On December 25, the world's first "Dual-Mode" vehicle was unveiled to the outside world in Haiyang Town, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan. The appearance of this dual-mode car looks no different from that of city buses, but it takes into account the functions of city buses and trains.
After careful observation, it is not difficult to find that the bottom structure of the double-mode car is different from the bottom design of ordinary city buses, and this double-mode car has rubber tires suitable for driving on the road, and also installs rigid wheels suitable for driving on the rails.
Figure | the world's first commercial dual-mode vehicle (Source: YouTube video screenshot)
When passengers in Kaiyocho, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, ride this car to the intersection of road and rail, the two-mode vehicle can put away the two rubber wheels in front, slowly lower the steel wheels suitable for driving on the rails, and then continue to drive forward driven by the rear wheels.
It is worth noting that this dual-mode car can quickly switch from road mode to railway mode within 15 seconds.
According to the official information of Hokkaido Railway Company, "This double-mode car in Kaiyocho, Tokushima Prefecture will be the first vehicle in this field that can be commercially operated on roads and rails." "The successful debut of this two-mode car means that human beings have taken a big step forward in the exploration of travel tools.
GIF | A dual-mode car on track (Source: YouTube video screenshot)
In fact, the pace of human exploration of travel tools has never stopped.
In the 1760s, with the help of the famous British inventor James F. Kennedy, James watt's further improvement of the steam engine kicked off the automotive industry. In 1769, the world's first automobile powered by a steam engine was born. By 1888, mercedes-Benz had produced the world's first car to sell.
However, fuel-driven steam improves people's travel efficiency, but also puts some pressure on environmental protection.
As a result, people gradually shifted their attention to electric-driven cars, and on June 22, 2012, the official delivery of the first electric sports car of Tesla Model S marked the official arrival of the spring of electric vehicle commercialization.
Figure | Tesla's first Model S (Source: Infographic)
In just a few years, electric vehicles have achieved a cross-domain from initial production to mass sales. However, people are not reveling in the current achievements in the field of electric vehicles.
Not long ago, scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and a research team at the University of California proposed that "in 2023, battery-powered trains have the potential to become economically viable." "This heralds the imminent launch of the first electric train.
Figure | electric train (Source: Pixabay)
Looking back at the history of the development of automobiles for hundreds of years, human beings have made amazing achievements in travel tools, especially road travel tools.
The invention of the dual-mode car in Haiyang Town, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, has once again refreshed people's cognition, and the emergence of this dual-mode car mainly solves the two major pain points in Small Towns and Rural Areas in Japan.
This background is that Haiyang Town, Tokushima Prefecture, Japan, is sparsely populated and has a serious aging population, and the use of dual-mode vehicles can not only solve the problem of railway operation difficulties caused by sparse population, but also solve the situation of people due to the inconvenience of car and train transfer.
The two-mode vehicle is now available in three colors, each of which can accommodate up to 21 passengers and 2 drivers, and can also be driven along part of the coast of Shikoku Island in southern Japan, with a full name of about 50 kilometers.
It is necessary to travel 10 km on the road at a speed of 100 km / h, and about 40 km on the railway track at a speed of 60 km / h, linking the towns between the unopened train routes, and providing tourist enthusiasts from all over the world with a one-stop sightseeing service for towns and coasts.
Figure | of a dual-mode vehicle driving on part of the coastal track (Source: YouTube video screenshot)
This dual-mode vehicle is a "tailor-made" public travel tool for the people of Haiyang Town, Tokushima Prefecture.
In addition, these vehicles also have special applications, when a major earthquake and other natural disasters occur in Japan, part of the railway track is destroyed, the dual-mode car can be based on its own structural characteristics, instantaneously switch to the road mode, through the damaged road conditions, and then the bottom of the body of the steel wheel down, continue to drive on the track.
Dual-mode vehicles are unfamiliar to most people, but the development process of double-mode vehicles can be traced back to the 1990s, and the more representative is the rubber tire tram, due to the shortage of government finances, transportation facilities and technology are not perfect, there has been no substantial landing.
Japan's Hokkaido Railway Company developed its own version of the double-mode car in 2004, but due to financial difficulties at the time, it was not put into operation. Therefore, it is rarely paid attention to.
The publicly unveiled dual-mode car took about 10 years from conception to design to official listing, compared with the traditional train, the dual-mode car has a lighter body, can save a lot of fuel energy, and is also more worry-free in maintenance.
Hokkaido Rail Service originally planned to use the twin-mode car at the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer, but later at the request of the Japanese Ministry of Transportation, its retractable wheel arm was further reinforced and welded. Therefore, the unveiling time of the two-mode car has been postponed.
In early November, Japan's Ministry of Transportation conducted a review of the upgrade parts of the dual-mode vehicle and found no performance hazards. Therefore, hokkaido railway service companies have been given great support in the approval and approval processes, which has accelerated the time for dual-mode vehicles to "meet" with the market.
Although the service life of rubber tires of dual-mode vehicles still needs to be improved, it still has greater driving significance for this field.
The world's first commercialized dual-mode car has been successfully unveiled, with the further development of science and technology, what more interesting, more convenient and more anticipated travel tools will be invented in the future? Let's wait and see.
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reference:
https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/bus-or-train-worlds-first-dual-mode-vehicle-begin-operating-japan-2021-12-24/