Essay on Innovation in Transportation Technology

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A world without vehicles and transportation could be harsh for people to survive as trading and traveling are important for certain countries and regions to survive. Many vehicles used for transportation are very convenient and beneficial to our society, however, there is a price to pay for transportation such as money, resources, and more. Because vehicles cause problems in our society such as creating pollution, people are always making new vehicles that can be a solution to these problems. Therefore, the Hyperloop is one of the most innovative products in our era. It is said to be a transportation system that could boost the speed of travel dramatically. The Hyperloop also has some other interesting details that proves why people admire it such as its functionality and its expenses for building and riding. As the creation of Hyperloop is still being developed, journalist and companies continue to publish articles for the public to read about the progress of the engineers who are still making improvements and adjustments to finalize their product.

A problem in the transportation industry that many engineers are trying to solve is how to reduce the consumption of nonrenewable resources and resources that can harm the environment. Crude oil, for example, is known as a reliable nonrenewable resource that we use to fuel airplanes, cars, and trucks. Although it is very efficient for transportation it is also difficult to find, produce, move, and it can also be harmful to the environment. Since crude oil is the most common resource used for public transportation, many engineers and scientists are trying to be more creative and find a different way to build new vehicles that travel using a cleaner method that does not require non-renewable resources. This is why Hyperloop was designed to run purely on electricity that can be produced renewably and does not cause any harmful threats to the environment. According to a reliable source, ‘Full-Seats & Other Secrets to a More Sustainable Transport Future’, John Miles made a statement about Hyperloop during an interview saying: “Anything you can do to electrify transport and generate that electrical power from renewable sources is key. Because if we produce electricity from dirty sources, we haven't done much good”. This basically explains how Hyperloop One was trying to avoid the same mistakes other innovators have made with their creation being ruined by non-renewable resources that are dirty for consumption. Hyperloop seeks to improve and find solutions that many people have been asking for such as the demand for better capacity in transportation vehicles. John Miles also stated that with Hyperloop a single pod can consist of a maximum capacity of 50 people that can always be transporting people around during busy times. Even when a pod is not being occupied, it will stay stationed at its location waiting for orders and not consuming energy, which can be an economical way to save money during slow times. This method of transportation that has efficient use of energy and low emissions signifies that there should be fewer vehicles and a system that is capable of identifying peoples order of destination and group them into a specific pod that takes them to their appointed location. Sharing transportation can be adverse as people always have different destinations that they want to travel to. However, with Hyperloop’s intelligent systems, it can gather information of people who want to travel to the same location or close destination and send a vehicle to pick them up. With Hyperloop’s advanced features, it proves that the outcome of Hyperloop can be a clean way of transportation that doesn’t harm our environment as well as not consuming non-renewable resources that are difficult to acquire.

Despite Hyperloop having amazing features an issue with hyperloop is that the price for construction development can be more expensive than conventional vehicles. According to an article 'Hyperloop One Completes Series B-1 Round of $85 million', Hyperloop One has spent nearly $245 million in total since it was founded in 2014. Although Hyperloop has succeeded in building and testing Hyperloop, the company has been going over their expected budget to succeed in their project. Most of the money they have acquired and spent was mostly for their research and tests on the Hyperloop that have not yet gone official for the public. Although Hyperloop has gone beyond their budget and expectations, they still continue to accomplish their goal of publishing Hyperloop to the public. However, according to the article, Hyperloop has stated that they are not working alone. “As we move towards the commercialization of our technology, we'll continue to work with governments and embrace public-private partnerships to reimagine transportation as we know it”, - said Shervin Pishevar, executive chairman and co-founder of Hyperloop One. This explains how Hyperloop has been able spend so much money on their project even when their product has not been officially published to the public. With the development and test runs being successful, Hyperloop One has started on their next step which is investigating possible routes that can create a link between two cities. Hyperloop One still has a long journey ahead and developers have said that they will bring Hyperloop in a few years. However, many engineers fear that even if the Hyperloop is more reliable and superior than other transportation vehicles, it will be more expensive to build and possibly ride in the future. With the expensive price of Hyperloop, many companies and investors are cooperating to make Hyperloop become reality. Although Hyperloop is focusing on improving safety and efficiency, these are just some small problems Hyperloop is facing currently. Another problem that Hyperloop is trying to fix is congestion or obstruction that exists within our society. According to an article ‘Why Integration with Other Transport Modes Is Central to Hyperloop One's Business’, Hyperloop One, discusses a report by Dan Katz who is the Transportation Policy Counsel for Hyperloop One. During the report, Dan introduces the company and its project about the development of the Hyperloop. He then explains the positive and negative outcomes of his journey such as the test success and expensive finances that Hyperloop One has encountered. However, one of the main topics that Dan discusses is about the problems with many vehicles we use today and how they plan to avoid those mistakes in the future. Dan speaks about solving the problem we have in society today, his response during an interview question about safety was, “As we see with autonomous cars, there is a recognition that we can make huge improvements in safety and reduce congestion by eliminating human error”. He speaks about congestion and obstruction in public transportation systems we use today such as the subway, taxi, and even airplanes. However, Hyperloop One has already developed a solution that will be capable of controlling freight and passenger traffic through their control system. Dan explains how their control systems are designed to ensure that everything on the main line of the Hyperloop is moving at an optimal speed and calibrate pod entry to the Hyperloop to prevent congestion and maximize efficiency. However, Hyperloop One has started searching for the best possible routes around the world and putting real teams and stakeholders to begin building Hyperloop. With the problems and succession that Hyperloop One has experienced throughout their journey, Hyperloop One has started on making their product become reality by commencing the construction of its first official Hyperloop that will come in a few years.

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Since Hyperloop One has started its construction on the hyperloop, the team has then started investigating for possible routes that can be built around the world. According to Greg Uyeno’s article 'Fast Track: Will the Super-Speedy Hyperloop Be the Transportation of the Future?' (SuperScience, Sept. 2017), the company has announced 11 possible routes in the U.S. one of them being from Houston, Texas to Cheyenne, Texas. The construction of the Hyperloop is said to change time transportation between these two cities, as it takes nearly 2 hours to travel from Houston to Cheyenne. In comparison with a car that takes nearly more than 16 hours, Hyperloop is the most suitable form of transportation when it comes to traveling from different cities. Although Hyperloop is said to reach speed limits up to 750 miles per hour, many people wonder what makes the Hyperloop move more rapidly than other vehicles. According to the article, Maria Yang who is an engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology explains the concept of the Hyperloop being a train in a tube. Maria explains how they reduced the effects of two forces known as drag and friction that limits a train’s speed. Maria even stated “Hyperloop engineers want to solve this problem by building a train track inside a sealed tube. Machines would pump most of the air out of the tube. Vehicles would travel much faster in this vacuum than they do in open air”, which explained how Hyperloop was able to reach faster speed limits than regular trains. Hyperloop One have stated that it wants a system up and running by the year 2020, but there are still many challenges ahead to ensure that the Hyperloop is complete and ready to build. T. Donna Chen, who is an engineer at University of Virginia that studies new transportation systems, stated “the hyperloops success will depend on how well it connects with existing transportation, like roads and public transit”. This explains that the only thing that mattered was if the Hyperloop succeeded with transporting people to different places and reducing congestion. Therefore, the creation of the Hyperloop would allow for people to travel to different cities and locations that are far in a short amount of time rather than other vehicles that can take hours or even days to travel.

Although Hyperloop does possess some high-tech features that other vehicles don't have, the magnetic levitation system is one of the most high-tech systems out there that haven’t been implemented into society other than maglev trains. This creates an opportunity for inventors and engineers to create innovations and iterations from this method to advance in its capability to be efficient in our society. A company by the name of Arx Pax has recently released a new product of their own that uses the magnetic levitation method to hover almost the same way as the Hyperloop but in a different concept. According to the article ‘From Hoverboards to Flying Cars, This Startup Has a Maglev Master Plan’, they claim that the hoverboard they made was just the first step to their project as they plan to use their magnetic engine on different vehicles. Their magnetic engine and system have also proven that it has some better benefits than other maglev trains as they are less expensive since they do not rely on the high amount of electricity used in both the vehicle and tracks to operate and also on having to spend nearly 10 million dollars per mile. Although Arx Pax has high potential on innovating vehicles with the magnetic levitation systems, some of the issues that many companies have faced trying to implement the maglev method is getting approval from the government and transit authorities to adopt the idea. The most common reason why they do not support this concept is because of its high costs to build and provide demanded supplies to build it into reality. However, the Hendo hoverboard proved the world that the maglev was certainly interesting and in high demand as it sold out their hoverboard that went for the high price of $10,000. If was also advertised by skate legend Tony Hawk. Learning about the Hendo Hoverboard and Arx Pax has given me more knowledge and information about how exactly magnetic levitation works and what type of problems can occur when trying to implement this system to operate.

Throughout my research I have learned a lot about Hyperloop and the Hendo Hoverboard that both use magnetic levitation to basically levitate above the surface, which allows their product to avoid the force of friction on the surface and achieve higher speeds than ordinary vehicles of the same type. However, understanding exactly how magnetic levitation works requires research on how magnets function and how it’s able to levitate objects of high mass such as trains that use these systems more commonly than any other vehicle. The article, ‘How Maglev Works’, it explains the true nature of magnets, as well as how they work on maglev trains that are becoming more common in our society. The science writer talks about the history of how maglev was initially discovered and how it has three purposes in being used to make the train elevate. The three purposes of these magnets were to make it hover, keep it stable horizontally, and the third is a propulsion system used to push the train forward. She claims maglev trains are more efficient, safer, and faster as they can travel up to 375 miles per hour and passengers experience less turbulence than the traditional trains that run on the surface. Whyte explained exactly what type of magnets have to be used and how they should be cooled down in their temperature to allow them to be way more effective than average magnets. This information can be used to help me create my own method on how to levitate and implement this system into a car.

After conducting extensive research about advanced transportation technology, my plan now is to try and create my own version of these similar inventions by using their method and techniques to implement into my research and creation of the product that I am trying to make. The product that I am trying to build is a levitating car with its own singe lane that is able to transport people to different areas in congested cities like Houston, Los Angeles, and New York. This type of transportation system is able to improve the transportation industry as it can help people who are always in a rush to somewhere important such as their jobs, meetings, and school. It can also reduce the production of car emission that causes pollution and global warming that harms our environment, and its energy efficiency also makes it safer and more comfortable than regular cars as it has advanced software technology that can control and assure that the passenger is safe at all times. In conclusion, after finally browsing through the Internet and looking at different type of innovations that are coming up right now such as Hyperloop and Hendo Hoverboard, that I spoke about mostly, the idea I got from this research was to create a levitating car that is able to send people to areas around their city that they want to travel to. I plan to look more into how to make this concept into a more realistic and understandable way and possibly build one of the biggest transportation systems in the future.

Work Cited

  1. “Full-Seats & Other Secrets to a More Sustainable Transport Future”. Hyperloop One, 19 Oct. 2017, hyperloop-one.com/blog/full-seats-other-secrets-more-sustainable-transport-future.
  2. 'Hyperloop One Completes Series B-1 Round of $85 million'. Entertainment Close-up, 28 Sept. 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=j101919018&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA506938196&it=r&asid=04a2edd078ea4cfde43c63fdd82f2307. Accessed 9 Nov. 2017.
  3. 'Hyperloop One Finalizes First Successful Hyperloop Full Systems Test'. Entertainment Close-up, 16 July 2017. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=j101919018&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA498605426&it=r&asid=e4045d86c39daa050f950e1c6497bbc1. Accessed 9 Nov. 2017.
  4. Katz, Dan. “Why Integration with Other Transport Modes Is Central to Hyperloop One's Business”. Hyperloop One, hyperloop-one.com/blog/why-integration-other-transport-modes-central-hyperloop-ones-business.
  5. Morris, David Z. “From Hoverboards to Flying Cars, This Startup Has a Maglev Master Plan.” Fortune, Fortune, 20 Apr. 2015, fortune.com/2015/04/20/maglev-hoverboards/.
  6. Uyeno, Greg. 'Fast Track: Will the Super-Speedy Hyperloop Be the Transportation of the Future?' SuperScience, Sept. 2017, p. 10+. General OneFile, go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?p=ITOF&sw=w&u=j101919018&v=2.1&id=GALE%7CA511789089&it=r&asid=1d60a78793aa0b320d052d72f8da0b78. Accessed 9 Nov. 2017.
  7. Whyte, Chelsea. “How Maglev Works”. Department of Energy, 14 June 2016, www.energy.gov/articles/how-maglev-works.
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Essay on Innovation in Transportation Technology. (2022, October 28). Edubirdie. Retrieved April 27, 2024, from https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-innovation-in-transportation-technology/
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Essay on Innovation in Transportation Technology. [online]. Available at: <https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-innovation-in-transportation-technology/> [Accessed 27 Apr. 2024].
Essay on Innovation in Transportation Technology [Internet]. Edubirdie. 2022 Oct 28 [cited 2024 Apr 27]. Available from: https://edubirdie.com/examples/essay-on-innovation-in-transportation-technology/
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