Flying robot cars
First of all, tangible progress in transportation technology is expected for cars. There is currently a race in the world: who will create such a robotic car system that will gain popularity and begin to spread around the world. Both automobile concerns and, for example, Google Corporation are working on the creation of a “drone” car. The latter regularly reports on new stages of development and testing of a car that drives itself.
The principle of the robot-driver is quite simple, its main detail is a laser rangefinder, which is mounted on the roof of the car and emits 64 laser beams, which allows you to create a detailed 3D map of the environment.
The robot combines these measurements with high-resolution maps and creates different data models. This allows the car to move independently, avoiding obstacles and not violating traffic rules. The main advantage of this system is that the reaction time of the robot is less than 0.1 second, while for a human, it is several (or even more than ten) times higher.
However, some elements of a robot driver are already used in everyday life. For example, there is a navigator, which reads information about traffic jams and, depending on this, paves the way to a point of direction from its current location. In a problematic city in terms of traffic jams, many drivers use such systems. Another example of such systems (which, however, are now considered and implemented more as an element of tuning, rather than as part of a “robot driver”) is a special system based on radars in the front and rear, which do not allow the car to drive close to other cars at a given speed. We can also mention the system, which reads traffic lights and does not allow the driver to run a red light, or the system of checking the driver for alcohol, which does not allow the car to start if the driver had been drinking before getting behind the wheel. Read also here about best exhaust for ram 1500.
The modern car, however, is a rather archaic design. “Now car models are strictly individual, often within one manufacturer the parts of one brand do not fit the parts of another,” says Evgeny Kuznetsov, director of RVC’s Department for Promotion of Innovations and Social Programs. – This is absolutely contrary to the trend observed in the computer industry: there, it is possible to assemble a good powerful computer from the parts of different manufacturers because they can be docked with each other. This interchangeability has led to a reduction in the cost of the computer.
If this happens in the automobile industry, the cost of cars could fall dramatically, just as the cost of televisions fell. And after cars, this could happen to airplanes as well. Not everyone can build airplanes or cars, but many companies can do the ‘stuffing’ for them.
A hybrid car and airplane is an even more distant prospect than a robotic car. Though there have been several flying cars in the US, they are isolated examples, and such constructions are still a long way from reaching the wide market. And flying cars would have the same problem as small planes do now: everybody wants to fly them, but not everybody can master the complicated aircraft control system and get the necessary license.
Trains – fast, even faster
Ideas for super-fast trains date back to the 1960s. Then in New York they put bomber jet engines on the roofs of experimental trains. The train was accelerated to 294 km/hour. Undoubtedly the flagship of today’s super high-speed train service is the Maglev train (the name comes from the English magnetic levitation). Such a train, for example, runs from Shanghai Pudong Airport to the city. These trains on a magnetic cushion develop speed to 450 km/hour and officially registered record of speed belongs to Japanese Maglev and is 580 km/hour. The fastest electric train is French TGV which can accelerate up to 575 km/hour.
“Maglevs” are held above the roadbed, moved and controlled by the force of an electromagnetic field. Thus, the train does not touch the surface of the rail, that is, friction is completely eliminated. The only braking force is aerodynamic resistance which all fast trains struggle with quite successfully: paid attention to long beak-shaped “head” of locomotives? The train levitates according to “school” rules: equally charged poles repel, oppositely charged poles attract. Germany and Japan are the most active developers of “maglev”. The advantages of this technology include relatively low power consumption (the “maglev” uses three times as much power as a car, and five times as much power as an airplane), environmental friendliness, lower operating costs due to the absence of friction. The disadvantages are the high cost of infrastructure (the maglev line cannot be used by other trains, and the cost per kilometer of this line is comparable to the cost of building a kilometer of subway using the closed method) and the potential harm to health due to the magnetic field.
But it is unlikely that a train will ever achieve the same speed as an airplane.
Trains can compete with air travel for “short” distances of the order of 1,000 kilometers. That is why the task of railroad transport is to develop the quality of service. The airplane doesn’t have it at all, but it’s only an hour flight. And here you have to spend four hours on a poor connection, which is constantly interrupted.
Robot Train
While the robot car mentioned above is still being tested, robot trains already exist and work for the benefit of humanity in Paris, Copenhagen, Dubai, Madrid, Atlanta and Caracas. Located in the French capital, the subway is one of the oldest lines in the world (in fact, the word “subway” appeared in Paris), it operates in the entire region of Ile-de-France and carries 3 billion 100 million people a year (this data for 2011). In addition to the 14 lines of the usual metro, which lies shallow, there is a network of suburban trains RER, dug deeper and crossing the French capital through. The Paris Metro has 14 lines, 215 km of tracks, 384 stations.
The trains have not only no drivers, but even no cabins for them. The first automatic systems still required the driver to press a button to start the train and open and close the doors. Nowadays, everything is controlled by a computer using the ATC (Automatic train control) system, which includes a notification of the operator of the road situation, as well as a special system of smooth speed reduction plus a safety system that includes an emergency stop. Various systems are certified in different countries, but ideologically they are not very different.
In transport, microtechnologies can be used in other ways. For example, embedded microchips in tires could transmit information to sensors installed on the road to help track and control traffic flows. People could get real-time traffic information and change routes to avoid traffic jams.
Smart roads can help reduce traffic congestion, but we don’t yet know about all the routes that people, cars, goods and goods actually travel within urban areas. Getting that data is the first priority. Then we will need innovative ways to use that data if we are to solve the current traffic difficulties.
This kind of application, though in relation to public transport, already exists in a number of European countries, for example in Germany, where a special online board at bus stops tells you which bus or streetcar will be arriving in how many minutes. This system is based on the use of navigation and information systems, which use space navigation (the same one that is used in ordinary navigators).