WIRED is about looking around corners. It’s about seeing what’s next. It’s about spotting the tectonic shifts technology is causing, moments before they violently shake us. And we see a big one coming.
Transportation is undergoing an upheaval of unprecedented proportions. How we move around on the planet (and beyond it) is fundamentally changing---and as it does, it will change a great deal about who we are, how we interact, and what our lives look like. This is the kind of shift WIRED is designed to cover.
After a century dominated by sprawling highways and smog-choked cities, humanity has reached the limits of its one-car-for-every-citizen culture. It’s not sustainable, and it won’t take us where we want to go tomorrow. The biggest, most innovative companies in the world are developing better models, systems, and tools. From autonomous cars and electric vehicles to ride sharing and mapping apps to Hyperloop and private space flight, society stands at the beginning of the next 100 years of mobility. It will look nothing like the previous 100 years.
WIRED’s transportation coverage has always focused on more than the latest hypercar or theory about MH370. Last year, we reported from the front seat of Audi’s self-driving car and took Tesla Motors' gorgeous electric SUV for a spin. We chronicled the haphazard efforts to repair America’s crumbling infrastructure and the rise the next generation of mass transit. We told you about solar-powered airplanes and diesel-powered Volkswagens. We took a ride with one of the best drivers on the planet and provided a healthy dose of wonderfully insane cars.
We'll continue to do all of that and more. We’ll introduce you to the people teaching cars to drive themselves and testing giant networks of tubes to shuttle us around at hundreds of miles per hour. We’ll explore their ideas, explain their challenges, and illuminate their goals. We’ll talk to the engineers reviving supersonic air travel and transforming cities so hopping on a bike doesn’t mean hopping into a grave. And we’ll talk about what it all means to you.
Because so much is happening, we simply can no longer fit it in our Gear section. There is just too much. Today, transportation touches on almost every corner of the WIRED world---from security and design, to science and business. It needs its own channel. So that’s exactly what we are giving it. Welcome to WIRED Transportation. Consider it your map to an all-new world.
