Take a appear at the future of transportation the place sustainable and self sustaining science rule.
Since early times, human beings have sought approaches to make visiting quicker and extra convenient. First, we invented the wheel, then carts and wagons, steam power, and the interior combustion engine.
The innovation persisted with electric powered cars, bikes and self reliant vehicles. Ideas that appeared to belong solely to the realm of science fiction are being made a reality.
Read on to discover out what’s coming subsequent in the interesting future of transportation.
The future of transportation involves moving into new, smarter sources of energy, modes of transport and physical and technological infrastructure to support these transportation innovations.
Three common themes in transportation innovation are:
- smart technology
- electrification
- autonomy
Given the rapid expansion of these technologies in recent years, we can assume all will be major contributors to our transportation future.
New transportation innovations
Here is a preview of what’s coming in the world of transportation.
Autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs)
Will public transportation take to the skies? This could soon be a reality. Successful demonstration flights of Autonomous aerial vehicles (AAVs) have been carried out already. Although similar to drones, which are generally unmanned, AAVs are different. AAVs are essentially autonomous human-carrying drones, designed for transporting passengers.
Most configurations of these flying vehicles use Vertical Take Off and Landing (VTOL) through horizontal rotors, which require no runway. The idea is to put commuters into AAVs, taking them off congested roadways and to their destinations on direct routes, greatly cutting travel times.
The Ehang 184 is a concept for 5G-connected urban air mobility, controlled through a smart city command center, and is set to be a world’s first Air Taxi to debut in Qatar for the FIFA World Cup in 2022.
Hoverbikes
This concept is comparable to an AAV, in that it uses a VTOL platform. However, instead of being unmanned, a human operator rides and controls the hoverbike.
The form factor resembles a common motorbike with four rotors (quadcopter) capable of carrying one person. Again, the aim is to provide a method of mobility that alleviates street traffic for short distance travel.
Hoversurf, a Russian company, has developed the S3 2019 Hoverbike, a battery-powered, one piece carbon fiber frame, capable of flying 96 KMph at 33 feet of altitude. At a cost of $150,000 per bike, the hoverbike won’t be an option for daily commuters any time soon.
Self-driving taxis
Autonomous cars are on the cusp of widespread deployment, although largely still constrained to testing environments and pilot projects.
They are on roads today and are active in cities like Las Vegas, where Lyft offers autonomous rides for a fare, in their fleet of 30 ‘Aptiv’ vehicles.
These vehicles represent more than just EV and autonomous efficiencies, but rather a Smart Mobility mentality. Using ICT these futuristic taxis communicate with each other, with smart infrastructure and IoT, with customers and gather mass amounts of data to drive further efficiencies while they move around Smart Cities.
The Hyperloop
The idea of the Hyperloop was first envisioned by Elon Musk in 2012. This future mode of transportation is designed for longer haul transportation between cities, countries or even continents.
The principle of the Hyperloop is based on the movement of people in capsules or pods that travel and high speeds though tubes over long distances.
Inside the tubes is a low pressure environment void of air, while the pods use magnetic levitation (MagLev) technology for propulsion. The low pressure and MagLev, create a very low friction environment allowing the pods to travel upwards of 600 MPH.
Virgin Hyperloop One currently has a 500 meter test track in Apex, Nevada, called the DevLoop. Hyperloop projects are now being considered in India, the US, the UK, Canada, and Mexico.
Other examples include differing version of autonomous MagLev trains suspended above city streets; cable cars far above urban skylines; hybrid cars with wings; electric bikes, skateboards and other personal mobility devices; autonomous busses; even Falcon 9 Rockets to leverage the speed of space flight to get people around the globe quickly. Many of these are far into development and even wider implementation.
The costs of transportation and motivation for change
The human population of Earth is growing and moving into urban areas exponentially.
Travel on roadways designed 20, 50 or even over 100 years ago cannot sustain the demand for modern mobility needs. The result is traffic congestion on our roadways.
Traffic inefficiencies cost the global economy hundreds of billions of dollars annually. Road, air, rail and marine transportation do not always operate as a seamless integrated network, contributing to further cost and delay.
Coupled with the current reliance on fossil fuels, transportation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, comprising 28.9% of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in 2017, according to the EPA.
Greenhouse gases are a cause of climate change and pose a risk to human health and safety. The World Health Organization (WHO) has found that ambient air pollution resulting from vehicles, in addition to other sources, causes millions of premature deaths and disease around the world.
Geotab GmbH is collaborating with Center Smart Services on the RWTH Aachen Campus in Germany to investigate air quality in Aachen.
The Mobile AirQuality Measurement project aims to gather hyper-local air quality to support the optimization of traffic planning and management .
Smart driving, smart traffic
In the near future, commuters will benefit from smart highways, smart traffic control systems, and transportation networks that are optimized with machine learning and AI-driven analytics.
Today, many cities already have Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS), and that trend is anticipated to grow as more cities use “smart” technology to become more efficient.
These systems rely on sensors, cameras, cellular routers, and automation systems to monitor and direct traffic to reduce congestion. Within city limits and residential areas, these systems also coordinate traffic lights, pedestrian crossing zones, school zone signs, alert drivers of speed limits, and issue tickets to violators.
When paired with self-driving cars, these highway systems will also coordinate autonomous vehicles (which will be much more common) in order to reduce accidents and ensure commuters abide by safety regulations.
This will eliminate the need for “speed traps” and for police and civil authorities to enforce traffic laws, freeing them up for more serious tasks.
The task of overseeing all this will fall to centralized processors that rely on machine learning to analyze traffic patterns and find ways to optimize the local network.
This will significantly reduce the workload for transit authorities, reduce the associated costs of mass-transit systems, and dramatically improve efficiency.
Another traffic-saving measure could come in the form of underground tunnels that allow for automated freight transport.
A perfect example is the Cargo Sous-Terrain system that is currently under construction in Switzerland. This $3.4 billion project will utilize a series of underground tunnels and automated delivery vehicles to eliminate freight trucks from highways.
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