Future of Transportation

When contemplating about the future of transportation we think of, flying cars, bullet trains, electric autonomous cars, sub-orbital planes and the like but we don’t think much about the infrastructure on which those vehicles depend. First up is Solar Roadways. Imagine replacing the concrete or asphalt with solar cells beneath a layer of glass. The primary complication is manufacturing glass that is strong enough for an 18-wheeler to drive on, that is clear enough to allow sunlight in but opaque enough not to emit too much glare, with sufficient traction and durable enough to last for years. The glass design challenge is one that Solar Roadways is working on, among others, and one that was tested with their first road panels installed in a parking lot in the spring of 2013.In addition to solar cells in the glass sandwich they are installing led lights that can be programmed to spell out messages and to respond to the environment, signaling that cars should stop for pedestrians, for example.

The second infrastructure re-invention company is Wave, which stands for Wireless Advanced Vehicle Electrification. Its goal is to enable electric buses to become more cost effective than diesel or natural gas buses, and without the need for being connected to overhead wires. The people at Wave knew that electricity can be transmitted wirelessly though magnetic induction. Their simple solution to building this is to install a wave induction receiving unit on the bottom of the bus, and then at various bus stops install a magnetic induction power transfer system in the road. When the bus stops to pick up passengers, the magnetic induction unit wirelessly sends a charge to the batteries, and this frequent re-charging enables to bus to run all day, until it returns to base for a full re-charge overnight; fewer batteries, less weight, more economical. All that is needed at the bus stop is a way to connect the magnetic induction system to a power source. Solar Roadways might just have a built in solution to that. Mark Butler