The Next Generation of the Interstate

[California5]

I'm really interested in hearing what the future holds for the Interstate system. How much more smarter will it be? What technology will be implemented to make it more safe, quick, and convenient? What can artificial intelligence do to meet the goals the interstate system intends to have? Lastly, why haven't we been working on this system, it has been centuries since we last funded a system like this from the 1950s. Assuming this country doesn't really like public transport, at least develop our system into something far more greater than it can already be.


https://www.axios.com/2024/07/02/smart-highway-i-94-michigan

[pderocco]

I'm really interested in hearing what the future holds for the Interstate system. How much more smarter will it be? What technology will be implemented to make it more safe, quick, and convenient? What can artificial intelligence do to meet the goals the interstate system intends to have? Lastly, why haven't we been working on this system, it has been centuries since we last funded a system like this from the 1950s. Assuming this country doesn't really like public transport, at least develop our system into something far more greater than it can already be.

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/02/smart-highway-i-94-michigan

I think this applies to freeways in general, not just Interstates.

With high technology, I think we can only guess at the possibilities. You never know if ideas will work out until they're put into practice and you see if there are flaws that weren't forseen. Regular freeways are pretty simple, and while their design has evolved, there were no real surprises.

While everyone is mostly thinking about self-driving cars improving the flow of traffic, I often wonder if we'll discover some new construction techniques that will make elevated viaducts and tunnels much cheaper than they are now.

[GaryV]

https://www.axios.com/2024/07/02/smart-highway-i-94-michigan

Let me tell you, that project is NOT popular around here. Taking away a lane of traffic in an area where it is desperately needed and giving it to a private company to attempt to showcase a concept - No thank you. Ridiculous.

[Rothman]

That "article" screams AI to me.  Doesn't even fully deacribe the projects.

[kphoger]

Related topic:  Fictional Highways ► Interstate Plus™

[PColumbus73]

Related topic:  Fictional Highways ► Interstate Plus™

Also 150 MPH Freeways

[vdeane]

The Next Generation is the one with the D, right?  I guess that means the interstates will look like Mexico.

[hotdogPi]

Regarding "smart lanes": I-95 in northeastern Massachusetts between MA 128 and I-495 is four lanes in each direction and is overbuilt, so the fourth lane could be a test of the idea without taking a necessary lane.

[kernals12]

Hooray! A second amateur futurist on this forum.

You are right that AI offers massive potential. Cars autonomous driven and able to communicate with each other will be able to maintain much smaller gaps with vehicles in front of them and to the side. We could bring the capacity of each lane from the current 2000 per hour up conservatively to 4000, possibly 8000 and one study suggested 12000. And traffic lanes could be made narrower since AVs will be able to maintain prefectly straight lines. 10 feet would be enough for general purpose lanes and 8 feet would be able to accommodate light duty vehicles. We may even be able to do without shoulders. All of this means highways will need a lot less right of way for a given capacity.

And removing error prone human drivers should allow higher speeds. Specially designed "superfreeways" with widely spaced interchanges could accommodate speeds of 150 mph.

And the way we build highways should change. New lightweight materials will allow bridges to be erected much faster and require fewer supports. Tunnels could be dug by melting through the earth rather than drilling. That will allow highways to be shoehorned into built up urban areas much more easily and make feasible routes that need to go through rugged mountain ranges or past deep bodies of water (ones that come to mind include a tunnel through the San Gabriels north of Los Angeles or across the Long Island Sound)

[pderocco]

You are right that AI offers massive potential. Cars autonomous driven and able to communicate with each other will be able to maintain much smaller gaps with vehicles in front of them and to the side. We could bring the capacity of each lane from the current 2000 per hour up conservatively to 4000, possibly 8000 and one study suggested 12000. And traffic lanes could be made narrower since AVs will be able to maintain prefectly straight lines. 10 feet would be enough for general purpose lanes and 8 feet would be able to accommodate light duty vehicles. We may even be able to do without shoulders. All of this means highways will need a lot less right of way for a given capacity.

... until someone has a blowout.

[kernals12]

You are right that AI offers massive potential. Cars autonomous driven and able to communicate with each other will be able to maintain much smaller gaps with vehicles in front of them and to the side. We could bring the capacity of each lane from the current 2000 per hour up conservatively to 4000, possibly 8000 and one study suggested 12000. And traffic lanes could be made narrower since AVs will be able to maintain prefectly straight lines. 10 feet would be enough for general purpose lanes and 8 feet would be able to accommodate light duty vehicles. We may even be able to do without shoulders. All of this means highways will need a lot less right of way for a given capacity.

... until someone has a blowout.

Runflat or airless tires

[pderocco]

You are right that AI offers massive potential. Cars autonomous driven and able to communicate with each other will be able to maintain much smaller gaps with vehicles in front of them and to the side. We could bring the capacity of each lane from the current 2000 per hour up conservatively to 4000, possibly 8000 and one study suggested 12000. And traffic lanes could be made narrower since AVs will be able to maintain prefectly straight lines. 10 feet would be enough for general purpose lanes and 8 feet would be able to accommodate light duty vehicles. We may even be able to do without shoulders. All of this means highways will need a lot less right of way for a given capacity.

... until someone has a blowout.

Runflat or airless tires

I wonder if those will ever really be perfected. They currently have enough downsides that they're not widely used. But blowouts aren't the only catastrophic failure that could wreck a bunch of closely following cars at high speeds. I saw someone's wheel half fall off when one of the ball joints broke, on the 405 in L.A. He had trouble keeping control of the car before he was able to pull over.

[Max Rockatansky]

Doesn't matter how much silly tech gets thrown in.  The most exciting thing on I-94 between Ann Arbor and Detroit is the giant Uniroyal tire.  The Gateway Bridge at Telegraph (US 24) in Taylor isn't half bad either. 

[LilianaUwU]

Hooray! A second amateur futurist on this forum.

I thought it was your alt account.

[Mapmikey]

Runflat or airless tires

What about the other several hundred ways a vehicle can break down mechanically?  Or have IT issues involving the systems that would make this kind of thing operate...

[kphoger]

But blowouts aren't the only catastrophic failure that could wreck a bunch of closely following cars at high speeds. I saw someone's wheel half fall off when one of the ball joints broke, on the 405 in L.A. He had trouble keeping control of the car before he was able to pull over.

I was once driving south down I-35 between San Antonio and Laredo, cruising along at 75 mph, and the entire driver's side front wheel of the car in front of me came off.  The driver somehow managed to safely come to a stop, perfectly parallel-parked on the shoulder, with the hub scraping the pavement for the last couple of feet.  The wheel, meanwhile, bounced along the highway, then the shoulder, then down the berm, up the other side, over a fence, and into a field.  We stopped, checked to make sure she was OK, then hopped the fence and chased down her wheel for her.  Note to self:  always make sure the lug nuts are fully tightened after every brake job.

Or there was the time I was driving west on I-44 in Saint Louis city traffic.  There was an Old Dominion truck pulling double trailers, and someone had apparently neglected to secure the roll-up door on the rear trailer.  Empty pallets had been stacked on end at the tail of that trailer, and they were now falling down, one by one, onto the freeway at 60 mph.  Each one would skitter back and forth from lane to lane until it finally came to rest in the middle of the highway, while all of us drivers did our best to avoid them.  I eventually managed to beat this real-life video game and pull up alongside the trucker, then had my wife roll down the passenger window.  I motioned for him to roll his window down, then I shouted across to him, "You're dropping pallets!"  You should have seen his face once he finally understood!  He then proceeded to get off at the next exit.

[Max Rockatansky]

Runflat or airless tires

What about the other several hundred ways a vehicle can break down mechanically?  Or have IT issues involving the systems that would make this kind of thing operate...

He thinks EVs don't have to be maintained or don't have mechanical failures.

[mgk920]

Runflat or airless tires

What about the other several hundred ways a vehicle can break down mechanically?  Or have IT issues involving the systems that would make this kind of thing operate...

He thinks EVs don't have to be maintained or don't have mechanical failures.

He should get back to me when a straight battery-electric vehicle can go from Denver to Salina or Richfield, UT towing an Airstream trailer without stopping.

Mike

[kernals12]

Runflat or airless tires

What about the other several hundred ways a vehicle can break down mechanically?  Or have IT issues involving the systems that would make this kind of thing operate...

Aircraft have thousands of ways they could break down mechanically. And yet they are the safest means of travel.

[kphoger]

Aircraft have thousands of ways they could break down mechanically. And yet they are the safest means of travel.

Do you know much more expensive passenger cars would be if all instances of "single point of failure" had to be eliminated, as they are for aircraft?

[Max Rockatansky]

Aircraft have thousands of ways they could break down mechanically. And yet they are the safest means of travel.

Do you know much more expensive passenger cars would be if all instances of "single point of failure" had to be eliminated, as they are for aircraft?

Or inspected prior to every use by a qualified technician.

[PColumbus73]

I'm really interested in hearing what the future holds for the Interstate system. How much more smarter will it be? What technology will be implemented to make it more safe, quick, and convenient? What can artificial intelligence do to meet the goals the interstate system intends to have? Lastly, why haven't we been working on this system, it has been centuries since we last funded a system like this from the 1950s. Assuming this country doesn't really like public transport, at least develop our system into something far more greater than it can already be.


https://www.axios.com/2024/07/02/smart-highway-i-94-michigan

Investing in new technology for the modern interstate system doesn't really mean anything if state governments continue to defer maintenance. Assuming a new Interstate Highway Act was passed to rebuild every interstate in the country, will we go back to doing nothing until 2090 when the highways that were built today crumble and collapse?

I've seen articles here and there about how bigger, heavier passenger trucks and SUVs are increasing fatalities in crashes and how existing guardrails and other features like pavement thickness might have to be redesigned to accommodate the heavier vehicles. So technological advancements might be seen in making vehicles lighter, or legislation to restrict their size and weight, or to relax/reform existing automotive laws.

The increase in cashless toll roads is something I have reservations about. I prefer the ability of being able to pay a toll then and there and not receive a bill after the fact with added fees and postage. I don't live in an area where I would use a toll transponder regularly. With tap technology for credit cards, I think replacing cash toll booths with card readers would be a compromise.

[kernals12]

Aircraft have thousands of ways they could break down mechanically. And yet they are the safest means of travel.

Do you know much more expensive passenger cars would be if all instances of "single point of failure" had to be eliminated, as they are for aircraft?

Or inspected prior to every use by a qualified technician.

That's doable, with the "technician" being the car's own electronic brain.

[kphoger]

That's doable, with the "technician" being the car's own electronic brain.

There are so many points of failure that aren't monitored by the car's computer.

Just as an example, the a/c compressor seizing up at low speed.  If the serpentine belt doesn't snap, then it can immediately stall the engine.

[Max Rockatansky]

Aircraft have thousands of ways they could break down mechanically. And yet they are the safest means of travel.

Do you know much more expensive passenger cars would be if all instances of "single point of failure" had to be eliminated, as they are for aircraft?

Or inspected prior to every use by a qualified technician.

That's doable, with the "technician" being the car's own electronic brain.

Ah yes, it isn't as though a human would ever ignore onboard diagnostics or defer maintenance.