Over-the-Top Transportation

It seems like just yesterday when there were wars between the cellular providers fighting for customers and attempting to beat out their competition by offering bundled deals. Customers won out in the end with lower prices for offered services – or did they? Chances are that your provider saddled your contract with all kinds of fees for services they would make available to you, one byte at a time. Some plans covered unlimited voice calls, but the money was made on the data services. Ah yes! There was the data plan (which was over and above the basic services). If you wanted to send Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, the provider counted the messages sent a received and sent you a bill at the end of the month.

Eventually, a new market emerged to offer services that allowed you to send unlimited text messages without the knowledge of the cellular provider. Woo hoo! You simply downloaded an application that your friends use for texting. All communications were secure and the provided simply passed the bits across the wire using your unlimited data plan part of your contract. Easy peazy! This model of communications is referred to as Over The Top (OTT), because it disrupts the traditional model for allowing the cellular companies to collect revenues using their bundled services and simply relegates the provider into communications pipe for moving your data. The provider has no idea that they are transporting text messages because the traffic is encrypted. This is the model for the mind bending idea about to be introduced.

While Google has already introduced the self-driving car, it simply represents a way to move people from place to place using complicated software that knows how to get you to where you are going without running over ten people per mile. That is a huge accomplishment. What if your vehicle is too small for the task of moving a large amount of your personal effects with you on the road? If that is your deal, then the Google car is not the droid you are looking for to address this issue. What if you wanted to take all your possessions with you everywhere you traveled? Oh, and you want to get work done while in the midst of your trip. You could accomplish this on a train, but it would be awfully expensive. Okay, let’s cut to the chase. You need a form of transportation that hauls you and your stuff without resorting to buying a ticket on traditional public transportation.

The idea mimics the communications OTT model and involves you having an aerodynamically efficient mobile home that is designed to use the railways. The goal is to understand the scheduling of the trains and allow for the Over The Top Transportation (OT3) units to use the railroad tracks in between schedule train trips. The OT3 vehicles can be programmed to exit the tracks and onto the roadways to get fuel and to allow scheduled trains to pass. You get to take the most efficient path to your destination without the constant starting and stopping at traffic lights.

As an alternative means, the OTS unit can connect to the end of a train and save on fuel. Okay there are a few issues with that approach, but that is an exercise to be worked out by the interested students.

Using the OT3 vehicles, the owner can literally move all his or her possessions across the country while leisurely relaxing in the comfort of their personal home. This is a freaking awesome idea. Honey, pour me another drink. I’m on a roll!

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