Nowadays technology is getting more and more advanced with each year.Along with it's advancement a question about the future of transportation comes to mind.
Developing our transportation system won't only change how we commute on a daily basis or travel.
It will also have a significant impact on our environment by reducing the amount of air pollution.
Here are some projects that are being developed in order to revolutionize our transportation:
Developing our transportation system won't only change how we commute on a daily basis or travel.
It will also have a significant impact on our environment by reducing the amount of air pollution.
Here are some projects that are being developed in order to revolutionize our transportation:
Hyperloop
The concept for this transportation method is being driven by well-known entrepreneur Elon Musk.
Hyperloop is using capsules and tubes for transport. Above is the picture of such capsule within the tube that is able to transport 28 persons with enormous speed of 1200 km/h.
The concept was first published on 2013. According to Elon plans first route would connect 2 major cities in America: Los Angeles and San Francisco ( ~600 km ).
Just to give you an estimation of how much time you would save here are the statistics based on google maps:
Los Angeles - San Francisco:
- by train: 6.5 H
- by car: 6H
- by plane: 2H
- Hyperloop?? 30 minutes !!
Not only it is faster it will as well be the cheapest option. For the journey you would have to pay only 20$.
Within the capsule you would be travelling in a semi-prone position surrounded by beautiful views and advanced entertainment system.
Autonomous vehicles (AV)
The idea of self-driving cars are not as recent as you might thought. Concept of first truly automated car appeared in 1980's. Such cars are using plenty of different sensors that combined coexists to interpret all the data and control the car by itself.
There are different levels classifying autonomous driving:
Level Zero – No Automation
- Nothing spectacular at this level. Driver is basically doing all the work.
Level One – Driver Assistance
- Vehicle able to control steering or braking but not both simultaneously.
Level Two – Partial Automation
- Car assists with steering and braking. Driver's attention is required at all times.
Level Three – Conditional Automation
- Car handles most aspects of driving. Driver is allowed to take their eyes of the road temporarily but he must be required to 'take over' during the travel.
Level Four – High Automation
- Full control taken by car in the right conditions.
Level Five – Complete Automation
- The car drives you. No steering wheel required.
So at what level are we currently at? - Experts estimate that somewhere between level 2 and 3.
There are plenty of factors that are in the way of advancing the idea.
Our roads are not able to fully support AV's due to their poor conditions.
Weather is as well another factor - many of the car systems can be easily disrupted by rain or snow.
After reading the article please answer the below questions:
1) What is your opinion on how our future transportation systems can look like?
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Comments
I have to admit that I'm a big fan of public transport - I believe in its supremacy over cars, especially in bigger cities. I hope it will still evolve and one day people will use only public transport to commute in the city.
2. In my opinion, we are quite close to it and it will take about five to ten years to reach this level. In recent years we are experiencing a boom in machine learning solutions and applying them to self-driving cars seems to be a great and somehow natural idea.
3. I prefer self-driving cars. I'm not a big car enthusiast, for me a car is just a device that takes you from one point to another, so if something can automatize it, we should use it.
I also wish that before we will have all of these autonomous technology, we will reach a decent level of traditional public transport in Poland. Transport that will be fast, reliable, that will offer humanitarian rides and will offer much more routes to reach every part of our country.
2. It's not the far future I think, maybe something like 5-10 years when we invent level 5's AVs, and something like 15-20 years until they become mainstream.
3. On the one hand I'm a car enthusiast so I would definitely prefer to drive myself as I really like driving cars and it brings me joy. But on the other hand considering a way of transport such as self-driving cars, where you just enter it and it brings you to the destination like, for example, a train, is a very tempting offering. I thing I could commute using an AV on a daily basis to go to work, but use a normal car in other cases.
I imagine it as simply a more extensive public transport network. Looking at Polish standards and the budget, I don't think that in the coming ten years, for example, public transport should be replaced by the latest technology. We will probably develop investments in metro and trams.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
This is a very difficult question. I think we still need many years of experience and experimentation in this field. Once such vehicles are launched, they must be at least perfected
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Rather not, driving a car gives me a lot of pleasure, I wouldn't want it to be taken away from me by the device. Of course, in many cases it is extremely convenient, like taking a person to the hospital who is unwell or a woman who will give birth. Such persons cannot drive a vehicle on their own.
2. In terms of technology it doesn’t seem so far, but in terms of the culture and what people are afraid of – we are very far. Just imagine what would happen with all accidents actually caused by pedestrians. The car would always be the one to blame. A couple of generations must pass away to change the attitude to such innovations.
3. I would like to have a choice. Most of the time I’d probably not drive by myself, but I’d like to have such possibility in case I’d like to have some fun, or if something wouldn’t work properly.
I hope they will be fast, i hate the time wasted between point A and B as usually there are so many people I can't get done a thing and ultimately I do nothing.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I think it is a matter of few years but only if right condition occurs for it, something around from 5-10 years i hope but it will take a long time before we will be able to get it in Poland.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
I don't like driving that much personally and I don't even own a car, I would really love to have a self-driving car one day as it is more convininent in my opinion.
2. We are close but the biggest barrier, as you mentioned in the article, which is the adaption of the existing roads. Also, the human factor is also an important part of the potential issues. I’m sure that many people have heard about Tesla’s autonomous trial drive. Everything was going well until the woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere and got hit by the car (which couldn’t predict her approach in the darkness). These kinds of accidents lead to worse PR and cause the delays in the implementing of new solutions.
3. I would like to live in a self-driving world but with potential opportunity to drive by myself. It’s very pleasant to drive a car. I can’t imagine that it could possibly start to be forbidden to drive a car by yourself.
For lots of people it’s a passion to drive their cars or motorbikes and they wouldn’t give up under any circumstances.
All roads are reformed and electromagnets are added to the lower layer of the roads, the vehicle is modified according to the new road, and anti-gravity flying in the air with speed more than 400km/h, I guess it would happen if Nikola Tesla is still avlie, this was one of his idea.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Self-driving is about object recognition and computer vision after all, which depend on the each frame captured by the camera very much, so the main problem is all the roads have better to be almost the same form, and how far away? I guess it mainly depends on how much development the Tesla industry has, since Tesla is pioneer of autonomous driving as well.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
I would like to live in a world of self-driving cars, because it will save me more time to do others things when I will have to drive 2 hours or more, for example, reading or coding. Also driving can be a habit, so I will drive by myself when I will have the feeling to drive.
Unfortunately as recent research states we are still far away ( even decades ) before reaching such level of autonomous driving.
Since you prefer public communication instead of cars - what are your favourite way of transport ( bus, subway, train etc. ) ?
I'm a petrol head as well and I wouldn't pick an AV instead of a normal car.
Could you share with us what would be your dream car for those 'other routes' ?
I think however that in major cities it'd be very difficult to develop new infrastructure on the ground but a metro is a viable option since we don't really use that much space underground.
I'm a car enthusiast as yourself. Could you please share with me what is your 'dream car' ?
The case with accidents is really interesting. I'm wondering who would be responsible for this then?
Would it be the owner of a car, pedestrians or maybe a company of produced car ? - What is your opinion ?
Definitely going upwards in scale. We are running out of free space on the ground.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Pretty far, I would say. First we need to develop stable and constant infrastructure system adhering to the same standards. Design solid solutions and ways for transportation of all kinds and needs. And in developing countries as well.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Myself. Some day AI will be better at driving than human, that is for sure, but I am not trusting such tasks to the robots until we achieve critical thinking for them.
It will be developed in this way to cover not any more space so I think it will go underground which will be faster and safer for travel than on the surface.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Still it is years of developing. Not only programs for self-driving cars but we have to change the way the roads works. They should have some elements that our machine can translate in order to make driving safety but in my opinion, as long as human will drive manually, self-driving cars will never be 100% safe.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
2. Again, I am sceptical about this one, as I think it is not possible to reach level 5 without achieving the true AI. In my opinion we can reach level 4 at the very best, but we are still far from that.
3. I really enjoy driving, but I also would like to have a choice to let the car drive me sometimes.
2. In my opinion, this is the question of time. To live in the world of self-driving cars we need to convince all people to use them. But if we allow both self-driving cars and person-driving cars it may cause a lot of problems because people are unpredictable and there are not so strict about rules like robots and AI.
3. In the world of only self-driving cars definitely yes because it is fast and safe. However, I would like to use the car not only to get from one place to another but also for fun. So I wish we would save some roads to have fun.
2. I think that only a few years brave from autonomous cars. It must be remembered that cars can now park on their own and keep a lane. Although they require driver vigilance but I think that in the near future artificial intelligence will be able to better predict the situation on the road and will relieve the driver.
3.No, I would like to live in a world of self-driving cars. Driving a car is a lot of fun for me.
All depends how far in the future we are talking about if near future then like descripted in the level 4 if far future then I think teleportation is also possible “Bam me up, Scotty”
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I share my opinion with experts in this matter
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars, or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
I would like to live in a world of self-driving cars, you don’t have to think how much you drunk, that you could fall asleep while driving or that you didn’t saw someone at night. Yes, there are many downfalls like you entrust your life to machine that you don’t actually control but this is very similar to situation when you are passenger.
2. I think that we will reach level 5 after my death. Elon Musk still announces full autonomy but we are still far away.
3. Personally, I dream of fully autonomous vehicles. The number of road accidents would drop sharply. Life would become safer.
1. In addition to hyperloop, which is what this topic is about, I think that the complete reorganization of road traffic will also help to improve the transport system. More information on my blog: https://konwersatorium1-ms-pjwstk.blogspot.com/2019/04/week-5-08-1404-realistic-future-of.html
2. Autonomous cars are around the corner, so I think they will be on the road this century. So soon. All that remains is to refine them and draw up relevant laws.
3. I would like to live in a world where autonomous vehicles are allowed, as well as those where I drive a car by myself. It certainly would be an amazing experience.
2. I estimate it will be in about 15 years.
3. No, I would not. Despite the fact that I graduated from the Warsaw University of Technology as an engineer, I know that autonomous car technologies are also created by people - and they make mistakes too. It's better to believe in your skills.
In the near future, I hope that the development and popularity of autonomous cars will increase, I also support hyperloop. It was not mentioned in the article, but the future of transport (for short distances) will be (and already are) small electric vehicles, such as scooters, hooverboards, skateboards, segways and others - a great alternative to crowded public transport and traffic jams in the city.
2.
I'd say that we are between level 3 and 4, but im not an expert :))
I think we still need 5 years to completely get rid of the steering wheel from cars.
3.
I prefer self driving cars. It would be safer and more comfortable for people.
I would really like highways to be fully controlled by AI and on small roads and town we could take control of the wheel. I think it would be perfectly balanced.
It depends on how far into the future we look: if tomorrow is probably the same as today, and if in a thousand years it is possible we can travel between the star systems in just a few earthly weeks. It's hard to say what it will look like, because it is unknown how science will develop in the future, but I hope there will be flying cars
2) How far do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Given Tesla's success in this, I think in about 10-20 years. Especially since technologies are developing very fast nowadays
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you rather drive by yourself?
For the reason that I am a programmer, I would prefer self-driving cars, because processors can process a lot more information than a human brain, so in critical cases such cars would have more time to make appropriate decisions.
1. I would like to believe that future transportation will be not only fast but also ecological, however, I must say that I don’t think it will happen soon. At least not on the larger scale.
I would obviously like to travel faster, although, in my opinion, the biggest issue is cargo transportation. The number of trucks on the roads are frankly insane. If the companies would transfer at least a bit of their cargo onto, for example, the tracks there would be less pollution and the roads would be safer and less crowded. The sad truth is that any changes would cost companies money as, for now, trucks are the cheapest way. Pollution laws would have to be changed in order for the companies to even consider changes. Obtaining this goal would be the first step to any changes in the future of transportation and then we can debate on the hyperloop, which are by the way incredible idea, as they partially take the friction out of the equation, making the tunnels easier to move in, rather than putting the money on the engine.
To sum up, I’d like to believe that the future of transportation would be focused on moderating the number of vehicles, placing goods and travellers in larger carriers such as fast trains or futuristic projects such as hyperloop.
2. I think that in terms of self-driving cars we are further then we suspect, however people are still far from completely trusting the machine (even if they do it in the planes as pilots rarely turn off the autopilot). I had the pleasure of driving a partially autonomous car. Systems help during the drive, remind you to use blinkers and so on, but the most incredible feature was driving in the traffic jam. I was quite nervous at first that something could go wrong, but it didn’t. I think that fully autonomous cars will be the future once we believe those machines (and fix the roads…).
3. As I mentioned before, I would love the world where the cars drive themselves. The roads would be safer and travel more pleasant. However, I’m still rooting for public transportation to take over, especially in the cities, maybe we could exploit the idea of self-driving buses and trains.
To be honest, I would like the concept of our future transport system not to change, but to advance in level. I mean that people would not feel completely safe if robots were driving vehicles. Here I give preference to people. Since in general, what we have today is very comfortable for me. Another negative point in the automation of the transport system is that millions of people around the world will be left without work, this is not a very good phenomenon. So I would suggest simply improving the current system and correcting errors in it.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
To reach the fifth level, which is outlined in your article, we will need a lot of time and financial resources. Of course, society is not yet ready for such a breakthrough. Since it will be a huge cost at the global level. Surely taxes from the inhabitants of the planet will increase, since money is needed to maintain such technologies. I do not think that wealthy investors around the world will begin to invest so much money in such projects. But I can say that at the experimental level we have almost reached the fifth level, and there are already ready-made ideas. Another question is how to introduce this to the masses.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Full automation is not possible. If only because a very large part of the population of our planet does not trust new technologies, and they believe that people themselves will best cope with this task. In addition, such a technological breakthrough will deprive motorists of the opportunity to enjoy the driving process. Many of today's car owners have cars just because they like to drive. Not even because they need it. Personally, I feel comfortable and without the introduction of technology on such a scale.
I think it will depend more and more on the technology and humans will be less responsible for everything.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I think we are getting closer to developing self-driving cars, but for now various tests are being carried out to make it safe. It all demands more tweaking, because these cars aren’t allowed yet to go on the streets and be a part of our transportation.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
I think it would be safer for everyone if there were self-driving cars, since machines don’t make mistakes like humans. It would also be more convenient not to worry about the road and weather conditions. But I really love driving a car, so it would be hard for me to give that up.
I personally expect high-speed rail to become a much bigger thing or the subways between cities to avoid the hassle of traffic jams.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
It can’t be far off. Tesla has their own program, Uber has also, VW has a program, just to make a very small number. I would guess 2020 is still early, but I doubt we will reach 2030 without autonomous cars being popular.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
If it will be driving itself, for me there is no difference between using a cab or self driving car, in both way you reach your destination point and you either pay gas or fee. So I'd rather shift my geal manually, that's where fun part begin lol
2. There are systems in Europe that support automation on the public transport. There are some systems operating in the Netherlands for example. I think that we’re not that far away because technologically wise we are prepared for this kind of a solution. The only objection is financing of the new systems.
3. I suppose that it depends on a situation, circumstances, mood, etc. I would rather like to use the automatic system on a daily basis. However, for sure, I would like to have a possibility to override it and drive the car by myself.
2. In my opinion, we are quite close to achieving level 5 automation. Thanks to significant advances in the world of computer science and also thanks to the use of artificial intelligence algorithms, the future with self-driving cars maybe just behind the corner.
3. Yes, I would prefer to live in a world where only computers and machines control the traffic, I think this would make transport safer, much faster and also more comfortable.
2) Although I agree that self driving cars are the future, I don't have trust in them right now. It needs more years of researching and engineering, but definitely it heads to the right direction.
3) I'm a car passionate and really love the way the cars are obeyed to us. I treat self driving option as an extra feature, but not particulary main trait. Driving cars and taking control of them give me too much satisfaction to let it go.
Future transportation will be flying cars, which perfectly work in crowded cities and building underground tunnels, where cars will move on special platforms. Also, special capsules, which will take a specified amount of people and will transport them to place with the speed of the sound.
A huge convenience for people could be jetpacks, which would allow flying, just like a human with wings.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Some of the systems that are necessary to have autopilot in the car — Tesla, are available for people thank to Elon Musk. Those are adaptive cruise control, which allow for the user to keep a proper distance between the lines on the road, park assistants thanks to whom the car can pick the place to park by yourself.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Of course, I would like to live in a world with those conveniences. For sure it would be a safer and easier to reach the destination.
I am really looking forward to some teleportation system to be invented, as I have a big problem with nausea in transportation, even in airplanes.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
Oh, I think we are very close to that. Moreover, self-driving cars are driving better and safer than a lot of people :)
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Of course I want to live in such a world! You don't need to pass a driver exam and can to for meeting with your friends by car, drink some cocktails and then go back home by car without any worryings :)
I think we will go more towards super fast trains or hyperloops mentioned by you. In my opinion we will fly much less than we do now and we will steer towards types of transportation I mentioned.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I think we are very far away. Honestly, I am not sure that we will achieve this in next 20 years. Maybe in further future, but there still will be some problems to overcome that I have no idea how we could even approach.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
When it comes to self-driving cars the issue of accidents really bothers me. If accident occurs who are we going to blame? The owner of the vehicle? Designer of AI that drives the car? Also how would such self-driving car make a decision which lives to save during an accident? You can have a situation using brakes by AI would mean a death of a passenger and not using them would end up in a death of other members of traffic. What decision should AI make then? That is why I can't imagine owning such self-driving car.
2. In my opinion, we are very close, Tesla is a lead company with a great success in self-driving cars. They show us how close we are in this structure. I think that, we can reach level 5 in 10 years. Now i would say we are level 3 and on the way to level 4.
3. It is hard to say. For now, I would prefer to still drive by myself. There is one reason, I love driving. In the future I think that, I would prefer to live in a world of self-driving cars. It will be safier, faster, and I wish more orginized compared to these days.
My dream is that someday people will use teleport as the main transportation system. Even nowadays there are some experiments going on on quantum teleportation but I think it will take many many decades when we will be able to use it. I think the future is by flying cars with smart autopilots and very quick trains.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching level 5?
I am not sure we will reach level 5. Because there should always be a possibility to take control in your hands. About self-driving cars... there are already some examples, so I think in nearly 5-10 years there will be fully self-driving cars.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
I would like to live in a world, where there is a self-driving car. I think it is way safer and better solution in 95% situations. I hope in future we will have a lot of cool and smart things.
2. I think it will take about 10 years. I saw a lot of short movies with self driving cars it was impressive but they still have some issues to figure out. But I'm positive it will come.
3. I think it would be great for people who don't like driving a car but personally I prefer to drive by my self. We also cannot forget about disable people. This self-driving cars will change their lives for good.
Nobody really knows what the future of transport will look like, that is why its so exciting to work in this field because the situation is changing all the time and people are thinking up very clever solutions. As the world is more environmentally concious than ever before, the designers and inventors are focusing more and more on green technology to harness power to make the various machines carry out their function.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
From my point of view it's about 15-20 years because until that time we may expect new landscape roads. It's important to take an account not only the progress of technology in engine area but also in different aspects.
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
If it would be highly planned and constructed car of course. I wouldn't try it as drive test. I think it could be very convenient if such technologies will develop fast.
2. In megapolis cities maybe in 20 years.
3. I would rather drive myself. But I also see a lot of cases when I would turn on autopilot.
We’re quite far, I think. The first thing we’ll have to do is to invent some road coating which is extremely hard and impact-resistant, so we’ll be able to fix roads everywhere. Then we’ll have to advance AI to be independent from weather and to easily connect and cooperate with AIs from other cars on the road to ensure passengers safety. For that we’ll probably have to improve internet connection everywhere. I mean, that’s a lot. Level 5 for sure won’t be widely available anytime soon.
Oh I would love to! I have no driver license and I’m actually afraid to drive because of the number of terrible drivers out there. You can be really good driver and still got into a car crash because of some drunk junk sitting in the car next to yours.
2. I think that law blocks us much more than technology.
3. I love driving, but I know it will be safer for many people.
2) It is pretty hard to state where exactly is the line between level 4 and level 5 because the so-called "right conditions" could be stretched to infinity. If we restrict driving to the urban regions, I believe it should be possible in one decade or even less.
3) It seems to me as time and budget-saving innovation. If you think about every day, you have to spend several hours to get to work, and back home it can easily make you sad. Imagine being able to devote this time to something useful, like reading there is so much potential in this idea.
2. I think we are pretty far from the full automation. In my opinion we are currently at level 1-2 in context of real traffic adoption. The development in the filed is pretty fast and many companies race to be ahead of the competition. However the adoption of the technology in Poland and anywhere else might be long and painful at first.
3. I would like to live in a world with self driving cars and normal ones. Automation is useful in many cases but i just like driving for now and I wouldn't like to be forced to use self-driving.
2. I think that should pass several tens of years until this will become possible. And a few more years for most countries to extensively use it.
3. Yes, of course, I would like to live in a world of self-driving cars. It's my dream to live in a well-developed world of technology and innovation.
I like that variant with hyperloop, fast travel its really cool.
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I think that its can be level 3, but i prefer that that people must drive by themself, because there can be extremely situation where computer couldn't help you.
Oh, I want us to fly, not to drive. This will eliminate accidents with pedestrians, traffic jams and bring more satisfaction for sure:)
2) How far away do you think we are in terms of self-driving cars and reaching the level 5?
I think that technology already exists , but it won't be in for some time because it is lost somewhere in the military .
3) Would you like to live in a world of self-driving cars or would you prefer to drive by yourself?
Oh, I love to drive! People told me that someday I will be tired of it, but 6 years later, I am still enjoying it. Drove one long distance for 12 hours straight. When I came back to Warsaw the same evening, I had a meeting with my friend and we decided to go to Morske Oko next day, of course with me driving. It is never enough and the best meditation I can have