Envision a planet cost-free of targeted traffic jams, roadworks, and pollution, exactly where your vehicle drives you wherever you want to go although you sit back and loosen up.
This may sound like the stuff of dreams, but according to the Future of Highways report from engineering consultancy Arup, this could be exactly the sort of tension-free motoring we’ll appreciate in years to come.
Driving in a global context
The report appears at how fast improvement of our cities, along with climate alter, dwindling sources and changes in human behaviour, will influence our roads, automobiles and driving habits.
Presently, much more than half the world’s population of 6 billion lives in cities, with a staggering 172,800 new urban-dwellers joining them each and every day.
According to Arup, this signifies that by 2050, around 75% of individuals will be live in cities.
Jam tomorrow?
Even though the number of cars on the road is anticipated to increase by 3% annually until 2030, soon after that numbers are expected to minimize, with individuals much more most likely to hire automobiles when they want them, rather than acquiring them.
Altering behaviour and increasing awareness of the importance of overall health and fitness will also imply that more folks will, we’re told, turn to walking, cycling and other modes of transport to get about, rather than relying on vehicles.
Charge of the electric vehicle brigade!
Those that do drive will look for far more environmentally-friendly cars, so gas-guzzling automobiles will grow to be an increasingly endangered species. Hardly surprising that the pumps will run dry sooner or later.
Electric vehicles will develop in popularity, with technological developments enabling batteries last longer than they do at present, so drivers won’t be restricted to just a couple of miles before getting to re-charge.
Ditch the pilot
Vehicles will also turn into driverless, thanks to fully-automated navigation systems, so you can just get in, programme exactly where you’re going to, and let the auto do all the tough work for you.
They’ll also be able to broadcast and obtain info on traffic, speed, weather and any security hazards, adjusting route accordingly.
This enhanced ‘intelligence’ is down to what Arup describes as the ‘Internet of Things’ – the connection of devices, sensors and machines to the internet.
Only connect…
At the moment there are about 1.84 connected devices per person on the planet, but by 2020 this is anticipated to rise to about 6.6 devices per individual.
Vehicles will even be able to communicate with every other, letting every single other know about possible hazards as properly as relaying details about their speed and path.
Solar roads
But it’s not only vehicles which will grow to be far more technologically sophisticated in years to come.
Arup’s vision of the future includes sophisticated solar panel road surfaces, which would generate clean and renewable energy. Electric automobiles could be charged as they are driving along, or when they are parked, so you wouldn’t have to plug them in overnight as you do now.
Panel heaters
Solar-panel surfaces would have other positive aspects also, as they’d include LED lighting to light the way, as well as heating components to hold roads snow and ice-totally free.
Drivers would no longer have to fear skidding in freezing situations (but there’d be no excuse to take the day off operate in bad weather either.)
New technologies will create other possibilities as well, for instance, such as concrete that uses bacteria to heal cracks, therefore reducing the need to have for repairs and roadworks which snarl up site visitors.
Science fact
These developments may well all sound as though they belong in a sci-fi film, but they may well happen sooner than you think.
For instance, Milton Keynes is currently charging electric buses wirelessly as component of a trial led by Mitsui and Arup.
Arup is also working with the Crown Estate and Land Securities to use centres to consolidate goods and deliver them to shops on London’s Regent Street with the ultimate aim of lowering the quantity of polluting diesel delivery vans.
Whatever occurs in the future, it is clear that we need to take action to tackle not only to make driving a lot more environmentally friendly, but also to minimize the pressure on our infrastructure from our growing population.
The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving
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