Technology test
Think about your drive home from work, school, or shopping errands. But notice something is different: there are cars on the road but no traffic congestion, the air is clean, there are no car crashes, and you aren’t worried about getting a speeding ticket.
If you ride your bike home you’ll see it, too – vehicles aren’t whizzing past close enough to clip you, and when you get tired of peddling you rest your feet and coast home. The bus ride is the most productive part of your day as you finish a report while you pass vehicles in other lanes.
That is the potential of how transportation technologies could improve our quality of life in the future. While no one knows for sure what or when the “next big thing” in transportation will be, the one thing we can predict is that the future will be unpredictable.
COMING SOON
Alternative Fuels
Fuels derived from cleaner energy sources than traditional fuels, including electricity, hydrogen, natural gas, and propane.
Shared Mobility
Using vehicles on an as-needed basis, including bike sharing, car sharing, and ridesharing (e.g., transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft).
Electric Bicycles
Bicycles with integrated with electric motors that can provide assistance to the rider, allowing people to climb hills easier and go farther with less effort.
NEXT IN LINE
Autonomous Vehicles
Vehicles, including private vehicles as well as buses and freight trucks, that can drive themselves, or take on certain aspects of driving in “autopilot” mode.
Connected Freight
Freight vehicles that use one or more communication technologies to communicate with drivers, other freight vehicles, roadside infrastructure, or the “cloud.”
Delivery Drones
An unmanned aerial vehicle – essentially a flying robot – used to deliver packages.
MAYBE, MAYBE NOT
Flying Cars
Cars that fly, need we say more?
Hyperloop
Vehicles that travel through low-pressure tubes, floating above a track using magnetic levitation.
Solar Roads
Roadways (or parking lots) that are made from solar panels and can be used to generate electricity that can be for the roadway itself (e.g., heating for snowmelt and lighting for safety) or as an energy source.
What are the challenges?
New is never easy. New technologies will face hurdles ranging from legal and political barriers, to market-based challenges, to physical and technological difficulties in incorporating innovation into existing transportation infrastructure.
Curious what other technology changes are on the horizon and how they might impact our transportation future?