Put an ordinary tanker in the hands of a terrorist, and you've got trouble: Under the right conditions, the gas inside could level a city block. But big rigs are still the best way to distribute the 130 billion gallons US motorists guzzle annually. So the newest trucks come loaded with automated features and safety plug-ins. Let's go for a ride.
1. Bump and Grind
How do you stop a renegade tanker? Rear-end it! Seriously. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is developing a 7-inch-long pressurized tube that goes in a rig's rear bumper and connects to its braking system. A solid butt against the $200 device - from, say, a speeding patrol car - pops open valves at both ends, triggering the brakes. (In the event of a fender bender, the trucker can pull over and reset the valves by rotating a ratchet outside the cab.)
2. Backseat Driver
Qualcomm supplies four of the top five US gas tanker companies with GPS trackers to monitor cargo and make sure drivers don't stray from their routes. If the satellite signal goes dead, an alarm sounds back at Qualcomm HQ. Other new security features include fingerprint recognition to ID drivers and a panic button in case of hijack. If something's amiss, Qualcomm operators can cut the engine or slam on the brakes remotely.
3. Going With the Flow
Rather than check gas reserves manually, some 60 outlets in North America rely on MyTankGauge.com to monitor their tanks. Each tank has a gauge that sends data to the station's master console. From there, an old 2,400-baud modem lobs data to a Web server, which posts the info hourly. Station owners and suppliers can check it at will - and if the fuel level in a tank dips too low, the trucker assigned to that station gets an emergency alert via pager.
4. Body Shop
The process of building a tanker truck is largely computerized. It starts with 3-D modeling and testing, which guarantees that the vehicle can handle the biggest legal payload: 13,000 gallons. In the plant, an automated plasma cutter - a torch that uses superheated gas - slices sheets of aluminum as thick as one-quarter inch. After a machine bends each sheet into a U, a robotic seam welder creeps along the edges and binds them.
5. Shining It On
The caps worn by truckers are the same everywhere, but the finish on tankers varies by region. The advent of highly polished aluminum a decade ago sparked an industry buying spree - despite the 5 percent premium. Shiny is most popular in sunny California and the Southwest, where roads are the least soiled. Northerners, who drive routes laced with salt or magnesium chloride in the winter, prefer a painted finish; it looks cleaner when splattered.
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