Which of these concepts is likely to be "better" - for both intracity and intercity applications - high speed rail or high speed auto on an exclusive lane?
The following is a clip from a keynote speech by Frank Paluch at the April 2015 SAE World Congress meeting in Detroit. It describes a concept that is highly similar to the open source TEV project. For details, here is a link to its website: http://www.tevproject.com
The full text of the Honda executive Frank Paluch's keynote speech at SAE is posted at
http://acuranews.com/channels/corporate/releases/2015-sae-world-congress-keynote-speech
Here's a clip from that speech:
"So let's talk about big ideas. In fact, let's consider Elon Musk's hyperloop concept. Maybe you know this story. Musk proposed a $6 billion dollar superfast commuter train, traveling in a tube paralleling the I-5 that would take you from LA to San Francisco in under an hour. He took the idea public… and a company with crowd-sourced financing is now targeting a California test track by 2016.
That's a pretty big idea. But here's one that I think is even better because it's centered on the human desire for personal mobility. How about a dedicated lane on the I-5 for highly automated, connected vehicles, using swarm technology to travel at speeds upwards of 300kph? LA to San Fran in less than two hours. No drive to the train station, and no constraints on when you can come or when you go.
Now, take that image beyond the I-5… and apply it to all California's major interstates, working together with super-connected cars and infrastructure and all of a sudden, you've got an effective commuting radius of maybe 100 miles to get to work each day.
In this scenario, your car has become part of a transformed mobility experience… one cell in a national high-speed hyperloop. But one with infinitely more flexibility… optimized and personalized to your liking, including the type of car you drive. It could be an NSX, it could be an Accord, or something entirely new.
And you can remain on the beaten path or depart from it… because it's responsive to you… your schedule, your needs and your style. It's fully connected to your digital life… your smartphone and smart home… and to the existing network of roads with V2V and V2I eliminating traffic snarls, improving energy efficiency, and virtually erasing forever the possibility of a collision. In Honda's vision, this system also includes vehicle-to- pedestrian and vehicle-to-motorcycle networks, connecting and respecting everyone that shares the road.
But we can make it even better. Because on your way home, as you get ready to exit the hyper highway, you turn your seat around… turn off the autopilot… and take the wheel so that you can enjoy a wonderful backcountry or coastal drive.
Why is this better? It's better because cars aren't just transportation devices. They don't just move our bodies from point A to point B. Done right, they move our hearts and spirits as well. I'm talking here about the basic joy and thrill of driving. And that takes us back to our big bang… to Honda's fundamental approach to the joy and freedom of personal, human-centered mobility".
Here's a link to an article about the speech.
http://www.examiner.com/article/honda-proposes-high-speed-driverless-car-lanes-to-link-american-cities
Last modified: April 27, 2015