The Future of Transportation

thebossmagazine.com

From horses, camels, other rideable animals and wagons to autonomous cars and a future where less people have cars is a radical transition in transportation. The world of transportation is rapidly changing with the new technologies being developed to make the life of human beings more convenient, of high quality and spend our times on things that matter to us. In this blog, I will talk about carpooling services and how they are becoming more popular, effect of artificial intelligence on driverless cars, future transportation modes and applications that you can use to make your commute easier and affordable.

If you are using Uber or Lyft, then you might have used carpooling services that were launched summer of 2016. Careem (another similar app, but in the middle east) still does not have this service. Anyway, this service is almost half the price of the regular one and so it is very affordable. The drawback of this service is that it takes a longer time to reach to your final destination as the driver has to drop each individual sharing the ride with you. However, we are not here talking about the mechanism of sharing a ride. The carpooling service along with the possibility of renting a car from a civilian who lives in your residential area will reduce the likelihood of the next generation to own cars. Additionally, the cost of getting a ride will reduce as many people can provide this service through Uber, Lyft or Careem. Another worth-mentioning app is Waze Carpool that fixes the problem of many empty seats on the road by letting a stranger share a ride with you using your car or vice versa.

A man reading a book while the car drives itself. Paultan.org

Artificial intelligence is the leading factor in making autonomous cars possible and improving the safety of cars. Even though, driverless cars are now still in the development stage, especially the ones that feature full automation where the driver does not drive. One of the challenges that encounters developers is the fact that our environment is so complicated that there are infinite number of unforeseen situations that a computer cannot predict. Fortunately, machine learning, a subset of artificial intelligence, enables computers to learn by itself from the data that the cameras of the car collect. This specific technique is also called train and test. Tesla recorded a video of one of its fully automated cars that was driving on a road and here is the link to the video: Click here

Below are some of the companies that develop autonomous cars:

- Ford

- Honda

- Toyota

- Renault-Nissan

- Volvo

- Hyundai

- Chrysler

- BMW

- Tesla

- Daimler

- General Motor

- Uber

- Google

- Delphi

- Waymo

It is hard to talk about driverless cars and not mention Elon Musk, the co-founder of Tesla and other prestigious companies. He is considered to be one of the first people to take initiatives toward revolutionizing the transportation industry. The reason he created this company is the fact that he wanted to change how most people wrongly believed that electric cars are substantially slower than gasoline-powered cars. By 2020, 10 million self-driving cars will be on the road. In fact, Japan already has more electric stations than gas stations.

The picture above shows how fast Hyperloop system can travel in time from Melbourne to Sydney. Source: hyperloop-one.com

It is also difficult to speak about future of transportation and not mention the fastest transportation mode system that will be completed by 2021 in UAE to transport travellers from Dubai to Abu Dhabi or vice versa in 12 minutes. It is hyperloop developed by Hyperloop One. A system that can transport about three times faster than airplanes. The company mentions in its website that they are not selling transportation, but time. This is truly what humankind has been looking for for a long time; comfort and time-saving. This technology works by creating a low-pressure environment inside a tunnel that allows the capsule to hover and so it does not touch any of circular surfaces. Click here to check it out.

(Why can't companies develop flying cars?) is a question I have been thinking of for a long time. Are they the current regulations that prevent companies to test flying cars and sell them or the high cost that the customer has to pay in order to buy the flying car? I think both regulations and costs are hurdles and the cost associated with building the car. Enabling cars to fly can bring new problems and unforeseen situations, but the advantages of it does bring much more solutions that can revolutionize the way we transport. Experimentations of this technology, subsidization from the government to those companies who help develop these flying cars and dropping the cost of making the car by involving more firms into this sector can all expedite the change we are going through to make this technology a game-changer in the transportation industry. This is necessary because it will diversify the modes of transportation that can reduce traffic congestion and travel time. The question is, are there any current flying cars? The answer is yes. Check this link and this one too.

Drones and Amazon have a futuristic story for us and that will be a game-changer in the package delivery industry. Amazon has already tried about three real air deliveries using drones to transport a product to a customer within 30 minutes. Currently, these customers are near the Amazon fulfillment facilities and this is why it is easy for Amazon to ensure safety, time accuracy and product delivery. Amazon also plans to build a cylinder-shaped or beehives center that has many landing areas for drones and this will enable Amazon to convey a plethora of packages to customers in different locations. Coupling this with a flying warehouse that Amazon is projecting to develop will revolutionize supply chain management operations as drones can depart from this flying warehouse that is dynamic. Amazon is doing all that to reduce shipping costs and increase logistics capacity as it faces problems in seasonal months like Christmas. Here is a video of Amazon recording a delivery pf a package to a customer via a drone. Click here to watch!

Sources:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2016/12/29/amazons-patent-flying-warehouse/95951942/

http://money.cnn.com/2017/06/23/technology/amazon-drone-beehives/index.html

http://ideas.ted.com/the-future-of-transportation-is-already-here/

https://theringer.com/future-transportation-moonshots-flying-cars-hyperloop-delivery-drones-ad77f197a381

https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/sep/15/top-10-transport-apps-smarter-travel

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/11/technology/think-amazons-drone-delivery-idea-is-a-gimmick-think-again.html

https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/04/self-driving-car-timeline-for-11-top-automakers/

https://www.tesla.com/videos/autopilot-self-driving-hardware-neighborhood-short

http://www.businessinsider.com/report-10-million-self-driving-cars-will-be-on-the-road-by-2020-2015-5-6