As automotive engineers build smarter and smarter cars, it only makes sense that our roads would get smarter too, right? Well, not so much. Until now.
Big brains are on the job. Dutch engineers will launch an amazing project later this summer, and we’ll see some mind-blowing technologies implemented there. Think The Jetsons. If you want to see it in action, you can check out the video simulation here.
Some of my favorite features:
- – Smart road paint. This stuff is charged by sunlight and headlights and glows in the dark. Not only that, somehow the paint knows which glow color is most visible for the current road conditions. How’d they do that?
- – No more wondering whether that’s black ice or harmless rain; this road sends you illuminated messages on the street itself to alert you to the exact road conditions.
- – Road lights powered by roadside pinwheel generators. The draft from passing cars lights them up.
Here are a few other cool features that are currently in the works stages around the world:
- – Parking lots which could charge electric cars while they’re sit in parking lots or at rest stops. Could we have the same technology to charge cell phones and laptops while our car sits in a parking lot?
- – Traffic lights that can gauge the number of cars in a turn lane and adjust its green arrow appropriately.
- – Street lights that switch off if no one is in sight and turn on when someone approaches, saving energy.
- – Or how about a highway that can sense an out-of-control / drunk driver and transmit that info to police? Or better yet, it could throw up a spiked barrier to stop them in their tracks.
OK, Dreamers. Let’s consider the possibilities. Which features would YOU add to a highway of the future?
LWTK’s mommy blogger, Sarah, is attempting to be a good mama to little Henry, wife to Shea, full-time employee and part-time grad student all while avoiding making dinner from a box every night. In her non-existent free time, she’s running, eating popcorn and blogging about it all at The Gatsby Diaries.
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