Engineers are planning an autonomous system for transporting goods by rail

The transport of goods over global routes is constantly increasing. Let’s look at the data from the Federal Statistical Office [1], then every year 3.2 billion tons of goods are transported in Germany by truck alone on country roads and motorways, followed by transport by rail with 320.1 million tons. This volume is unlikely to decrease in the coming decades, which is why we need innovative long-term solutions for getting goods from A to B.

Luckily there are a few ex-SpaceX engineers who bring plenty of ingenuity to the table. They have joined forces and developed an idea that will allow containers to roll autonomously from A to B over the rails in the future. That could get things moving in a system that has yet to really keep up with the increasing volume.

Because rail is still a long way from becoming a relevant means of transport for goods. Although the transport volume rose continuously up to 2018, after a peak of 402 million tons, the volume has been falling again since then (it was around 359 million tons in 2020). [2]. This has to do with an ailing rail network, but at the same time also with the lack of competition in the operation of the German rail network (here only DB Netz AG has the say).

But back to the imagined system of the SpaceX engineers. If it has its way, electric and autonomous container trains should take over the transport in the future. It would also solve a problem with existing trains, because previously you had to have a certain amount of freight to make rail transport worthwhile. The new system makes planning more flexible.

Because here, constructions with a container can be sent individually to the destination or connected in series to form a long train. Either way, there are no costs for train drivers and shift changes, because the container always finds its way to its destination autonomously. The range of a one-car train is around 800 kilometers.

The structure is to be charged in one hour, almost 58,000 kilograms can be loaded per vehicle. That’s more than twice what Tesla promises with its semi-truck. Nevertheless, it will still be some time before it is launched on the market. So far, the engineers have only tested a prototype on a route 80 kilometers long.

Via Electrek

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