What does the transport of the future look like?

Our latest articles all talked about the problems of the industry and the need for change, but not everything is looking grim. Today we are looking into what the transport of the future could be like:

The transport of the future will be fast

To talk about the future of transport is to talk about speed. The Roman Empire wouldn’t have lasted as much without its famous roads, making travel easier across its vast territories. The moon would have been unreachable at the fly speed of an old plane. This is why getting places faster and easier is most important to both passengers and companies alike.

Unfortunately, speed can be a double-edged sword. Simply reaching higher top speeds is no good if the energy cost is too high. Also, a fast vehicle still requires an appropriate structure to move in. It won’t be practical to make trucks that move at the speed of a F1 car if we don’t also change roads to safely reach this velocity.

The transport of the future will be autonomous

Thanks to the latest developments on transportation, talking about automated cars is no longer a utopia. We can already clearly see a tendency towards automation. This revolution started with planes, thanks to their autopilot function. Because of this, we can absolutely expect every other transport to eventually become autonomous. This will make transportation safer, by preventing human induced risks such as sleepiness.

This advances in automation will need to come along legislative changes to accommodate for them. Obviously, this does not mean that professional drivers will disappear from their vehicles cabin, though. Autopilot on a plane doesn’t make the pilot any less important. Drivers will likely develop into more technically oriented professionals rather than operators.

Promising projects for the transport of the future

If we take a look into developing projects, we can see that these transports of the future aren’t actually limited to a distant future. A lot of these prototypes could start living among us sooner than we might think:

• The magnetic levitation train: 

  It is hard to imagine a more futuristic transport than a flying train, but thanks to the magic of magnets, this is exactly what Japan is trying to make. Technically, this train does not “fly”. Rather, it levitates along the rails, pushed by magnets, which allows it to move in a more cost-efficient way than a traditional engine.

  

• The Hyperloop: 

  We could technically also refer to the Hyperloop as a flying vehicle. The idea behind this sci-fi looking train is to move suspended  along a depressurized tunnel. This way, the Hyperloop eliminates both air resistance and floor friction. Without this two physical barriers, the train can move at  up to 1300 km/h.

  

• The 3D Express Coach:

  Much like a cartoon, the 3D Express Coach is a bus that rises up in order to allow cars to flow below it. Thanks to this, the coach can always reach its destination on time without affecting regular traffic, nor requiring a special road.

  

• The autonomous car: 

  Cars that park themselves are no longer a rare sight. What about self-driving cars? The greatest tech companies, such as Tesla and Google, are already competing to be the first to sell completely autonomous cars. Even if this might sound crazy, the biggest obstacle they are facing is not actually technical, but rather the legal implications of such technology.

Summary

Even if the transportation industry is facing many challenges, human ingenuity always finds a way out. A lot of the current projects prove that we don’t really require a great technological jump in order to find new solutions. The  electric bike or the 3D Express Coach prove that sometimes, you just need to think from a different angle.

This proves that transport has a future. We are certainly bound to get a lot more surprises from this industry.