The automated cars are slowly building a driving record that’s better than that of your average American. Ever since Google began designing its self-driving cars, they’ve wanted to build cars that go beyond the capabilities of human-piloted vehicles, cars that are much, much safer. When Sebastian Thrun announced the project in 2010, he wrote, “According...

Maglev, or magnetic levitation, is a system of transportation that suspends, guides and propels vehicles, predominantly trains, using magnetic levitation from a very large number of magnets for lift and propulsion. This method has the potential to be faster, quieter and smoother than wheeled mass transit systems. The power needed for levitation is usually not...

Freeform Escalators Inventor:  Jack Levy Architects can now create escalators in any shape they want, even freeform curves, thanks to the first significant rethink of escalator design since the ‘moving stairway’ was invented in 1897. A system known as the ‘Levytator’ has been developed by Jack Levy, an Emeritus Professor of Mechanical...

The Variable Speed Moving Walkway Inventor: Richard D. Burson The pallet type moving walkway moves at roughly 2 km/h when riders step onto it, speeds up to approximately 7 km/h for the bulk of the length, and slows to 2 km/h again at the end. The pallets “intermesh” with a comb and slot arrangement. They expand out of each other when speeding up,...