June 4, 2019 The Future of Transport

RS Components highlights how the transport industry is set to evolve by 2100 and how it will change our lives.

June 4, 2019

From driving to the supermarket to pick up groceries, commuting by rail or hopping on a plane to your dream holiday destination, travelling in 2019 has never been smoother.

Transport has completely transformed over the last 200 years. In 1804 the first steam railway was built. In 1885-1886 the first credited automobile was created by Karl Benz in Germany, 1903 saw the creation of the first powered aircraft and in 1942 the first ever rocket reached space. The transport industry has clearly hit some huge milestones over the past 200 years.

So, how will transport evolve by 2100?

We live in a digital age where technology has become entwined and embedded in our society. This technological revolution has impacted all industries. including transport, with the world now witnessing self-driving cars, drones that can deliver goods to your doorstep, and billionaires who are hoping to transport humans to Mars in the next couple of decades.

RS Components have collated the most exciting predictions set to take place over the next century in this graphic. Are you ready for the changes set to happen in the transport industry?

Autonomous cars

Autonomous car technology is already being developed by the likes of BMW and Mercedes, this development is still very much in its testing stages. Having said that, these tests are set to be implemented by 2025, which is predicted to be the year this development emerges further and is implemented with the concept of driverless taxis.

The result of this is that there will no longer be a need to own a personal car and instead, people can choose to subscribe to car-sharing driverless schemes.

Drive through the skies

By 2050 global populations are expected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. At the same time, the UK population is expected to exceed 70 million [2] by 2030, growing by a further 7 million [3] to reach 77 million by 2050.

This large growth in population across the world and the UK will lead to a huge increase in the number of road users and other systems of transport as they look to commute for work or leisure.

Whilst the numbers of people travelling will increase, the capacity of routes currently available are unlikely to keep pace, due to the road and underground systems restricted in the routes and numbers they can hold. As such, humans will need to look for alternative transport routes.

For these reasons, the Irish SpaceX Hyperloop pod competition team, Éirloop, has predicted that humans will be ‘driving in the sky’ where far more space can be found than on roads or underground. This will allow for higher volumes of people to travel and at higher speeds, therefore cutting travel times.

Space Travel

Commercial travel to space is an immensely exciting talking point in 2019, with billionaires such as Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson all working to get people into outer space and even to Mars over the next couple of decades. But by 2100, it is expected that space travel will be taking place via Hyperloop, which will transport passengers to other colonies outside of Earth.

A green future

Governments are currently undergoing huge policy changes to ensure cars become emission free over the next two decades, by banning petrol and diesel cars due to the air pollution problems they cause. By 2030 it is predicted that all ground transport, including cars, buses and trains will be driven by renewable energies to tackle this global issue.

In the same year aeroplanes will have no windows, but rather the fuselage will be a big screen, making the aircraft lighter as a result which will mean less fuel is being burnt.

Are you ready for the next century of transport?

RS Components is the leading global distributor of electronic, electrical & industrial components for engineers, and has been supporting and inspiring generations of engineers since 1937.

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