
