Envision a world cost-free of traffic jams, roadworks, and pollution, where your vehicle drives you wherever you want to go whilst you sit back and unwind.
This might 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 of charge motoring we’ll get pleasure from in years to come.
Driving in a worldwide context
The report looks at how fast development of our cities, along with climate alter, dwindling sources and changes in human behaviour, will have an effect on our roads, vehicles and driving habits.
At present, a lot 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 implies that by 2050, around 75% of folks will be reside in cities.
Jam tomorrow?
Even though the number of vehicles on the road is expected to improve by 3% annually till 2030, soon after that numbers are anticipated to lessen, with men and women much more most likely to hire autos when they need them, rather than buying them.
Altering behaviour and rising awareness of the value of wellness and fitness will also imply that far more individuals will, we’re told, turn to walking, cycling and other modes of transport to get around, rather than relying on cars.
Charge of the electric auto brigade!
Those that do drive will appear for far more environmentally-friendly automobiles, so gas-guzzling vehicles will turn out to be an increasingly endangered species. Hardly surprising that the pumps will run dry sooner or later.
Electric cars will develop in recognition, with technological developments enabling batteries last longer than they do at the moment, so drivers won’t be restricted to just a couple of miles before obtaining to re-charge.
Ditch the pilot
Automobiles will also grow to be driverless, thanks to totally-automated navigation systems, so you can just get in, programme exactly where you are going to, and let the auto do all the tough operate for you.
They’ll also be in a position to broadcast and obtain info on targeted traffic, speed, weather and any security hazards, adjusting route accordingly.
This increased ‘intelligence’ is down to what Arup describes as the ‘Internet of Things’ – the connection of devices, sensors and machines to the web.
Only connect…
At the moment there are about 1.84 connected devices per particular person on the planet, but by 2020 this is expected to rise to around 6.6 devices per person.
Vehicles will even be able to communicate with each and every other, letting every single other know about prospective hazards as well as relaying information about their speed and direction.
Solar roads
But it’s not only vehicles which will turn into far more technologically sophisticated in years to come.
Arup’s vision of the future includes advanced solar panel road surfaces, which would create clean and renewable power. 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 properly as heating components to hold roads snow and ice-totally free.
Drivers would no longer have to worry skidding in freezing circumstances (but there’d be no excuse to take the day off function in undesirable weather either.)
New technologies will develop other possibilities also, for instance, such as concrete that makes use of bacteria to heal cracks, as a result reducing the want for repairs and roadworks which snarl up site visitors.
Science reality
These developments may well all sound as although they belong in a sci-fi film, but they may possibly happen sooner than you believe.
For example, Milton Keynes is currently charging electric buses wirelessly as part of a trial led by Mitsui and Arup.
Arup is also functioning 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 reducing the quantity of polluting diesel delivery vans.
Whatever happens in the future, it is clear that we want to take action to tackle not only to make driving more environmentally friendly, but also to minimize the stress on our infrastructure from our expanding population.
The road ahead – Arup ponders the future of driving
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