Future of Transportation: High-Speed Rail, Self-Driving Cars, and Flying Cars

A hybrid electric aircraft is a new concept combining traditional fuel sources with electric motor and propulsion, similar to hybrid electric cars.
Car culture in the US and influential lobbies have made it difficult for high-speed rail to compete.
China has the world's largest and fastest high-speed rail network with over 19,000 miles, built mostly in the last decade.
Japan's bullet trains, first introduced in the 1960s, have carried over 9 billion people without passenger casualties and reach almost 200 miles per hour.
France began high-speed rail service in 1981, and Europe quickly followed; expansion continues in places like India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iran, and Morocco.
Before World War II, the US had an extensive rail system. After the war, the auto and oil industries pushed for the shift to cars, dismantling rail systems and investing heavily in highways.
President Dwight Eisenhower signed a bill in 1956 to create the National Interstate System, allocating 25 billion dollars for 41,000 miles of highways, leaving rail behind.
The US has an average of 850 cars per thousand inhabitants while China only has 250.
High-speed rail in the US was once widespread but fell out of favor after World War II due to the influential car and oil industries and government investment in highways.- The transportation ecosystem in the US is reaching a tipping point due to limited space for highway expansion and aviation congestion.
High-speed rail is seen as a solution to reduce emissions and congestion, particularly for trips under three or four hours in length.
The US has one major passenger rail option, Amtrak, which only has one high-speed rail line, the Acela express in the northeast corridor.
California is currently constructing a high-speed rail system, linking San Francisco to Los Angeles and Anaheim, but the project is over 50 billion dollars short of its estimated cost.
The costs of building high-speed rail in the US are much higher than in other countries due to factors such as private property ownership, regulations, and coordination of various entities involved.
China has rapidly built a high-speed rail system, with over 29,000 kilometers, due to state ownership of land and lack of regulations and labor laws that add to cost.
The private sector is investing in high-speed rail projects in the US, such as Texas Central's bullet train project from Houston to Dallas and Brightline's expansion of its higher speed train from Miami to Orlando.
Tech companies, such as Microsoft, are also getting involved in infrastructure projects, including a high-speed rail plan to connect Portland, Seattle, and Vancouver.
High-speed rail can solve issues such as cramped housing and traffic congestion for many Fortune 500 companies located in the US.
Self-driving cars, a solution to reduce traffic congestion, are facing challenges in development and are not yet a reality.
Google's Waymo and Aurora are two companies taking approaches to developing self-driving car technology.
Companies like Tesla, Zoox, GM with its Cruise division, Argo AI, and Aptiv are also working on self-driving cars.
The challenge of building self-driving cars that can operate in all environments is a major engineering challenge of our generation.
Cruise, acquired by General Motors in 2016, has been testing its fleet of vehicles in San Francisco with safety drivers on board.
Zuse, led by the former chief strategy officer at Intel, is working on creating an all-in-one self-driving taxi system with plans to launch in 2020.- Nissan and Tesla are developing autonomous vehicles, with Tesla promising full self-driving software soon
Companies are working on self-driving shuttles, trucks, and aftermarket kits to make older cars autonomous
Autonomous vehicles must meet a very high safety standard before deployment, as a fatal Uber crash in 2016 and a Tesla crash in 2016 involving autopilot show
Companies rely on simulation to test self-driving vehicles in various scenarios, as testing on public roads involves risks of endangering human test subjects
Self-certification and deregulation are controversial approaches to deploying autonomous vehicles, and governments are considering new guidelines and regulations
Limited deployments of autonomous vehicles are expected in the next several years, with a focus on moving goods and people in specific areas
Cost is a deciding factor for how autonomous vehicles will be deployed, as most consumers won't be able to afford a truly autonomous car
Ride-hailing companies like Lyft and Uber are getting involved in autonomous vehicles to address issues of cost, maintenance, and product liability
Public understanding and perception of autonomous vehicles is important for their successful deployment, but there is confusion about what self-driving cars really mean
The market for urban air mobility is expected to reach 1.5 trillion by 2040, with companies like Boeing, Airbus, Toyota, and Uber developing flying cars or vertical takeoff and landing vehicles to address the need for more efficient travel
Creating a flying car that is both robust and light enough to function effectively on the ground and in the air is a major challenge for engineers
Andrew Glass, an author and illustrator, spent years researching flying cars for his book and found that the idea of roads was less far-fetched than flying cars in the early 1900s, but the technology never fully materialized due to cost and safety concerns
The first flying car to receive certification from the Civic Aeronautics Authority was the amphibian, which used the same controls for flying and driving and required drivers to leave parts behind when driving it like a car
Ford commissioned a study on the market potential of flying cars in 1970 but ultimately decided to pass on the project due to concerns about safety and weight
Electric propulsion and high-tech motors and motor controllers are key enablers for urban air mobility vehicles, which require a lot of power for takeoff and landing and minimal power for cruising in the air, and are more affordable and reliable than traditional propulsion systems
Companies like Terrafugia and Aeromobil are developing flying car prototypes, but face challenges in getting certification from regulatory agencies and achieving a balance between the conflicting design goals of cars and airplanes.