Since my childhood, I am fascinated by all kinds of transportation systems. I like to explore how they work, on this planet and on others.
Travel around the globe at 7,200 km/h. From London to New York in less than an hour. And all by train, not by plane. This is the proposed concept of the “Hypersonic Train” that German engineer Andreas Scholz describes in his new book “The Hypersonic Railway”.
“Tea: Earl Grey, hot!” This is one of Captain Jean Luc Picard’s most famous quotes from the Star Trek television series.
A few seconds later, a cup of steaming tea materializes in the “Replicator” and Captain Picard can enjoy it.
The replicator can produce not only tea, but all kinds of drinks, food and contraptions. What if we could really build such a Replicator and everyone had one at home, just like the crew of the Enterprise?
Beam me up, Scotty! Even non-Trekkies know this (mis)quote from Star Trek. It reminds us of the effortless way of traveling that Captain Kirk and his crew enjoy: Teleportation.
It sounds like science fiction, but what if it were really possible? What would the implications be for our daily lives and mobility? Join me on a hypothetical journey into a very distant future of transportation.
Automated Valet Parking – this is a buzzword that appears frequently in the media these days. Press releases from companies promise that we will soon be freed from the task of finding a parking space in a garage. In the future, we will simply leave our cars at the entrance and they will be parked automatically. There are many different technologies competing for this future market. Where do we stand in this evolution? In this article, I will try to give an overview of the current state of the technology.
On a recent visit to Nuremberg, Germany, I had the opportunity to ride a driverless train on the Nuremberg subway.
It is the only fully automated subway in Germany. And although the first automated subway line opened in 2008, not all lines are automated today. I asked myself: Why is it that fully automated subways are not more widespread, even though the technology has been around for more than 15 years?
CargoCap is an innovative system that seeks to reduce the amount of delivery truck traffic in our cities. Fully automated capsules travel through a tunnel system connecting major logistical destinations within cities.
In this article I will present this idea and try to give an outlook on its potential advantages and disadvantages.