Talk:Automated transport systems
From AdCiv
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Most people would think twice about flying on airliners knowing that 2885 jumbos crash each year killing all <<there is no way this is true. The number is between zero and one. (severe injuries: 36,000 jumbos crash landing) — this is reality of road transport. Likelihood of being killed on the road is something like 1 in 200 (need to find ref).
- Trains
- Light rail
- Personal rapid transit
- Maglev
- Vacuum maglev system (DONE)
- Gravity vacuum maglev (almost no energy required)
- Vacuum maglev system (DONE)
- Driverless road vehicles. There is a competition to be held July-October 2010 in which 4 unmanned cars will drive from Italy to China delivering goods [1].
- Electric vehicles. The winner of the 2009 Buckminster Fuller challenge was a system of small electric cars and scooters which would be docked at points around a city (where they could charge). You swipe a card and one of the vehicles unlocks and you drive it and drop it off at another dock. (Similar to the schemes that exist with bicycles in many cities.) There are plans to bring this in for several cities [2].
- Aircraft
- Personal aircraft
- Sub-orbital passenger craft
- Autonomous helicopters already exist [3]. Think of the possibilities of using them to deliver packages.
- Spacecraft etc.
- Airships (DONE)
- Ships.
- Unmanned freighters. There exists a ship big enough to carry ten thousand cars that runs on a combo of wave, wind and solar energy [4]. This cost $110 million to build; but what are the fuel costs of an ordinary ship? Shipping can be made more efficient by very light, very strong materials. Catamarans are more hydrodynamic. As for automation, there are plenty of small unmanned military boats (USVs in military-speak).
Financial cost of road traffic accidents estimated at over $120 billion in the US and over $193 billion in the Europe Union. (Found in slideshow from Delphi Automotive Integrated Safety Systems - need to find source).
Non-automated, but desirable vehicles for another section:
- Electric / fuel cell
- Human powered - International Human-Powered Vehicle Association is a dynamic organization of hobbyists designing and testing human powered land, air and water vehicles and even submarines. Some of the stuff there is pretty amazing: somebody flew 74 miles in a pedal-powered plane, somebody else broke 82mph in a recumbent bicycle. What's more, the community of people doing this are very much in favour of free and open design. Human powered vehicles will probably remain something people do mostly for fun, rather than as part of an economic infrastructure.
