After years of development and innovation around the world, we are reaching a point where robo cars and 700 mph trains do not seem too far out of reach. What will travel look like in tomorrow’s world?
Author Jenny Southan writes that she rode in a driverless car for the first time in 2012, in Abu Dhabi’s futuristic Masdar City – a planned eco-hub with restaurants, offices, apartments and university buildings. In the quiet campus in the desert, she was greeted by a series of glass doors, beyond which were parking bays for a fleet of sleek little solar-powered pods that were summoned at the touch of a button. There was no driver in the car, just a computer monitor that allowed you to select your destination. The doors closed and the pod zoomed off, following magnets embedded in the road.
There is the promise of increased road safety, which is good news for the travel manager but relies on a consensus that the technology will not fail. According to US Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 94 per cent of vehicle crashes in the US can be traced back to a human choice or error. Hard to believe? Since launching in 2010, running 18 hours a day and carrying two million people, the Masdar City Personal Rapid Transit system has not had one single accident.
Robo-taxis, flying cars, jet packs, 700 mph trains – is this how we’ll travel in tomorrow’s world? An interesting read! See more here.
