this post was submitted on 05 May 2026
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literally what's the point of that
Another large purchase to foist onto consumers who opt out of the truck market, but fantasize about using this machine to haul stuff all over town.
Look up the towing capacity of a mid sized SUV. They can't tow shit, you basically need a pickup to tow anything over 1500lbs. That's only a small Uhaul 5x8 trailer.
Sure, but here you basically have to have an autonomous pickup truck following you. The question is if you need something about the size of a pickup anyway, why not just drive the pickup?
The diagram shows something impossible, a tiny little autonomous tow vehicle. The physics just don't support it. Even a tractor is only acceptable for towing a big load by virtue of going at a relative snail's pace. At speed the bigger mass will tend to dictate how the physics goes. So for decent payload, you'll need basically a full on pickup truck.
So the usage scenario is "I want to rent something almost exactly like a pickup truck, but am not willing to actually drive the pickup truck".
It would be more like a self powered converter dolly that is used in a B-train that has 3 drive axels. And you are correct it would weigh more than the lead vehicle.
"Towing" with a small car that couldn't otherwise is the only reason I can think of.
Still dumb, but it's something
Maybe you could tow with a motorcycle? I dunno.
It means you don't have to put some ugly hitch on your Tesla.
Also, how is some tiny little robot thing going to habe the juice to pull a fucking trailer?
so, the problem is never the "pulling", a Yaris can get a mid-size camper up to highway speeds no problem. The problem is controlling and stopping, and that's where the length and mass of the towing vehicle comes into play. A longer and heavier tow vehicle is more stable, and a vehicle designed for towing will have bigger brakes to handle the increased stopping load.
Which, of course, also means that little tow robot will be even more useless for towing than the car it's following.
It's only the controlling bit, really.
For stopping, trailers have brakes. I have an old Audi wagon, it can legally tow 750 KG with no brakes or 1900 KG if the trailer has its own brakes (750 is the absolute limit for brakeless trailers in Estonia regardless of what you're towing with, 1900 is what is considered safe with brakes for this car). Car itself weighs 1955 empty. But realistically, it could probably easily move and even brake 5 tons or more. It's a remapped 3.0 TDI, it has more torque than some brodozers with their V8s (the petrol ones, anyway). And I keep my brake system in order, even the fluid is brand new. I don't skimp on tires either. So between the trailer brakes and my own brakes, several tons could be stopped fairly quickly.
The issue is sideways forces. If I'm towing a really big trailer and there's a strong gust of wind, it'll affect my car much more than it would affect a heavy truck. Similarly in the winter if the trailer starts skidding, my car just wouldn't have the mass to control it. The engine and brakes do a great job of controlling forwards and backwards forces, but there's really no mechanism for a car to do much about a very heavy trailer enacting sideways force on the rear end of the car. That's why the trailer limit is almost always smaller than the car's own weight (tractors with semi trailers being an exception, but they're limited to 90 km/h electronically and require much more extensive training)
consumer-grade trailer brakes fail or underperform with alarming regularity, especially if the trailer sits idle most of the year. It's pretty nerve wracking stopping a several-thousand kg trailer whose brakes have failed with a pickup truck, and I've seen quite a few trailers towed by smaller cars in the ditch because they couldn't stop or keep it controlled while stopping.
That would usually come up in the annual inspection. I don't know anyone who buys a trailer to have it sit idle though if you can literally just rent one on demand if you only need it once or twice a year
Take a look at the size of a semi truck compared to the trailer it tows, and they have a cab for the driver.
Given this vehicle is a power train and nothing else, I'm sure power isn't the issue.