Transportation

Transportation contributes about 14% of global warming. In the US, drivers travel an average of 37 miles per day. Hybrid Road-Rail vehicles combine advantages of flexible roads transport with advantages of efficient rail transport. A good near-term application is one car doing package or freight delivery, for campus transport of people and material, or for assisting self-driving cars.

Roads are expensive to build and maintain, go everywhere but have high rolling resistance, and so are energy inefficient. Rails traditionally are energy efficient, but only reach limited destinations located on a line, and only work for heavy loads. Furthermore, rails have switches that need to be set for rail vehicles to travel to a desired direction. The vehicles transition between roads and rails where rails cross roads. These inventions optionally employs a static junction, where a vehicle decides which way to travel when it meets a fork in the road. No switch setting needed.

Operation of vehicles on rails should be controlled by a central system to assure smooth safe operation.

The video features a G-scale 3-D printed model vehicle and is designed for non-technical people.

Plans to make G-scale model can be provided on request.

References: US11,230,813, US11,364,940, US11,364,940, US12,594,798
Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dnlo4PFHcoc