Tag Archives: highway

Smart Road Studs

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Warning System Road Reflectors provide enhanced safety in the event of road accidents by giving other drivers an immediate visual signal. The connected beacons can be user activated with a simple twist following a crash or even a simple car stall. Activating one will trigger all the reflectors in a designated vicinity to turn on, thereby warning oncoming traffic to slow down in order to avoid a pile up. The system is particularly useful in blind curves where drivers may not be able to brake in time.

Designers: Chung-Tung Lin, Yu-Han Lai

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Glow-in-the-Dark Highway Becomes Reality

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If you tend to drive at night, you know that it can get dangerous on roads without lighting. That’s one of the reasons why some engineers in the Netherlands decided to make their highways glow in the dark.

glow in the dark roadmagnify

It was first suggested by Studio Roosegard back in 2012, and it was conceived to make roads safer as well as cut down on the amount of electricity needed to maintain the lighting on long stretches of highway. To this end, the N329 highway in Oss now has a 500 meter-long (~1640 foot) stretch which has glow-in-the-dark road markings. To pull off the trick, a photoluminescent powder was integrated into the road marking paint, and the lines charge up from sunlight captured during the daytime.

I have one concern though – how long will this paint last? It’s a known fact that paint on roads needs to be reapplied every few years.

[via Wired]

Drones to Monitor Highways and Hand out Speeding Tickets (NOT)

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Personally, I hate speed cameras, especially the new mobile ones that are hard to spot. Now, can you imagine drones flying all over the place and handing out speeding tickets if you go over the limit? That would be hell. Actually, these drones aren’t designed to issue tickets (yet), but to monitor the highways and save lives.

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This flying drone was created by the Georgia Institute of Technology in order to assist human workers safeguard 4 million miles of US highways. Such drones could inspect bridges and roads, performing surveys of land using laser mapping. The drone could also alert officials to traffic jams or accidents. The CONECTech Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology thinks that drones would help humans doing this kind of work for the Department of Transportation.

[via TechNewsDaily]

Tesla’s ‘Supercharger Network’ of electric vehicle power stations will be revealed September 24th

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Tesla's Supercharger electric vehicle coasttocoast power station network will be revealed September 24th

For Tesla owners looking at taking their electric vehicles out for some long haul driving, a plan to line the highways and/or byways with fast chargers should be welcome news. After mentioning the Supercharger Network as early as January, company founder Elon Musk tweeted tonight that it would officially be unveiled September 24th. So, what will it actually look like? Musk claims it will "feel like alien spaceships landed at highway rest stops," where owners may be able to enjoy amenities like charging that takes their batteries from ten to 90 percent in just 45 minutes or fast battery swaps. We've marked our calendars, check out AutoblogGreen for more speculation on just what Supercharging may entail, including the potential that the stations themselves will be solar powered.

Continue reading Tesla's 'Supercharger Network' of electric vehicle power stations will be revealed September 24th

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Tesla's 'Supercharger Network' of electric vehicle power stations will be revealed September 24th originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 13 Sep 2012 22:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceElon Musk (Twitter), AutoblogGreen  | Email this | Comments