New transportation technologies

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[Highlander]

I can't see completely driverless cars for the same reason I don't see mass transit embraced by the masses. People like being in control, even it creates a far more dangerous situation.

Yes, doubtless human psychology will be a barrier to entry, and it will throw up additional political and regulatory hurdles. But driverless cars will be so much safer that statistics will likely change people's minds. I also expect that "drivered" cars will gradually take so much control from the human driver that by the time the technology and regulatory environment are ready, the leap to fully autonomous cars will be a much smaller one than we imagine today.

Eventually - but people still do not wear seatbelts despite the obvious benefit and still text while driving despite the obvious recklessness of the practice. They also fear air travel and largely because they are not in control of their destiny. The other issue is going to be cost, you will have a large portion of the population still driving their jalopies long after the monied segment of the population has switched over. I am hoping we just have a decent public transportation system by that time.

[bobbyhawks]

Delivering power to the vehicle is merely one of the benefits of a fixed guideway, along with safety, holistic traffic management, increased speed allowances, and diminished driver stress.

The comparison is with driverless cars, which will be so much better than human drivers on all of those points that fixed-guideways will offer no appreciable benefit other than efficiency gains due to drawing power over the rail. But they retain some very significant disadvantages, first among them the inability to go anywhere economics and politics have prevented guideways from being built.

I'm not sure if you read my entire statement, but I'm envisioning a fixed guideway system that could accomodate retrofitted cars, such that an all electric vehicle, or even a gas vehicle, could be converted to tether to a line that it could untether from at any point and become a regular car. In fact, it would have to do just that to exit a tethered-only lane.

My problem with the way that driverless, untethered vehicles will interact with traffic is that you are still ruled by the stupidest driver on the road. People die on the roads all of the time doing the right thing, or exactly what a computer would do. It is easier in my mind to get tethered vehicles to behave because they all follow the same rules, are on a line that can share information about all connected traffic issues, and would be on a dedicated track that removes wild cards from the equation. Would you ride in a driverless car through a lightless, signless, four-way intersection that requires no stop? The cars at the intersection have to know exactly what the other cars are doing. One cannot do this without eliminating human drivers entirely, and the cars have to be somehow connected so that some form of intelligence can direct them through the intersection. To me, if we are still stopping at stop lights and obeying human traffic laws, the case for a driverless car or any automated vehicle is less interesting. It's nice, but it doesn't really improve things that much when the same idiot can slow the highway down to a crawl, regardless of how automated your car is for stop and go traffic.

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[mean]

So, something like TCAS for cars? I'd really rather the future go in a different direction, but you guys are probably right.

[KCMax]

My problem with the way that driverless, untethered vehicles will interact with traffic is that you are still ruled by the stupidest driver on the road.

[FangKC]

That reminds me of the stupid semi-truck drivers that get stuck in the low-roofed tunnel on Independence Avenue near Wilson Avenue at least once a year.

[IraGlacialis]

I can't see completely driverless cars for the same reason I don't see mass transit embraced by the masses. People like being in control, even it creates a far more dangerous situation.

For me, whenever I'm on an hour+ drive on the highway, at a certain point driving simply becomes distasteful. Be it constantly focusing on the road or having the feeling that you can do something better with your time.
Not to mention probably a bigger reason that people don't embrace mass transit is that they have to share it with other people.

With a driver-less highway mode, I suspect that the majority would flock to it; the sheer convenience of not having to pay attention to the road, and likely going much faster than the current norm, in your personal vehicle trumps the fear of entrusting your life to a computer. Not to mention that on the regular streets, it would probably be back to driver-mode.

[im2kull]

I'm interested in how these proposed driverless technologies handle things outside of the driver, the car, and the road. Things like Deer, and Moose, and any other hazard that shouldn't normally be on a road, but oftentimes is. Things that can't simply be "Controlled" or dismissed, and require human intervention to avoid. A road hazard could be anything, and unless a computer can be programmed to deal with an infinite amount of possibilities, then there's no way for it to be truly autonomous and self-driving.

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[KCMax]

Laser Bike Light Creates Your Own Tron-Like Virtual Lane

[KCMax]

Self-driving cars legalized in California. Nevada is the only other state that allows self-driving cars.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/09/25/tech/inno ... index.html

[FangKC]

Could our highways and roads become the new clean energy power grid for America?

If you've ever driven cross-country, you probably know that there's a whole lot of nothing for hours at a time. What if every square inch of road was collecting solar energy and feeding it into a grid that powers everything from your house to the very car you're driving? It's out of the box, but it seems to be working so far.

http://www.upworthy.com/could-america-b ... g=2&c=ufb1

[bobbyhawks]

Could our highways and roads become the new clean energy power grid for America?

If you've ever driven cross-country, you probably know that there's a whole lot of nothing for hours at a time. What if every square inch of road was collecting solar energy and feeding it into a grid that powers everything from your house to the very car you're driving? It's out of the box, but it seems to be working so far.

http://www.upworthy.com/could-america-b ... g=2&c=ufb1

Very cool. One of the biggest impediments to the future of renewable energy is still battery/storage technology. Sun happens during the day, and wind happens at night, but the peak usage happens when the sun is going down, and the wind has not yet picked up. If you can store energy from off-peak times, there are a ton of opportunities, and things like a solar road start to make a lot more financial sense. Currently, if you generate a huge amount of power from the sun at 3PM, you still have to burn coal/gas or bring power from the nukes at 8-9PM when the sun isn't around.

[FangKC]

Well, at night we could rely on the hamster wheels and starch energy from the handy potato.

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[KCMax]

Solar roads?

http://www.fastcoexist.com/1681562/sola ... sportation

[FangKC]

A motorcycle car called Elio. It gets 84 mpg on the highway, 49 in the city, can go up to 100 mph, and can travel up to 672 miles on a tank of gas. The cost is $6,800. It is made in America. It has three airbag, steel roll-bar safety cage, and anticipated five–star safety rating.

Features include manual or automatic transmission, A/C, Heat, Power Windows, Power Door Lock, AM/FM Stereo, and more.

A vehicle like this would serve many daily commuters who drive alone in one car a few miles to work. It would also be a good choice for some college students and people starting out in the work world because it's cheaper to buy, and operate than a standard car or truck.

I imagine it is safer than a motorcycle because you can't tip over, and it has a rollbar cage in the roof structure.

http://www.eliomotors.com/my-story/

[shinatoo]

A motorcycle car called Elio. It gets 84 mpg on the highway, 49 in the city, can go up to 100 mph, and can travel up to 672 miles on a tank of gas. The cost is $6,800. It is made in America. It has three airbag, steel roll-bar safety cage, and anticipated five–star safety rating.

Features include manual or automatic transmission, A/C, Heat, Power Windows, Power Door Lock, AM/FM Stereo, and more.

A vehicle like this would serve many daily commuters who drive alone in one car a few miles to work. It would also be a good choice for some college students and people starting out in the work world because it's cheaper to buy, and operate than a standard car or truck.

I imagine it is safer than a motorcycle because you can't tip over, and it has a rollbar cage in the roof structure.

http://www.eliomotors.com/my-story/

Snow?