Press Release

Autoway, A Practical Urban Transportation Mode for 21st Century

Reston, Virginia, September 26, 2005-Acroscape releases practical examples and a roadmap for Autoway deployment, to illustrate Autoway as a comprehensive solution to traffic congestion, energy shortage, air pollution, and traffic safety. This will help government planners, urban architects, transportation engineers, real estate developers, and environmentalists to recognize a commercially viable urban transportation solution. This will also help corporate executives, investors and entrepreneurs to realize the business opportunities of Autoway as the transportation technology for the 21st century.

Autoway is a personal automated guideway transportation system for passengers and light freights. This fully automatic system will take a passenger directly to his destination at a high speed without stopping or transfer. All the passenger needs to do is to tell the system where he wants to go. This will offer freedom of transportation to people from school children to senior citizens. While the guideway is less than 3 feet wide, Autoway has a capacity equivalent to 5 highway lanes. As for energy, the electric vehicle can use alternative energy sources and has an equivalent gas mileage of 500 miles per gallon.

If Autoway is so good, why has it not been developed for the market yet? It is often difficult for people to see the economical and social impacts of a fundamentally new technology. "When the first car ran on the street of Detroit, it was reported as a useless monster. When Wright brother’s airplane made their first flight in 1903, it did not attract much media attention. Now we need to convince governments, business leaders, and ordinary people that Autoway is our future, " said Dr. Wu, the inventor of Autoway.

The practical application examples will help people understand how Autoway can be used to solve the traffic challenges. A small Autoway network can meet the internal transportation needs of a corporate campus. Even a 20-mile Autoway will significantly reduce congestions in a metropolitan area. An example of the New York-Washington DC corridor will show Autoway as an ideal choice for passenger transportation in a regional corridor.

Automated transportation has been around for a long time. For example, the concept of Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) has been proposed and some prototype systems have been constructed. However, the question bothered both enthusiasts and skeptics is how to make money. The examples will show that Autoway is a very profitable business.

Autoway will emerge as a transportation industry after automobile and airplane. Many traditional manufacturing industries in developed countries have suffered a long time of downturn with significant loss of jobs. For example, the US automobile industry has serious challenges with potential massive layoffs. Why not think forward and consider the opportunity of Autoway? The components of Autoway are existing parts and technologies in other industries. Many companies in the manufacturing industry are in a position to start the new business. This technology-based manufacturing industry will create millions of jobs.

A new transportation system is a complex engineering task. Many cities have a policy to use only proven transportation technology, and the dilemma is a new technology can only be proven by actually building it. We have tried to solve the traffic congestions using proven technologies for more than 30 years, and congestions have become worse. It is time to take a new approach. The roadmap for Autoway deployment will be a starting point. First, prototypes will be fully tested. Then experimental Autoway will be constructed for real deployment. Autoway standard and national Autoway network will follow. In 20 years, Autoway will become the major form of urban transportation. The time of oil dependence will be over. Traffic accidents will be reduced by 95% from today. In other words, this will save over one million of people a year.

Government support is very important to the development of the Autoway industry. The United States government had taken an active role in the development of canal, railway, highway, and air transportation in the past. This private-public partnership in transportation has given the country the high mobility and economic vitality. An early strategic thinking about Autoway will be rewarded with financial savings, better transportation infrastructure, and sustained economic growth.

Hurricane Katrina has revealed two problems of transportation: Emergency evacuation and oil dependence. It is time to think about an alternative transportation system that is available to people of all ages. In fact, Autoway has a much high capacity for emergency evacuation. As Autoway uses electricity, alternative energy sources can be used for transportation. This makes transportation less vulnerable to oil shortage caused by natural disasters, international conflicts, and terrorist attacks.

About Acroscape: Acroscape is an independent invention business focusing on fundamental technologies. For more information, please contact Dr. Hengning Wu at hnwu@acroscape.com.