Life's Great Mysteries - What will be the fastest mode of transportation in the near future?

I grew up watching The Jetsons… you know, the flying cars, robot maid, all that cool stuff. Like many people, I thought we’d have flying cars long before now. So, it’s worth digging for a serious answer to this question. First, though, we need to define “near future.” It’s almost impossible to predict technology in the far future (I’m a sci-fi author, so this is often what I try to do… but it’s only a rough guess), so let’s look ahead only a few decades. Say, by the year 2050, or maybe 2060. This makes prediction more manageable.

Also, let’s just consider transportation from one point on Earth to another. Forget about travel to other planets for the moment.

I don’t think there’s any doubt about what the fastest vehicles will be. You might assume it will be supersonic jets, but I think it will be sub-orbital transports instead. Sub-orbital ships reach space, so they can fly at higher speeds without air resistance, but they do not reach escape velocity. Which is to say, they do not become a satellite and orbit the Earth. Instead, they have an orbital path that takes them to a destination on Earth rather than all the way around the planet. Presumably, the destination would be a distant city. Numerous sub-orbital flights have been performed, of course, but regular passenger flights are still several years away. When commercial use becomes reality (and when it becomes affordable), passengers could fly up to 17,000 mph, traveling from the U.S. to Europe, for example, in less than one hour.

Several companies and organizations are planning sub-orbital vehicles that might be used for passengers, including the SpaceLiner (from the German Aerospace Center) and the Starship (from SpaceX).

Another exciting mode of fast transportation is called hyperloops. The idea is simple: create a long tube with very low air pressure inside the tube. Then put a mag-lev (magnetic levitation) passenger train inside the tube. The train can travel with low air resistance and minimal friction, moving at up to 760 mph. Faster than traditional airliners, which typically cruise at 500 to 600 mph. Hyperloops are not far in the future—we already have the technology to do this—but we need to build the infrastructure to make it widely available. We need a network of these vacuum tubes connecting major cities, then we can start cutting back on airliner flights, which use far more fuel and are far worse for the environment.

But what about flying cars? Well, in the next few decades, these are most likely going to be eVTOL (electric vertical take-off and landing) vehicles, or air taxis. These already exist, and they work. However, we need to figure out all the safety issues. First, I think we’ll see more of these as trained pilots transport goods from one place to another. Then we’ll see air taxis, again with highly trained pilots, carrying passengers from their home to the grocery store (or wherever). After that, will we see thousands of these vehicles buzzing around over cities, with regular citizens flying them to and from work? Yikes! Awesome, but also scary. I predict, by that time, they will be self-flying vehicles, so the owners don’t have to take months or years of flying lessons. And this will be safer for everyone (assuming AI navigation becomes as sophisticated as we hope it will).