Session 3 – Transportation

The Jetsons was set in the year 2026, George Jetson owned a high-tech flying car. On March 5^th, 2009 Carl Dietrich co-founder of Terrafugia along with his team made a car fly. Carl’s flying car was the opener of the session on transportation. Carl explained to us that instead of creating a car that flies, he needed to create a plane that drives, brining us back to Naveen Jain’s idea about thinking in a totally different box. The wings of the car will fold in so that it is able to fit comfortably in your garage, and will seat 4. Flying cars are going to alter our way of life around the world, and we couldn’t agree more.

Our second speaker of the afternoon Daryl Oster, spoke to us about vacuum tube travel or ET3 as he has called it. With this form of transportation, you will be able to travel from New York to Beijing in 2 hours for only $100.  Now that is a bargain! This form of transportation will be a much safer and allow individuals to travel at space speeds on earth. Currently prototypes are being set up, and hopefully we will be traveling at light speed soon.

Our final speaker of the session Izhar Gafni, presented to us his cardboard bike that although does not fly, is waterproof. Today was a big day for Izhar as he received his first major investor after waiting for 5 years. The cardboard bike only costs between $9 and $12 to produce and requires no maintenance for 3 years, as it is all cardboard and recycled plastic. Izhar is currently speaking with various cities hoping to import the bikes, and is currently developing a wheelchair.

The transportation session came to a close with a relaxing yoga session and an awestruck audience. In the words of Izhar Gafni “the line between stupidity and genius is very very narrow,” we couldn’t have said it ourselves. Time for another quick break before we come back for our Singularity University session.