Modern day life is made possible by the ability to move people and resources from one place to the other in ways that are efficient, safe, and reliable. The concept of transportation—the business of conveying goods and people — is fundamental to shaping communities and the places in which they develop.

But what new developments, with today's technological advancements, is on the horizon to make transportation safer, quicker, more cost effective and fun?

Do you think these new alternative modes of transportation will become a reality? Like the recently unveiled Segway HT? Will people actually use this?

What happened to the visions the futurists of the 30's & 50's had of flying cars, antigravity, jet packs or Transporter technology?

Jeeeez! This looks like it came directly off of an essay test question.
What are your thoughts on the above, Monolith?

Peace.

Hi Goofyfish,

I think the modern automobile is inefficient. Too much traffic and too much pollution are caused by the single driver driving his/her eight seater SUV to work every morning. What we need is a good single passenger solution.

Here is just a small smattering of past and present ideas to ponder:

http://www.moller.com - The Moller Flying Car.

http://www.retrofuture.com/flyingcar.html - Flying cars of the past.

http://www.sfmayor.com/Sparrow - The Sparrow : Single passenger, zero emissions.

http://www.amphicar.com - Official Website of The International Amphicar Owners Club

http://www.news24.co.za/News24/Wheels24/News/0,3999,2-15-47_1059396,00.html - Amphibious supercar about to hit production.

and of course the Segway aka, Ginger - http:://www.segway.com

There is no breakthrough technology in the next few years. But the fuel cell technology has a lot of promises. Sevearal years ago, I was involved with a start up to create 1000F super conductor wires that went no where. If we can come up with such a motor, then the idea was to make each motor and wheel as one piece item with 50 to 60 HP. Then you get total 200 to 240 HP to get going but use only one motor at hiway speed to save energy.

EFC (Earth Final Conflict) type portals may take 30 years to happen. It is based on going through the 4th spatial dimension. First we have to figure out, if such a dimension exists and then how to move through it...

Air cars are possible now but need a wireless infrastructure to be feasible commercially. May be in 5 years.

I can assure you, the automobile will be around for some time to come. The world is just far too dependant on the sale of petroleum to risk that kind of a market, if everyone switched to fuel cells next year the world would be thrown into economic chaos. No, I don't think anything will change until we run out of petroleum.

The EFC portal system would definatly be the most revolutionary of the ideas here. But I don't know if I'd want my molecules scrambled into another dimension by a machine probably running a Microsoft OS :p

I don't think the Segway will do as well as everyone is predicting it will. It's just not practical, no spot to put groceries, no cover in case of rain, no heating for the winter, it's basically a 2 wheeled scooter. It may be a fun toy to have, but I doubt it will even begin to replace cars.

Do you know who David Hamel is and what he is doing. If not look him up on the internet.

Originally posted by Monolith
...and of course the Segway aka, Ginger...Well, if you really want to know the future of the Segway, I suggest you check out this link (http://www.sue-it.com/). Typical of American society, the "law-vultures" are preparing to feast. It seems that this trendy little idea is heading for a problem.

Peace.

I hope these segway things take off because they really are hunks of sh*t. Back when they were hyping it I was hoping for a teleporter or an economic hydrogen car, even a space ship with warp speed (far fetched I know but things were really crazy back then). Instead I get an electric scooter that won't fall over.

Originally posted by cosmonaut
Do you know who David Hamel is and what he is doingI’ve heard of him; a classic nut. Apparently the saucer people contacted him and gave him all sorts of advanced technology secrets. Now he's trying to use them to bring free energy to the world. Of course the patent office loses his submissions, and shadowy government figures confiscate his working models, but he perseveres.

By the way, welcome to SciForums!

Peace.

Oh yeah, yes yes yes welcome to sciforums cosmonaut! If you find it too overwhelming I find it helps to close one eye!

The technology is there.....but will consumers want to get on a plane with no pilot to override any glass cockpit computer screw ups?

As for flying cars....geez, it depends on the model, probably. If they are anything like flying an airplane then people would have to have groundschool on the basics of flying and each model would have to have it's own "checklist" so then people would have to take more lessons and have many hours logged in to be deemed "airsafe" -- hell, it's certainly possible but I don't know how feesible it would be......perhaps for those of us who are willing to go through the training and an AFFORD it....but what about the regular guy/gal?

Hi Ana,

pilotless planes are certainly a possibility. Not too long ago I recall seeing automatic navigating cars - where the vehicle senses either the vehicle in front of it or some sensor embedded in the highway. I don't see why a similar technology could not be applied to air travel. Possibly utilizing satellite GPS technology.

As for the feasibility of a new form of air related travel, well, that is the real question. Will it be affordable, make sense and ultimately be adopted by the main stream? Certainly there are those that think they have developed the answer to those questions. But all of that remains to be seen.

Originally posted by Monolith
As for the feasibility of a new form of air related travel, well, that is the real question. Will it be affordable, make sense and ultimately be adopted by the main stream? Certainly there are those that think they have developed the answer to those questions. But all of that remains to be seen.

Yes, it can be affordable, and safe (with airbags and vehicle parachutes). But with a sue-happy country like ours, who is going to build it?

I have the design if you have the money....

But with a sue-happy country like ours, who is going to build it?

I think you make a good point kmguru. The way that the law system works and what is acceptable practice has changed quite a bit over the years.

Back when cars were first developed, it was considered a hobby item. No one ever drove more than 20 miles from their home in their lifetime! But, given enough time, things change. The airlines are another good example of this.

So I guess whatever new modes of transport are developed would have to follow the same model. Maybe it’s only available to the hobbyist or only available to the rich – at first. Then as popularity and price adapt to accommodate the ordinary man, then this too will be accepted as the “norm”.

I think hybrid and electric cars may make this leap and transition out of necessity – as fossil fuels become less feasible over time.

Hey have you guys seen the new Megway! Its awesome, it will completely revolutionize transportation. Check it out here: http://www.megway.com/. Watch the movie, its great! :D

Now that we can create tabletop nuclear fusion - the days of high density energy is here. OR is it? Will it be quashed by the big oil companies? Will Honda produce the first Fusion Car?...

Not anytime soon I'm afraid. As you know the nuetron radiation would kill the operator of the vehicle within a few weeks from radiation poisoning. That is, all those high energy nuetrons being emitted from the reaction would rip apart cells and molecules like microscopic bullets.

Being nuetral, they go right through most materials and are only slowed when they hit the nuclei of another atom, in which case they can break apart that nuclei or make that atom radioactive.

Many fusion reactor designs would have secondary heat from the radioactive nature of the shielding material from this effect that would be enough to melt that very same sheilding material I think.

Water is a good shield for neutron radiation. Just change the water regularly. You could build concentric water tanks made of SS Steel and Boron Carbide to absorb the neutrons and also any gamma rays.

The lack of attention to improving technology viz-a-viz transport has been perplexing , considering the amazing technological improvements made in materials ,lubricants , heat sealing ,monitoring etc., it seems that new improvements to transport have been an oversight.

I found some prototype designs are available at: http://conceptengine.tripod.com

In the 1960s, Mazda marketed the “Wankle” rotary engine design along the same principle. They had problems with the gasket - or what would be rings in a reciprocating engine wearing out in a short period of time - and the engine did not sell well. It seems, however, that the idea was not forgotten, and the Wankel might be making a comeback in the “hyprid” market. It is good to see older technology made young again.

http://www.xecu.net/goofyfish/__public/wankelani.gif

http://vintagecars.about.com/library/weekly/aa101897.html
http://www.monito.com/wankel/hydrogen.html

Peace.

Check this out also since were on the subject of public flying vehicles.
http://www.solotrek.com

A longtime GM executive once told me, everybody shuned Mazda for their bold initiative for political, marketing, kill the competitor or whatever reason. So not much research in material technology was done. Then the rumor was that GM will build big truck rotary engines.

What we need is a carbon nanotube based engines and structural parts....

Maybe I missed it, but why did nobody talk about teleportation?

http://www.research.ibm.com/quantuminfo/teleportation/

http://www.sciam.com/explorations/122297teleport/index.html

http://www.aip.org/enews/physnews/1997/split/pnu350-1.htm

Instead of improving an existing design, namely the automobile, why not focus on an entirely different technology?

Originally posted by Bigtraine
Maybe I missed it, but why did nobody talk about teleportation?

I did somewhere in sciforums. It is too early to talk about it. For example out of 650 lifetimes in the caves, if the 600th lifertimer started talking about a dream to fly like a bird - rest will howl at him. Get it? :D

I think our best hope for more efficient travel in the near future comes in two forms: mass transit and improved hybrid cars. The mass transit idea is pretty obvious, so I'll focus on the second.
Currently we have electric cars (rare and inefficient), we have gas/electric hybrid cars (like the Toyota Prius, rare and efficient) and gas cars (common and inefficient to somewhat efficient). As happy as I am about hybrid cars, considering they get better gas milage than similar gas cars and don't require any kind of battery charging or fuel cell, I think they still use gas even at low, around-town speeds (correct me if I'm wrong). They use an electric motor charged by braking to augment the gas engine but I think it still starts with gas and uses gas mainly. If we could get a hybrid developed that could run around town (35 or 40 mph and lower) on electricity alone, I think that would be great. Gas could be used only for when people need to be on the highway, which is when gas engines are most efficient anyway.

Depending on oil/gas is not a good solution since we import a lot from overseas. We have to rethink the whole picture. Why do you need transportation to begin with?

Majority of private use is to go to work and some leisure, grocery shopping etc. Then transportation of goods. If we can just reduce going to work by 50%, we can save millions of barrels of oil. Most of the jobs today are services, so one can telecommute from home or a bike distance to a high speed portal. Go to any office in a major downtown city like Chicago, L.A., Dallas etc. you could easily set up telecommuting for 80% of them. If you are thinking the restaurant and other services to these workers, they have to move to suburbs and turn into milkman type business (distribute food and services to home-workers).

Let us do this first - that will save money, road rage, pollution and bring back family life to the country. No more office romances to break up marriages etc. Then we should talk about leisure transporation....

I agree that depending on oil/gas is not a good solution, but I was talking about anything that will realistically happen soon.

I also agree that telecommuting might work for some people, but we would need to install expansive high-speed networks to make it work for many people. I don't think there is any way you could really expect restaurants to get by on delivery to homes. Fast food, maybe, but not regular restaurants. Restaurants that can't get by on delivery would have to be situated within a short walk from major transit stops or people won't go.

Also, if so many people are going to be riding mass transit it has to be fast, and stops have to be often. People don't like to have to wait for transportation, that's why people like cars. If you have a car you can just get in and go. Some of the reasons I don't use mass transit are:
1. I have to wait. My schedule is tight between working and school. I can't wait 15-30 minutes for the bus to show up. Also, the bus does not go from A to B, it goes in huge loops, and I might have to transfer one or more times to get where I want to go.

2. Mass transit is more expensive than driving my car. Currently, it would cost me $1 to ride the bus from my city to the nearby city I work in. It costs me $0.75 in my car and my car is more convenient.

2. Mass transit is more expensive than driving my car. Currently, it would cost me $1 to ride the bus from my city to the nearby city I work in. It costs me $0.75 in my car and my car is more convenient.

I would say that shows that petrol is much too cheap in the US (which I presume is the country where Deus lives).

I think that cars with hydrogen engines is a good idea. Hydrogen is a cheap pletiful fuel source and the only waste product of it is water that is actually cleaner that what you get from your sink. The only real problem with hydrogen is it has this annoying tendency to explode a bit. If that can be solved it is the perfect fuel.

The reason Petrol is so expensive elsewhere (not in US) is that the respective governments put too much tax on it. It is similar to bottled water costing $1.00 to $2.00 per gallon (greed).

Also the reason people use personal car and every family has multiple car in US is that it is an integral part of social economics. That is why we have a $9 trillion GDP. The US is too large and factories or offices are somehow located in the opposite side of where one lives. I can guarantee that China will have a similar problem in that the Chinese society will end up as many cars, motor-cycles as US. The whole idea is flexibility (comes from manufacturing...) that enhances productivity of a society.

Except New York, without a flexible transportation system, US economy will crawl to a stop. However. there is a light at the end of the tunnel. More and more people use computers at work for over 95% of the work they do. As a large number of people start telecommuting, the need for car to go to work will subside. So we may save a lot of money, energy by changing the way we work without taking a hit on economy. The reason telecommuting has not caught on in US is that of stupid perceptions. People think, if they dont see you working in a office, you may not be working. In one occassion, the client asked me to work from my home because the travel and hotel cost was too much (San Francisco).

I can guarantee you, if our gas prices suddenly more than double, world recession will ensue. Just look at airline fiasco. Except a few places, I do not have a mechanism to travel alternate ways to Dallas, Atlanta or Houston. And, even to Dallas, I can reach their faster by my personal car than by air, bus, train....

The lack of flying cars is a little disappointing to me, too. The real shame is, they have been invented! The "Aerocar" first flew sometime in the late 50's or early 60's, but I guess it was deemed either unsafe or unprofitable.

I think the next big step in transport will be in the aviation field. Try going to JPL (the Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and look at their X-43 AKA "Hyper-X" aircraft. This will, I think, have to be combined with larger "lifting body" designs to accommodate the increase in numbers of air travelers.

Found a link to flying cars :

http://www.howstuffworks.com/flying-car.html

Check out the "History of Flying Cars" page, it's hysterical!!
And the Hyper-X can be found at:

http://spacelink.nasa.gov/NASA.Projects/Aerospace.Technology/Pioneer.Technology.Innovation/Hyper-X/

Forget the aerocar, look to the future. We need a car that can float without moving parts or slowly come to ground without crashing - if a moving part fails. Then it will be a success....

Check out this new electric car:

http://www.acpropulsion.com

It actually beats a Porsche in race test:

http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero_pages/Porsche_race/tzero_porsche3.mov

Will the people buy it? Someone on anothe rforum said that teh decision to buy an SUV is based o nexpendable income, and I agree. You make one of these things cheap and fashionable and you will have the solution. and personal flying things are too expensive for all but a few nuts.

I think, as with any new technology, that the price will always be high and out of reach for the average Joe. At first. Then as technologies are adopted, the “supply and demand” factor kicks in - effectively reducing the price.

As with the AC Propulsion car - I think this is a massive step in the right direction. Producing an all-electric vehicle that is small and lightweight that can hold its own against gas powered cars is no small feat.

Another interesting concept for everyone's review:

http://www.carver.nl