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Would you let your car drive itself? The US Department of Transportation wants to know. This month, the DOT is having volunteers from around the country drive cars equipped with short-range car-to-car communication systems that allow the vehicles to not only "talk" to one another, but warn their passengers of impending danger and even engage in evasive maneuvers should their operators fail to act. More »
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Ever since the Hindenburg disaster in 1937, airships have been a largely abandoned technology, their continued existence consigned to being a quick shorthand for alternate universes in science fiction. But now, 75 years later, airships might be ready to return. More »
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Machinists dreamed up the first screw-propelled vehicle in 1868. Since then other prototypes have popped up for use in war, in farming, in industry, and dare I say it? In our hearts. More »
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Enjoy being in cars but hate the hassle of watching the road and holding the steering wheel? The road train autopilot system could bring us cavalcades of remotely driven cars. More »
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It's straight out of 1950s science fiction: an entire country connected by food-transporting pipelines, sending baked beans and smoked kippers sailing between London and Liverpool at 60 miles per hour. And it's arguably more sensible than what we're already doing. More »
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This hopeful illustration from the December 1930 issue of Modern Mechanics predicted that future fellows and flappers would fly around in this highfalutin flivver. Look out your window. I see no half-crop-duster-half-jalopies whizzing around. Sorry, readers of 1930. More »
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Find out how we would be able to get anywhere in just under forty five minutes, if it weren't for that pesky molten core at the center of the earth. More »
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The next generation of concept artists is paying tribute to the master, Syd Mead, who reinvented cars and city living in his work on Blade Runner, Tron and other films. Here are our favorite entries from CGSociety's Syd Mead contest. More »
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Thanks to a $274,000 grant from the Federal Railroad Administration, Amtrak will soon run its Heartland Flyer rail line on beef byproduct biodiesel for a 12-month trial period. Obviously, the Heartland Flyer needs a new, titter-worthy name. More »
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What will London look like at mid-century? According to this futuristic London Underground map, it will be full of geothermal plants and algae factories that double as housing towers. Plus Tripods and giant mushrooms. We've got the full map below. More »
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Since many Americans spent part of the last few days traveling home for Thanksgiving on trains, Scientific American chose to mark the occasion with an in-depth report on the future of rail travel. The future looks promising... and fast. More »
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Behold the personal transport of the future! It looks like a boombox, but Honda's U3-X is a unicycle-like personal mobility device, that you can steer by leaning in the direction you want to go. It's small, unobtrusive, and sexy! More »
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A Jetsons-style transit system is set to roll out around Masdar City - electric, elevated podcars that can carry a few passengers at a time around the city, between several customizable destinations. More »
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Whenever public planning types talk about urban transportation's future, they always discuss light rail or tiny electric yuppie-mobiles. But future urbanites will really get around in the cheapest, most low-overhead manner possible. More »
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Canada has at last entered the Zeppelin Age, and it looks as if Calgary, Alberta will be the first city to make the leap into an alternate history where people use giant, helium-filled balloons to move stuff around instead of trucks or trains. A Calgary-based company called SkyHook, working with Boeing, has developed what they call the Jess Heavy Lifter (JHL-40) or a "blimp on steroids." This is no pleasure cruiser, though. It's seriously mega, and will be used for transporting heavy loads in areas of northern Canada where there are no roads. More »
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U.S. President Bush has authorized construction companies to use $45 million in federal money to construct a maglev train between two amusement parks: Disneyland and Las Vegas. It will be the first levitating train in the U.S., zooming along at up to 300 mph, though the Bush Administration's choice of route is somewhat odd. A trainline on that exact route was canceled in 1997 due to lack of interest from riders. Maybe the levitation thing will get people interested again — they can fling themselves around in mad teacups at Disneyland in the morning, levitate to Vegas in the afternoon, and gamble their life savings away in the evening. I love the future. [AP via Slashdot] More »
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Future cities will eliminate gridlocked roads by offering personalized tram cars that can whisk us to any destination in the city, on-demand, and with little to no delay. You'll be able to experience this cutting-edge form of urban transport when the ULTra system debuts at Heathrow Airport later this year. Each electric car rides around on a concrete guideway, its movements controlled by a central computer. It could be safer, cleaner and more efficient than any current method of moving people around cities. More »
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A new study published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that about 20-25% of greenhouse gas emissions (CO2 and ozone) are coming from railway, shipping, and car or truck transportation. But the most interesting part of the study are its future projections. "In 2050, as much as 30-50% of total CO2 emissions are projected to come from the transport sector," write the authors. In addition, they say that many of the emissions causing climate change from transportation are not covered in the Kyoto Protocol. Climate forcing from the transport sectors [PNAS] More »
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