Transport Ministry predicts drones, self-drive cars and a car butler in future

The Ministry of Transport has released new videos of exciting possibilities in the future.

Are we finally close to getting the flying cars from The Jetsons or, even better, the teleportation machine from Star Trek?  

Will planes become so fast that you can fly to Australia in an hour? What if we could reduce the number of road accidents a year to almost zero?

The Ministry of Transport has created a vision of what the future of New Zealand's transport system might look like, with the goal of being prepared if or when transport changes dramatically.

Flying cars and teleportation are unlikely, but computer-driven smart cars are bound to feature. In fact, they might be central to all of your transport needs, transport ministry chief executive Martin Matthews said.

The visions were based on a unknown date in the future when drivers might be banned from all roads, a virtual butler might arrange your transport life, airships could carry you across cities and there was no congestion in Auckland.

Drones could be used to deliver packages, freeing up trucks for heavier items.

It suggests that New Zealand could have dedicated freight corridors where the railway tracks are now, with heavy trucks running alongside trains, rather than on highways. 

Drones would deliver parcels around cities, freeing up trucks and cars for heavier items.

All transport options would be "driven" by computers, reducing the death toll on roads from 300 a year to 30, because human error would be taken out of the equation, Matthews said.

"It's not an attempt to exactly predict the future, it's about exposing people to ideas of what the future could be like.

"Sometimes we see things at an early stage, but we cannot possibly imagine how they will change the world that we live in.

"We know this from mobile technology and the way it's altered our lives."

The Aerion AS2 supersonic business jet that can get from New York to London in four hours. Will this be the future of air travel?

The first combustion engine car arrived in New Zealand in 1989, and 30 years later commercial flights started, but no-one at the time thought that one day there would be three million passengers arriving at our airports each year.

The transport ministry was not going far into the realm of science fiction, Matthews said.

The predictions were based on trends in technology, and some inventions that were already being made.

"Some people might look at some of the ideas as far-fetched and probably wrong, but if I was to predict anything about what we have written it will be that it will fall short of reality.

"It will go further and be faster than we are imagining."

Self-driving cars seem inevitable and this what they may look like.

AIR TRAVEL

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The ministry predicts that a growing demand for flight will result in two advances: the return of supersonic flight for the wealthy and a slower, but much more comfortable and environmentally friendly, option for the rest.

A 12-seater plane that can travel from London to New York in four hours is already being developed by Aerion.

Could scenes like this be a thing of the past, with technology changing the way we get from A to B?

Domestic air travel will also be more frequent and as easy as catching a bus. This could see the rise of regions as people live a 40-minute sky-taxi flight away from work, rather than a 40-minute drive in traffic.

A similar system is already taking off in Portugal.

FREIGHT

Highways in the sky, or on the sites of our existing rail corridors, could cater for all freight needs, moving heavy trucks off public highways.

All ships, trains, trucks and even drones will be connected so the goods are passed from one to another seamlessly without wasted journeys or the wrong size vehicle being used.

Trucks could be formed into electric road trains that run on concrete pads in New Zealand's existing rail corridor. The road would be equipped with special charging technology that charges the road-train as it runs, meaning it could travel the length of the country without having to stop.

Smart technology would also mean trucks, planes or skyships would not leave when overweight.

CARS

All drivers will be banned from public roads and most people will not own their own car. The size, shape and way they move will all be re-imagined. What will a car look like if it doesn't need a driver?

Technology like Netflix and Google already monitors your preferances and usage and tailors what you see to what you want. Imagine that applied to your transport.

The ministry imagines a "virtual butler" that knows what you want and when you want it. For example, ordering a one-person pod for you to take on errands around town, but selecting a cheaper ride-share option for your travel to and from work.

Computer-driven transport will also eliminate road accidents and infringements that are caused by human error or choices. Speeding will be impossible, because the computer could be programmed to never go faster than the limit.

SAFETY AND MAINTENANCE

Road sensors, cameras and new technology will take over the analysis of the transport network and will respond in real-time to what is happening. This could help ease congestions, because the computerised system could divert cars off certain routes or stop it occurring in the first place.

The road sensors could also flag up when any maintenance is needed. Instead of people carrying out an inspection of a car, tunnel, bridge or road. The asset would know when it needed fixing and alert the maintenance team. Cars would check into garages and be fixed while the world sleeps.

Police would have to change from policing traffic to policing software, because if all transport options are programmed correctly they would be incapable of breaking the law.

 - Stuff

Source: Transport Ministry predicts drones, self-drive cars and a car butler in future