The Jackuul Blog

Now then, I have covered the general idea of a fully electric society without the pollution output of cars and power plants - along with a super high speed non-polluting highway system… now how will this highway system work? We will explore that further - keep in mind that currently we have predictive technology in development (machines and computers that can predict what will happen through an action/consequence loop). Vehicles in development can see obstacles and adjust accordingly on a non-rail road and do so with accuracy. A railed road would require technology we already have - and we would not make this Microsoft Based because we need systems that are fast, but don’t need a supercomputer to run. Let’s start new with the ability of electrification along these rails first and foremost - and how the tires you use on the normal road won’t be used on the highway.

The highway rails will have a sunken groove on both sides, leaving a way for drainage to occur and to keep the rubber tires from ever being used on the road - that’s right - the rubber never touches the highway. The wear and tare is purely placed on the metal rails - and that means the roads don’t need constant repair every other day - we can alloy coat the rails using the strongest metals known to man. The rail wheels will be located a few inches inward of the normal tires on the vehicle. Entering the highway will involve driving up the on ramp, then your tires are sunk into the road with the grooves and the rail wheels take over. The cars around adjust automatically to let you on and within a few minutes you are going faster than any current legal speed limit - and these speeds are no longer monitored by the law since it is computer run. This highway will not degrade as fast as the current system, and use less building materials than the I-40 for contact surface.

The rail lines will be electrified and have an electric sensor for each foot - allowing for total car monitoring and plotting of where each vehicle is. Accompanying this is a pressure sensor, so the ability to monitor is two-fold. Cars drivers no longer have control of their driving - they will have plotted their course along the way. Should there be an immediate need to exit the occupant will need to specify it as an emergency situation - and the vehicle will be lane changed and track switched to the nearest available exit. Other cars around this vehicle will detect and adjust, there will be no collisions on this highway due to the predictive nature of the computers that are in the car and decentralized along the highway. The rails serve as a mode of transport, supply of power, supply of information, and network between all the computers on the road. Because of this, the driver does not really need to keep an eye on what is going on - and could use his or her cellular, watch the console news, or spend their time reading a book - although you will arrive faster than ever before and this may not be an option.

The decentralized computers will constantly feed information to the vehicles, and the vehicles will feed information to these computer nodes, these nodes will communicate amongst themselves constantly and keep everything in real-time. If a vehicle does break down, an immediate slowdown will occur, and the effected lane will be switched off of by all vehicles until a repair vehicle makes it to the location and tows the defective vehicle from the highway. This could account for a significant slowdown of traffic for fifteen minutes - however that is less time than a traditional highway. If there ever is an accident - these vehicles will be designed to withstand high speed accidents, insuring the survivability of occupants in all conditions foreseeable. Should an entire stretch of highway be made unusable across all track lanes - everyone will be lined to exits as far as 10 miles back and given a route to follow that will bypass the highway stretch that is no longer usable. When they get back on the highway further down past from the accident things will continue as normal.

The old highway system will not be eliminated, but many of the inner city stretches will be nullified and made into normal roads, while the rail system takes over for this. The legacy systems will remain in place for legacy vehicles, that way some of the older vehicles will not be made completely obsolete - however you will need to pay a permit to own any vehicle not relegated as a “classic” or “collectible.” These new cars will still be able to use legacy roads, and will use ethanol and clean fuels when not on the highways, along with a recharged electric battery from using the highway. The vehicles will also have a magnetic bumper - if a vehicle gets too close it will repel and use the electric battery to create a strong electromagnet that will push the other vehicle back.

This system will be efficient, intelligent, preventative of accidents, and safe. It will be much safer than the current system today that relies on you trusting all other humans to your life, and your well being.  Considering that humans are responsible for the deaths of millions each year I think it would be better to trust a well tested well put together highway system that takes advantage of predictive and preventative technologies to stop any kind of accident before it happens. Because computers are efficient and make logical choices they will be better suited to emergency situations, rather than trusting a fallible human. What if a car breaks and axel falls off, and there is a strewn path of debris for over a mile? Normal humans wouldn’t know about it until it was too late - the highway would automatically slowdown all vehicles, and avoid every item along the way while cleanup crews took care of the problem. Perhaps the highway itself could take care of that problem.