Technologies
For some, using public transport is the best way to travel, for others it is an eternal nightmare.
No matter what the past experience is or what you think of this mode of transportation now, modes of transport of the future, will definitely make you refuse to drive to work in the morning.
Personal automatic transport
Cocoon-like personal transport has been the hero of numerous science fiction films. After flying cars, perhaps these devices are most presented to us as the transport of the future.
This personal fast city public transport programmed so that passengers never have to wait more than 12 seconds, and their routes are tuned to prevent traffic congestion or the need for traffic lights.
Like many other modes of transport on this list, personal auto transport is much more environmentally friendly than what we use today. The emission of harmful substances into the atmosphere is zero. The vehicle is 70 percent more energy efficient than cars and 50 percent more energy efficient than traditional buses.
So far, personal automatic transport does not have the ability to replace traditional methods of public transport in large cities, but it can act as an additional unloading on the tracks.
Road trains
For those who live in areas where there is essentially little public transport, road trains are the ideal solution.
A road train connects vehicles that travel in the same direction and at approximately the same distance from each other on the highway. At the head of the convoy is a bus or truck with an experienced driver used on a specific route. Each vehicle in the convoy is automatically controlled by the host vehicle.
In addition, the company in charge of the project estimated that road trains could save about 20 percent of fuel per year. This system also significantly increases throughput roads and reduces the number of accidents, due to the fact that sleepy and inattentive drivers are monitored by one experienced driver.
Pipe locomotive
In this converted locomotive, the tubular train passes through support rings located at a height and not like traditional railroad tracks. The train will pass through them, and they will also control the movement of the locomotive.
The developers hope that the tube trains could act as both high-speed rail and public transport. The most aerodynamic model will be able to reach speeds of 240 km per hour for travel distances from 160 to 960 km, while the model designed for commuter travel will be able to reach speeds of about 140 km per hour.
Cross-border bus
You are driving on the highway in the morning and suddenly a huge shadow passes over your car. What looks like a carriage passes you and continues on its way. You have just met the cross-border bus, road catamaran.
The cross-border bus has been designed with the aim of relieving the road from daily traffic jams. The bus is high enough to easily pass over cars. It can carry up to 1200 passengers at a time.
In addition, the bus will reduce the amount of gas emissions into the atmosphere by public transport. It runs on electricity and solar energy, and thus can save up to 860 tons of fuel per year.
Non-stop train system
The developer of the non-stop train system believes that trains are more inefficient due to the fact that they have to stop to pick up people.
The "Train That Never Stops" has a rooftop space through which passengers get into the cars or leave the trains. At each stop, one pod-shaped mechanism remains in the station, dropping off passengers, while another, the same one on the platform, filled with passengers, picks up the traveling train without stopping for a minute.
Firstly, non-stop trains will save time, since the minutes spent waiting at each station turn into an hour by the end of the day. Secondly, they will save energy, since a huge amount of energy is spent on constant acceleration and braking at the stations.
SkyTran - "Air Crossing"
SkyTran is a public transportation system that allows users to travel around the city in individual Sky pods, which are held onto rails by a magnetic field. The system works very much like the subway, but traveling on SkyTran is traveling over the streets. Plus, you don't have to share public transit space with the end-of-the-world chap.
Each Sky pod fits two. Transport can be organized throughout the city, with stops in every block.
The most interesting thing is that the Sky pod will travel to a precisely designated place. Users set their final destination when they board the vehicle, and it takes the fastest route to get there.
Biway Electric Bus
Biway is a bus that can turn into a train. These electric buses can join other buses to form a train-shaped coupling.
Through the use of "fiber highways", which are essentially railroad tracks, connected buses can move like automated trains. When the bus is moving on the freeway, it can recharge its battery. Another plus is the ability for passengers to move between buses when they are connected, which would possibly make transfer stops unnecessary.
City rope crossing
Who has not used a rope crossing at least once in their life? One of the designers apparently liked it so much that he decided that it would be a great public transport.
The system, called Kolelino, invites travelers and passengers to "step in" into an equipped harness that is powered by an engine. Batteries charge devices that move along cables and stop at various stations in the city.
The developers believe that the system can be used by passengers not only within the city, but also on the outskirts. The Kolelino device is a slightly heavy mechanical technique. But it uses far less energy and materials to build than the cars, trains and buses we use today.
Bike city
Cycle City has been proposed as a high-speed, all-season, pollution-free environment, an ultra-quiet transit system that uses the infrastructure of a network of cycle paths established throughout the city. Cycle paths will be designed to be used regardless of the season, with entrances and exits modeled after subway systems.
The project was originally proposed in Toronto, but was never built due to lack of funding and support. However, Velo-City may soon get a second chance, as more and more people choose to ride their bicycles to work, and special paths for them are becoming a serious problem.
Superbus - Superbus
High speed bus focuses on best conditions for the movement of passengers. Superbus is a 15-meter bus with 23 seats. The unique vehicle is equipped with a super-powerful electric drive, which allows it to move at a speed of 250 km per hour, using the same amount of energy as a regular bus traveling at a speed of 100 km per hour.
Superbus will have a central route optimization system. This means that its routes will be completely customizable based on passengers' preferences and directions. Like many of the other modes of transportation on this list, not having to change trains could save time and money.
TUDelft, which created the bus, hopes that one day dedicated express routes will be developed for the Superbus, making travel even more efficient.
As cities grow, getting around them by transport becomes more and more difficult. In some cities, traffic remains busy throughout the day and rush hour can actually last several hours.
Fortunately, there are a number of innovative public transport solutions that address this problem. Adding even more traditional buses to traffic and building a metro is not possible everywhere, so engineers are developing a public transport that will travel above (or below or somehow) roads with regular car traffic, which will make it possible to get from point A to point B in a short time, without having to breathe exhaust gases.
Underwater floating tunnels will significantly reduce the amount of water transport, and the unique modular transport system will completely change the idea of \u200b\u200blong-distance travel and cargo transportation. Read all the details about the next generation of transport, including the developments that will be implemented very soon, say, in five years, or even earlier.
Suspended train Caterpillar
This award-winning suspended train project ushers in a new era in public transport. Instead of traveling on ground rails, the train travels on overhead rails that rest on arched foundations that do not block city highways with traffic from cars, trucks and buses.
Another advantage of this design is that its appearance does not spoil the city landscape at all, but harmoniously fits into it. The project, developed by Jacob Innovations Inc., was recognized as the best in a specially announced competition this year, in which 28 other companies participated.
Chinese portal bus
When people first talked about this amazing bus in 2010, the news was greeted with fear and disbelief. In fact, Chinese developers have already built a trial version of a superbus capable of replacing 4 or 5 regular buses and tested it on a busy road.
The electric bus is designed in such a way that chassis forms a tunnel through which cars and even some trucks can easily pass, which eliminates the need for transport to stop behind the bus at every stop.
The TEB bus is two-lane wide, and up to four of these buses can be linked together and carry a total of 1200 people.
Despite the need to use special guide rails on both sides of the roadway, the developers argue that it will be much cheaper to adapt the roads to the use of such transport than building metro lines.
Self-driving bus
Earlier this year, Mercedes-Benz unveiled a futuristic self-driving bus that is designed to transport passengers safer, faster and more efficiently around the city.
The semi-autonomous bus of the future uses cameras and radar to navigate city streets, giving the driver some rest. The bus can save fuel, thereby reducing emissions of harmful gases into the atmosphere.
While the bus of the future runs only on a dedicated route for it, Mercedes-Benz is making every effort to ensure that this technology is used everywhere.
Hyperloop
Although the San Francisco-Los Angeles high-speed track is still under construction, its enormous benefits are already being talked about. Elon Musk's idea promises ultra-high-speed transportation of passengers and goods at speeds of up to 1200 kilometers per hour.
Dirk Alborn, CEO of transportation technology company Hyperloop, said last year that travel might even be free for passengers, and the company would generate revenue from freight traffic and through technical modernization.
The first line is superfast transport system may be opened as early as 2019. The line will be built between San Francisco and Los Angeles and will allow travel between these cities in just 30 minutes. And this is a path of more than 600 kilometers.
If trips really become free, then this will be just an unheard of bonus and will increase the popularity of such transport among the population.
Norwegian underwater tunnels
Norway is an advanced country in many ways, and is now building the world's first floating underwater tunnels. They want to solve everyday problems with these tunnels.
There are 1,100 fjords in Norway and ferries are one of the main modes of transport, but ferry rides are not quite comfortable for people. it takes a lot of time.
Therefore, now, in addition to the already existing underwater tunnels, they plan to add floating underwater bridges. They will be laid at a depth of 30 meters and will be wide enough for two-lane roads.
Floating underwater tunnels are a smart solution for a country where difficult terrain often makes it impossible to build conventional land tunnels.
The project is expected to cost $ 25 billion, and the tunnels will open to traffic by 2035.
Clip-Air modular transport system
Perhaps the most surprising of all the projects mentioned here is the Clip-Air transport system, consisting of capsules in which both passengers and cargo can be accommodated, depending on their configuration.
Modules can be converted from truck to train or to plane and vice versa, which makes travel without a stop from the point of departure to the destination, and there is no need to go through lengthy check-in at the airport.
For passengers, the Clip-Air system will transform long trips in a real dream, people can relax, eat, and sleep while traveling to the other side of the world.
Freight transportation in this case can also be significantly simplified: you do not have to spend a lot of time, money and energy to unload one freight transport (like a truck) and loading another (like a cargo plane).
All that is needed is to unhook the module from one vehicle and attach it to another along with the loaded cargo or passengers on board.
In the system of urban passenger transportation in the very near future, a real revolution may occur. Indeed, innovative transport systems regularly appear in the world that can radically change the principles of traffic generation in megalopolises. And today we will tell you about 8 new city vehiclesfor which we will change in the next decade.
Electric scooters
Scooters are already popular with residents of congested big cities, as well as people who live in rural areas with poorly developed public transportation systems. However, now we are witnessing the process of transforming mopeds into an environmentally friendly and prestigious form of transport that even millionaires and billionaires can use.This is due to the emergence of a huge number of new models. electric scooters, including those released by eminent automotive brands. Small size and weight, ease of use, low price and high mileage on one full charge of batteries contribute to the increasing use of this personal mode of transport.
As an example, we can cite from the MINI company, known for the production of compact city cars. This vehicle, due to its small size, allows you to drive even through congested streets. He doesn't need a lot of parking space. Moreover, CitySurfer can be folded in half and taken with you on the subway, train or even to the office.
CitySurfer can accelerate to a speed of 25 kilometers per hour and travel up to 25 kilometers on a single battery charge.
Ultra compact cars
Talking about the CitySurfer electric scooter above, we have already mentioned the MINI company, which is famous all over the world for the production of iconic compact cars. However, even Mini cooper seems like a huge tank compared to some of today's ultra-small vehicles.Modern car manufacturers have discovered paradoxical statistics according to which, in the overwhelming majority of cases, people drive their personal cars on their own, without other passengers, and use it only to travel from home to work and back. So why buy big, full-size cars if you don't get the most out of them?
Toyota has released a car specifically for urban lone drivers. The Toyota i-ROAD is an ultra-compact three-wheeled electric vehicle that can squeeze into even the smallest gaps between other cars while driving on the road, allowing it to overcome traffic jams much faster.
Toyota i-ROAD owners will also find it much easier to find a parking spot for their vehicle. After all, where there will be one full-size passenger car, two such miniature cars will easily fit.
Toyota i-ROAD weighs 300 kilograms. This electric car can accelerate to a speed of 48 kilometers per hour and travel a maximum of 50 kilometers on a single battery charge. At the same time, a full charge of Toyota i-ROAD batteries takes only 3 hours.
Public car network
But it is far from certain that there will be a place for private cars in the cities of the future. Indeed, following the popular worldwide public bicycle rental systems, there are also urban short-term car rental systems.These networks operate according to the well-established principle of city bike rental. The customer of the service can take the nearest free public car and leave this vehicle at another fixed point located near the final point of the trip.
In this case, the client pays by the minute for the time during which he used a public car. And this is a very small amount. For example, in the world's largest such network at the moment, 15 minutes of car rental costs only $ 4.
This network, called BlueIndy, is located in the American city of Indianapolis. It consists of 500 public cars and 200 points of their rent. The base car in BlueIndy is the electric Bollore Bluecar.
The process of bus passenger transportation may also change dramatically in the coming years. After all, now city buses run on predetermined routes, and in the future they may become more like taxis.
An example is the Navia transport system, which operates in Singapore. It is based on the compact electric buses of the same name. These electric buses can accommodate a maximum of eight people, therefore, they can be used when traveling to the desired point of small groups of people, joint walks or corporate trips.
Navia from Induct Technologies is an unmanned electric bus that can accelerate to a speed of 20 kilometers per hour. He orients himself in space thanks to satellite navigation, as well as an intelligent anti-collision system.
For the first time, Navia buses have been launched to transport people inside the huge campus of Nanyang University of Technology, but in the future they are planned to be released on public streets, where Navia will become one of the modes of public transport in Singapore.
Miniature trams
Also, trams are considered as shuttles - compact vehicles for transporting people over a short distance (usually inside a park, exhibition, campus or industrial complex). After all, this is a fast, environmentally friendly and cheap mode of transport.An example of a miniature tram line that is completely autonomous from the city's transportation network is the tram project for High Line Park in New York.
Recall that High Line Park itself is a long but narrow boulevard that sits on an old Manhattan railroad overpass. In the past few years, enthusiasts have begun to equip this abandoned infrastructure with wooden walkways, benches and venues for public events. There also appeared green spaces - lawns, bushes and trees.
High Line Park has become such a popular destination among New Yorkers and visitors to the city that its curators began to seriously consider creating a small line of miniature trams on it, which will shuttle along the park, making stops along the way.
Personal rail transport
However, the old railway infrastructure is not being transformed into modern parks by the efforts of enthusiasts. In many large cities around the world, you can find abandoned rail lines that have not been used by trains for many decades. The project with the title proposes converting these old railway lines into a new urban transport network.
Having cleared and reconstructed the railway track, you can run small wagons on it, designed to carry a maximum of two adults. They will walk one after another with a small lag, stopping at specially equipped stops, marked with the letter M, in order to drop passengers and recruit new ones. In this case, the system itself must be fully automated and controlled by a computer.
The M-Blem system will allow not only to partially relieve the traditional urban modes of transport, but also to revive the areas along which these personal trailers will run.
SkyTran - air railway
SkyTran is another project involving the creation of a personal city rail transport... This technology was developed by the Israeli company Israel Aerospace Industries, which plans to begin construction of the first branch in 2016.
The SkyTran system works on the principle of magnetic levitation, which is well known to everyone, but the cars of this maglev will go not on top, but on the bottom. Moreover, the trailers themselves will be quite small, they are designed to carry two or four people. The capsules will run every 30 seconds on average. Passengers will be able to call them via SMS or via special application in your smartphone.
SkyTran trailers can travel at an average speed of 70 kilometers per hour, accelerating to 250 km / h on special high-speed sections.
The trial SkyTran line will appear in the Israeli city of Lod on the campus of Israel Aerospace Industries. The system will be commercially launched in Tel Aviv for the first time. The municipal authorities of Toulouse, San Francisco and the Indian city of Kerala are also interested in the maglev SkyTran.
And we will end our review of the transport of the future with a story about bicycles. The trend shows that it is these vehicles that will become the basis for movement within cities for the vast majority of people in the future. In any case, in developed countries. Indeed, many wealthy cities are investing heavily in the development of cycling infrastructure.
As clear evidence of this claim, we can cite the example of London, whose authorities announced plans to spend more than a billion pounds sterling on building infrastructure for two-wheeled vehicles.
These plans include the creation of a huge network of bicycle ramps with the name It is interesting that the largest architect of our time, the British Norman Foster, is developing the SkyCycle project.
: Top 10 Most Impressive Cycling Infrastructure Sites
Is the heaviest payload rocket to date - and perhaps the transport revolution is closer than we think. Here's how amazing the transport of the future can be.
Car
The cities of the future will get bigger. Cars on the roads will be encountered less and less - especially in large cities. Madrid, Copenhagen and Hamburg are adopting politics to maximize and. But between cities, highways will become super-high-speed - Elon Musk has already built such a high-speed tunnel between Los Angeles and its suburb of Culver City. Cars will be able to move along it without traffic jams and at a speed of up to 240 km / h.
The roads themselves will also change and, in addition to transport, will provide settlements energy. Already in France there is a solar panel lined with 2,800 square meters of solar panels on a one kilometer stretch of road. The solar road will have enough energy to power all the streetlights in the nearby village, and the company behind the project believes France could become energy independent if only 250,000 kilometers of roads are paved with solar panels.
Public transport
Public transport in the future will move away from fossil fuels and switch to renewable resources that may not be familiar. The London authorities already run city buses on biofuels, which are made in part from coffee grounds. Coffee waste will be collected from factories, bars, coffee shops and restaurants throughout the city and then sent for recycling. New fuel reduces the amount harmful emissions by 10-15%. A shortage of it is not expected - the population of London annually "leaves" behind 200 thousand tons of coffee waste.
Oslo is not lagging behind London: from 2019 they will start traveling there. And by 2025, Norway plans to completely ban cars with engines. internal combustion... The unmanned electric bus can accommodate 12 passengers and has a speed of about 20 km / h. You can call the bus using a special mobile application... Waiting time - no more than 10 minutes.
The city buses of the future will become green not only in terms of fuel sources, but also in the literal sense - on the roofs of public transport there will be gardens with living plants. Such a project is already aimed at improving the environmental situation in the city and reducing harmful emissions into the air. Each garden will be built with special system irrigation and is designed in such a way that the plants can withstand constant movement.
Perhaps soon it will not be necessary to buy endless coupons and travel passes - it will be enough to put on a certain piece of clothing. In Berlin, for example, which are at the same time a pass for all types of transport for a year.
For those who are not satisfied with either convenient public transport or bicycles in cities, a flying taxi will be available in the future. Uber will launch flying taxis as early as 2020 in Texas and Dubai. Such a taxi will be a small light-engine aircraft with electric motor... The company plans to make the planes quiet for use within the city. Another similar transportation option (also in Dubai) is. The passenger drone will be able to carry people weighing less than 100 kilograms, its maximum speed will be 160 km / h, and it will be able to be in the air for no more than 30 minutes and will carry its passengers to a maximum distance of 50 kilometers.
Train
Trains will continue to accelerate, making strong competition for airplanes. In China, between Beijing and Shanghai, they have already launched. It can accelerate to 350 km / h and cover a distance of 1200 km in 4 hours 28 minutes. This is an hour and a half faster than other trains.
But even more prospects in the train business were offered by Elon Musk back in 2013 with a concept - a system of trains with an electric motor that sweep through pipelines from low pressures on air or magnetic cushion. Vacuum train will be twice as fast as an airplane and three times as fast high speed trainreaching a top speed of 1200 km / h. Hyperloop has already shown, and up to 310 kilometers per hour on a test track in Nevada. The closest possible route will connect Abu Dhabi and Dubai in 2020.
They also presented their own in Germany - it will have sports simulators, plasma TVs and meeting rooms with soundproofing and tablets (as a competition - in Scotland). While some are focusing on comfort, others on technology: in Germany, for example, they will launch by 2021. It will be eco-friendly and completely silent passenger train The Coradia iLint is the first long-distance train in history to emit only steam and condensed water into the atmosphere. The hydrogen tank is located on the roof of the train and powers the fuel cell, which in turn generates electricity. Such a train can continuously run 1000 km without refueling and reach speeds of up to 140 km / h.
And, of course, the trains of the future will run on renewable energies. In the Netherlands, trains are already 100% powered by wind. An hour of operation of one wind turbine is enough to travel by train with a distance of 192 km. At the same time, by 2020, the Netherlands hopes to reduce the amount of energy required to transport one passenger by another 35%.
Airplane
Airplanes seem to be the most familiar form of transport for modern travelers, although not the most environmentally friendly due to too large CO2 emissions. However, there is already a plane flying on biofuel: in particular, the plane of the Qantas airline is the first flight between the United States and Australia using biofuel made from a special grade of mustard. The plane was fueled with 24 tons of Brassica Carinata mustard biofuel. According to Qantas, this has reduced carbon dioxide emissions per flight by 18 tons compared to using conventional kerosene.
Airplanes, trains and automobiles carried us throughout the twentieth century, but today all this is far from new. Transport of the future will travel along the lines of magnetic levitation, carry us on jetpacks (jetpacks) and fit in a backpack - and all this will be earlier than you think.
Hyperloop
Imagine: genius billionaire develops an innovative electric vehicle, founds a company that will take astronauts to the International Space Station, and invents a highly successful alternative to the banking system. For many, this may sound like fantasy, but in fact, it is reality. Elon Musk founded Tesla Motors, SpaceX and PayPal, but this did not satisfy his thirst for invention: not so long ago, the billionaire presented his idea of \u200b\u200ba superfast urban transportation system that could "take you from San Francisco to Los Angeles in 35 minutes." The Hyperloop is a kind of steel pipe, through which aluminum capsules will move, carrying passengers at a speed of over 1200 km / h. Well, it will work on solar energy, of course.
What is the problem? The problem is the price. Musk estimates the Hyperloop will be worth $ 70 billion at launch alone. The final costs may well exceed $ 100 billion. This is roughly the design cost of a bridge to Crimea across the Kerch Strait. However, Hyperloop has its own critics.
Many people complain that the system is too expensive, impractical and even slow. But a start has been made: in 2015, the startup Hyperloop Transportation Technologies will present a Hyperloop prototype project. You can still make bets: will it take off or not.
Nuclear powered cars
Despite the fact that almost everyone is intimidated by nuclear energy these days, it could very well become a large part of our common future. There is an American company working on a radioactive transportation business. For years Laser Power Systems have been preaching the benefits of thorium, a radioactive element that is largely responsible for generating heat in the center of the earth.
While peoples are busy researching thorium for use in nuclear power plants, the purpose of the LPS is more transparent. The company plans to build car enginethat will work on one small piece of radioactive material. The engine will run, concentrate the heat generated by the thorium and use it to convert water into steam, which will turn a series of microturbines to generate electricity. Thorium is an extremely dense element, so a nut-sized particle of it can power a car for a hundred years. In other words, you don't have to pay for gasoline.
Supercavitation
In the world of marine technology, no idea picks up steam faster than supercavitation. This effect is created when a layer of gas bubbles forms around an object in a liquid (imagine a submarine surrounded by bubbles). Gas reduces friction by almost 900 times its normal value, which allows objects to be moved very quickly through the water.
It goes without saying that a supercavitating boat would be a huge asset to any navy. In addition to high speed with relatively low consumption fuel, the special shape makes it difficult to detect with sonar. Such a boat can overtake a torpedo.
Juliet Marine Systems, a privately held company in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, is trying to build such a boat. GHOST will protect naval vessels from pirates attacking them. Also, such a transport can be an effective ferry, capable of quickly moving troops to the enemy's shores.
Jetpack Martin
TIME magazine's list of the 50 best inventions of 2010 includes "the world's first practical jetpack." For convenience, we will call it a jetpack. These jetpacks are under active development and are no longer a figment of the science fiction imagination. For example, here is one of the recent tests:
Glenn Martin, a New Zealander, has been working on his jetpack for over 30 years and is almost ready for commercial sale. It runs on duct fans and can fly for up to 30 minutes at a time. Him maximum speed - slightly less than 74 km / h, and the flight altitude is up to 900 meters. Initially, such a jetpack was developed for firefighters and rescue teams, but now Martin decided to give people the opportunity to try it out.
Bicycle town
It would be cool to ride a bike every day, but for many people, such trips are not worth the effort. Well, the Americans have found a way to make this super difficult task easier. In 2006, Toronto unveiled plans to create a "high-speed, all-season, environmentally friendly and ultra-quiet transit system that will make people healthier." Almost a cycle path on steroids. Designed by Toronto-based architect Chris Hardwicke, it features a three-lane bicycle tube. The tube is split in directions, allowing the air to create a tailwind. The efficiency of cyclists will increase by 90% and they will be able to accelerate to 50 km / h. The bicycle city (Velo-city, as the project is called) will ideally work in cold conditions, since the cyclists inside the tube will be protected from bad weather.
When the idea was proposed, it stirred the masses, but the project was ultimately written off due to lack of funding. However, he was not forgotten. Perhaps in the future we will be able to ride too.
Next
We've all heard about Google's self-driving cars. But have you heard of Next? Part taxi, part Segway, part origami is a socially focused construction that you need to see to understand. Designer Tommaso Getzelin envisioned a world in which you use your smartphone to summon Next, a self-driving module that will pick you up. You slip into a customizable chair, the door closes. The module travels on four wheels until it encounters a group of other modules.
Then a miracle happens. Your seat is upright and your unit is on two wheels while connected to the group. You are like sitting on a bus or train. The modules are detached as easily as they are connected. As you approach your destination, your module unhooks to drop you off without any problems.
The idea is fantastic. Unfortunately, we'll have a long way to go before we're ready for Next. In his plans, Ghezzelin outlines a timeline for technologies to be developed or improved. This includes cheap nanomaterials, self-driving cars, powerful batteries, cheap solar panels with high capacity. In general, not earlier than 2025, according to the creator of Next.
Kolelinio
Believe it or not, bungee riding could very well become a reality with Kolelinio, a concept that Martin Angelov presented at the 2010 TEDx conference in Thessaloniki. Angels showed a network of wires crossing the sky, with the help of which people can easily move from place to place. As the designer notes, we are driven by cars that weigh 20 times our bodies, and our roads are too expensive.
This can be done away with, as well as significantly greening the transport infrastructure. Travelers using Kolelinio will anchor themselves in special chairs that will carry them on wires, staying closer to the ground in pedestrian areas and climbing higher in areas with heavy traffic.
There are, however, several downsides. Kolelinio offers no protection against bad weather, is not suitable for people with a fear of heights and raises a number of safety issues. Nonetheless, this is a highly innovative idea and hopefully there will be someone who will bring the idea to life.
Skylon
The Skylon is generally considered the successor to the Concorde, an aircraft that flew faster than the speed of sound, but was decommissioned about 10 years ago. In 2013, the UK announced plans to spend more than $ 90 million to develop the Skylon, an ultra-fast aircraft that can travel five times faster than the speed of sound and enter Earth's orbit, which is space. It will be able to take off from any runway in the world and carry 300 passengers from London to Sydney in four hours. Or it can be used to transport cargo to the ISS. But he is unlikely to compete with the options that are currently being considered for this position.
Development of Skylon is underway, although it is very, very difficult to make this transport. Final costs can be over a billion dollars. Nevertheless, many scientists and journalists are optimistic about this project. If all goes according to plan, the prototype will be ready by 2017. What then? "Went into space and access anywhere in the world in just four hours," says Alan Bond, founder of Reaction Engines, the company behind the Skylon propulsion system.
SCARAB
This concept vehicle is something sleek and streamlined, vaguely motorcycle-like, but closed and with plenty of luggage space. It can be operated manually and can also be operated on autopilot. SCARAB runs on batteries, biofuels and gasoline. He drives on four wheels, but during parking he gets two. And it adds up.
Designer David Miguel Moreira Gonçalves represented the urban environment when he drew his plans. As he himself noted, “the goal of this project was to develop a holistic solution for new system urban transport, consisting of a car and infrastructure ”. In other words, he noticed that people prefer personal cars urban transport, so I decided to develop something individual, light and environmentally friendly.
SCARAB has not been built yet, but what prevents from doing it in the future?
SkyTran
Tel Aviv, Israel is at the heart of the ancient cradle of civilization. But it's not outdated at all. Tel Aviv is a dynamic, bustling city that lives 24 hours a day and has a lot of traffic problems. This is why the city planners had the idea to build an air-magnetic transport system. They named it SkyTran. Of course, the designers presented too much, but in fact the idea is workable. SkyTran will ride six meters above the ground. Or slightly lower, since the capsules in the form of grains will be attached from below, thanks to maglev technology (magnetic levitation).
Passengers will be able to use a smartphone app to call the capsule to the nearest station. The cars will operate independently and bring passengers as close to their destination as possible, if the tracks allow. According to general director SkyTran, Jerry Sanders, a SkyTran ride won't cost much more than a bus, but less expensive than a taxi. In addition, if solar panels are installed, SkyTran will become a completely independent system.
SkyTran will be able to reach speeds of up to 241 km / h, but that later - first, passengers will get used to slower speeds. The idea itself is fantastic and goes back to the comics of the 50s, and so is the aerodynamic shape of the car. But suddenly. The future is coming inexorably.
