Cool transport has been having a moment.

Years ago, before we launched our road innovation project, transport innovation wasn’t a hot topic. Personally, I was interested in driverless cars and was that EVs could pick up electricity as they move – but outside of industry-specific events, bringing up such topics of conversation got blank stares. Let’s just say I learned not to talk about dynamic charging at dinner parties.

Fast forward and futuristic transportation ideas are hip. Google car is never out of the news for long. Serious buzz was created when Apple was suspected to be working on their own version. China’s traffic straddling ‘bus’ is an idea that’s been around a while but suddenly elicited everything from ecstatic raves to incredulous rants earlier this year when a prototype was announced. My in-laws will now happily chat about transformational transport over tea.

Most spectacular was the unveiling of the Hyperloop concept.  I watched with fascination as mass media went nuts, niche transport media went nuts, social media went nuts. It continues to make headlines, and it’s thrilling to see how people have embraced such an ambitious, even outlandish concept and took it seriously, despite the fact that it requires risky breakthrough technology. Elon Musk was its promotor of course, a man who possesses the PR equivalent of fairy dust.

We have a much humbler proposition. Hyperloop is far edgier and about a zillion times more expensive than what we are working on at TEV Project. Our concept requires zero technological breakthroughs. It is an assembly of existing technology in a new combination. We often boast that there’s nothing new about our idea! It’s simply a natural evolution of highways.

So while others may be looking at completely new and different forms of travel, our focus is on the road ahead so to speak. Whatever alternatives there are – be they bikes, trains, 500mph pneumatic tubes – cars are being purchased and driven in droves all over the world. There still has to be a better, safter, more environmentally sustainable way of driving them in the long term than what we are doing today. That’s why we recommend special, segregated highway lanes in which EVs can pick up electricity as they move (ending the problem of range limitation) and a computer controls the driving (giving us awesome safety and efficiency advantages).  With road vehicles accounting for around 18% of carbon emissions worldwide, making EVs the norm instead of ICEs could make a real difference.

Happily, while we might not have Hyperloop’s profile, we do have a lot of support in high places. TEV has scooped a number of prestigious awards, most recently the Smart Transportation Alliance “Innovation of the Year” 2016 and many major media outlets have covered us. Let’s hope innovative transportation continues to have its moment. Developing more sustainable travel depends on it!