A few years ago, a great idea made the rounds: The sharing economy. Why own something if you could share the ownership - and the costs - with others? The idea permeated the auto industry. Many even saw the end of traditional car ownership. Fast forward to 2023, and that vision has yet to manifest. Car sales are booming around the world. There seems to be no trend towards sharing your car with others. What happened to the great idea of carsharing?
Imagine a city where all cars drive autonomously. In such a city, traffic could flow much more efficiently because a central intelligence could control the cars and interleave them at intersections. Also, you would never have to look for a parking space: Your car could drop you off at your destination and then find a parking space on its own. We are still a long way from fleets of self-driving cars, but the Carfax concept aims to change that by equipping all cars with a self-driving platform.
The people of Ukraine have been fighting Russian aggression for more than 18 months. The Ukrainian railways have played a crucial role in the defense and survival of the state. But how have they managed to do this under constant bombardment by Russian bombs and with shortages of almost everything? In this article, we take a look at what the brave men and women of Ukrainian Railways are doing to overcome these obstacles, and what network operators can learn from them.
Imagine you could have a public transportation system that is faster than a car, cheaper to build than a tram, and has the flexibility of a taxi. The Ottobahn promises to be all that. But can it really square the circle? In this article, we take a closer look at the concept proposed by the Munich-based startup of the same name.
Warren Buffet and James J. Hill - two tycoons of American industry who lived a hundred years apart. Yet they had something in common.{{ double-space-with-newline }}In this article, I explore the connection between one of the greatest capitalists of our time, Warren E. Buffet, and railroad magnate and “Empire Builder” James J. Hill.
The German Railway Museum in Nuremberg is currently showing the special exhibition “Futurails”. It shows how many alternatives to the railway system have been discussed over the course of 200 years. With an excellent selection of exhibits, it gives the visitor an idea of all the ideas that clever people have come up with, and tries to explain why the railroad still looks pretty much the same 200 years later.
The IAA Mobility 2023 is over. What was on display besides the ubiquitous electric cars? Here is my personal review of one of the world’s biggest mobility shows.
Two of the automotive buzzwords of recent years have been vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-infrastructure communications. They promise greater safety for drivers. They also promise greater convenience and better traffic flow. But this technology has been a long time in the making. Where do we stand with these promises, and will they become reality any time soon?
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”.
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.