Digital Trends - Latest Comments in In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

neilcraig — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 07:19:38 -0000

I'd vote for overhead automated monrails where you can call a single unit (callit a taxi) by phone & it will drive you anywhere you want in the city (for outside the city it will drive you to the railway station where single carriage automated "trains" will be levaing every few minutes.

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Dan Gaul — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:13:29 -0000

Great for downtown environments, not so great anywhere else.

I want an atomic car. :)

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Ian Bell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:44 -0000

That would make sense. What would you classify a Segway as?

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Ian Bell — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 17:00:02 -0000

I understand what you are saying and your evidence is indeed very compelling. I do not specialize in this field, so obviously I do not have the information to support my opinion. However, with that being said, numerous shows on television from the likes of Discovery, TLC, Science channel etc seem to have compelling evidence to suggest that hybrid technology will be the future for the next 5 years followed by pure electric. I am not saying hydrogen isn't the future, but from an infrastructure standpoint, it's a big operation to setup fueling stations across the nation etc.

So maybe it is the media that is fueling (pun intended) the hype behind electric cars. It would make sense that all-electric would be the next evolutionary step though.

Gas>Gas/electric hybrid>all-electric

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

ggolden — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:46:26 -0000

That's not to say hat combustion engines are going away. I expect they and hybrids will be the dominant platform for the next two decades.

Things will not change overnight... but let's not dismiss (w/o any support) what is or isn't possible over the next decade with fuel cells.

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

ggolden — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:44:15 -0000

Nobody is suggested urban vehicles will be sidewalk based... they are likely to share the road with other conventional vehicles.

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

ggolden — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:39:25 -0000

Ian- Disagree with the notion that H2 vehicles are not the future. Maybe you missed the major points in the article? H2 vehicles are electric vehicles. The difference is they use a 'fuel' model (as we have today) vs a 'grid' dependent model.

In terms of cost there is no comparison. Batteries are a high cost to mass ratio. Automakers care about cost to mass (weight) and there is no automotive company today that has publicly stated that the end game is batteries.

The cost of H2 fueling is likely to be cheaper than extended wall socket access to mobile cars. Cars are not iPods or appliances- they need a 'fuel' model not a grid model.

Again, EVs are likely to be powered by a combination of batteries, fuel cells and capacitors. A future of pure batteries is unlikely. Look at all major manufacturers and they expect FCVs in production by 2015. Battery poewred cars are good for small vehicles and fleets... but not the end game.

Oil companies are built around natural gas as their long term asset. Natural gas has a high hydrogen to carbon ratio. Regardless they are in the 'fuel' model, not 'grid' producers. Don't expect highly regulated utilities to be able to compete against 'fuel' suppliers like Shell and Exxon.

The battery hype is only supported b/c the web community and Comments sections of major blogs continue to propagate false information about hydrogen. Electric cars are NOT different from hydrogen cars. It's the electric motor that matters...

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Ian Bell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:53:22 -0000

Personal Urban Vehicles are a joke. No one will want to share the sidewalk with these things, and the sidewalk is not big enough for more than one at a time anyways.

Re: In the Year 2020, Part III: Transportation, Urban Planning, and Energy

Ian Bell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:51:39 -0000

Hydrogen cars will not be the future. They are expensive to fuel, the infrastructure is ridiculously expensive (hydrogen stations would have to be installed everywhere) and the vehicles will be too expensive.

Hybrid technology will be here for the next 10 years for mainstream cars, while electric vehicles will start to take over. Electric makes more sense.

The only question I have is what will the oil companies adopt? Because they will be the ones most likely determining what's next. It's not like they are going to fold up shop and say "shows over".