Valletta to Gozo in 1.5 minutes

Sounds like the stuff of science fiction but the technology is already available today. At the moment, it’s undergoing heavy testing somewhere in the massive Nevada desert north of Lass Vegas.

But for the first time, this new means of transport carried two humans from one place to another at blazing speeds.

This technology is the brainchild of the tech-magnate Elon Musk (founder of Tesla and SpaceX) and is known as the Hyperloop.

The Hyperloop is a sort of train which runs through a system of tubes having low air pressure. Since these tubes have virtually no air inside them, the pods travel free of air resistance or friction, thus allowing them to reach hypersonic speeds (more than five times the speed of sound).

To increase the speed further, the pods float, using a form of magnetic levitation similar to the bullet trains found in Japan. This combination of technologies gives an incredible boost in speed.

To help you understand the difference; the fastest train in the world reaches speeds of 431 km/hr, a commercial aeroplane typically flies at 926 km/hr, whereas the Hyperloop can reach speeds of 1,223 km/hr. So travelling between Valletta and Gozo will effectively take one and a half minute.

But this is not the only innovation we’ll experience in the coming years.

Self-driving cars will revolutionise the way we travel short distances. Let’s think about cars for a second. They are expensive machines, used only around 8% of the day. So most of the time, they are parked somewhere and subject to the natural elements.

Their value is continuously decreasing, and ownership involves other expenses such as running costs, servicing costs or accidents.

Driving a car can be frustrating at times, and the vehicle generally serves one purpose (i.e. a family car has a different function than a truck).

Self-driving cars will practically solve all of these issues. A commuter doesn’t need to own a car anymore. When he requires a vehicle, he summons it, and it arrives behind his door in no time. T

he type of car depends on the application too, if he’s going for work, a small car might be enough, but if he has to carry some heavy furniture, a van will arrive.

The stress associated with driving will disappear, and the commuting time can change into work or leisure time since people won’t be driving anymore. Let’s not forget that inside of the car will change too. People do not need to face forward either (unless they feel nauseous) and cars can become small meeting rooms on the go with a meeting table in the middle.

When the vehicle arrives at its destination, it drops the passengers and proceeds to collect the next customer. Cars will not need to park or seek parking, and passengers disembark precisely at their destination.

Parents do not need to chauffeur their kids anymore, spending endless hours travelling between a football match and private lessons. They can schedule a self-driving vehicle to take them around.

An exciting aspect of these cars is that they are connected vehicles. This term means that they are in constant communication with a centralised Intelligent Transportation System (ITS).

The scope of the ITS is to monitor the traffic situation in an area and manage it automatically using an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system. So if we have traffic in a particular motorway, an ITS might decide to speed up the traffic lights in adjacent roads to relieve the accumulating pressure in that motorway.

When an accident occurs, the ITS will automatically reroute traffic through alternate destinations. If an emergency vehicle needs to reach a specific location, the ITS will send alerts on the digital displays and synch the traffic lights so that the car passes without stopping.

Having an ITS system in place together with connected vehicles will make the whole road network much more efficient.

Finally, we will also see a significant surge in micro-mobility.

These devices are relatively small, some of them slightly bigger than a bike or so small that they can fit in a bag.

They can carry one person at a time even though some of them manage to take two—these range from electric scooters, one wheeler, electric skates up to hybrid bicycles. The idea is that these devices serve to transport people between short distances (around 5Kms).

Their level of safety is much less than that of a car, but their maximum speed is also severely restricted.

Soon, micro-mobility will account for around 60% of all trips (since people rarely travel outside a 5Kms radius). Self-driving cars will handle the remaining trips within a 20Km radius.

The person who summons the vehicle can either use it exclusively or share it with other people (thus keeping costs low). For longer distances which account to around 15% of all trips, Hyperloops will take us around in no time.

The future of transportation is fascinating, and we are now experiencing innovations which will disrupt the way we travel forever.

These modes of transport are not only much more efficient and save us time, but they are predominantly green.

With this revolution, we humans are gaining three things: first, the time wasted to commute, second, the spaced used for parking and third, a massive reduction in CO2 emissions.