Enclosed Autonomous-Ways, or A-Ways

So far we’ve explored a variety of challenges to safe efficient transportation: Crashes, Weight, Braking, Wind Resistance, Drivetrain Losses, and Rolling Resistance. You’ve also seen some techniques for mitigating these challenges, and hints that more techniques are coming in our innovations.

In this post you’ll see the innovations related to enclosing roadways for Autonomous Vehicles. We call these Autonomous-Ways or, somewhat humorously, A-Ways.

When I was in second grade, my mother was driving me to school, and the car spun around and hit a tree. I was thrown out into the snow, but not hurt. The car, a nice grey Henry J, was totaled. The snowplows had removed the snow and left sheer ice on the road. Ever since then I feel naked without a seatbelt, and I have a healthy respect for driving conditions.

One of the major benefits of enclosing the roadway is to keep out all aspects of weather: rain, wind, freezing and thawing cycles, snow, sleet, hail, and windborne debris. Among the benefits are: good visibility, no skidding, no blowing debris, no dirt, and protection for the road surface.

Another major benefit is keeping out hazards: human-driven vehicles, pedestrians, animals, and all sorts of debris to prevent expensive and dangerous crashes.

Taken together, these allow Autonomous Vehicles to exploit their advantages of increased speed, higher traffic density, and safe travel.

Once we have enclosed the A-Ways, we can add features to further improve the transportation system.

Electric motors are an obvious choice for A-Ways because they produce no pollutants, so we don’t need major air circulation, a significant challenge for car tunnels today.

We discussed the challenges of batteries adding substantial weight to electric vehicles. Also the batteries are expensive and use rare natural resources. Further, we discussed the inefficiencies of converting AC power from the source to DC to charge the batteries, using an inverter to get back to AC to run the motors, and then reversing the process for regenerative braking.

With protected space in A-Ways, we can supply electric power directly to the vehicles, as electric trains and subways do. We can eliminate all but a small battery to carry the vehicle from one A-Way to another. And we eliminate the conversions back and forth from AC to DC, saving 17% of energy and potentially getting to 90% efficiency for electric vehicles.

Our vehicles just became lighter, cheaper and more efficient.

Vehicles need to communicate with each other, and with system management for efficient and safe operation. Because the A-Way is a controlled environment, there are many options. You are probably thinking of radio frequencies, but it’s also possible to use light. Li-fi, using lasers, is rapidly becoming a competitor to Wi-Fi. Passengers and even loads, need communications as well.

Another advantage of enclosed A-Ways is monitoring safety and security. Even the best enclosure can’t keep out all hazards: errant animals, people, and plants. There could also be malicious acts, so monitoring, recording, and taking swift remedial action are important. The management system can direct appropriate vehicles to address the situation, and direct Autonomous Vehicles to avoid the situation.

Have you noticed that roads seem to be in worse shape than before? Even new roads aren’t as flat or even as they used to be, and potholes multiply at alarming rates. We visit the Adirondacks in the winter, and you can almost watch the potholes popping open and growing. 

The protected environment in the A-Way encourages optimizing the driving surface. Optimizing the road surface further reduces the weight and cost of the suspension system, frame, and especially the tires. Springs and shock absorbers tend to make vehicles harder to control at higher speeds, while active suspensions user power.

Cars rely on tires to grip the road surface for accelerating, braking, and turning. They also absorb shocks from potholes, debris, and uneven roadways. They also add to instability at high speeds.

Railroads use steel rails and steel wheels to achieve very low rolling resistance; but they sacrifice acceleration, cornering, and braking ability, which isn’t a major issue for trains because they don’t have to stop at every corner or navigate twisting roads the way cars do.

A-Ways can be designed with no sharp curves, and no stoplights or stop signs, because we have considerable design flexibility for intersections. You’ll see some of our innovations to manage starting and stopping very efficiently in a few posts – we call them Continuous Convoys and En Route Sequencing.

The choice of optimum driving surface and corresponding vehicle support system depends on design factors such as speed, capacity, load, and distance. For example, we could use hovercraft or maglev, to give some unusual examples. That’s one of the advantages of A-Ways, you can choose among different designs for different purposes.

These A-Ways can take many forms: they can be buried, similar to existing subways. The can run in the median of existing highways, or they can be elevated above existing roads. But I think the greatest advantage accrues from incorporating A-Ways into buildings. This leads to significant improvements in building efficiency and personal service.  For example, you can get transportation without even leaving your home, and you can have items delivered directly into your home or office without driving to the store or relying on a delivery person – I’ll talk more about this later.

You will see that these options open new mechanisms for financing and maintaining transportation, and for providing new and improved services of all sorts – stay tuned for many exciting and surprising innovations.

You’ll see specific design situations and the corresponding choices in the next posts.