CHAPTER 1 on the MOVE Transportation is all the methods of moving quickly and safely from one place to another by land water and air But what really goes on behind the scenes What deals are made and secrets stolen to make it to the top of the transportation industries Cutting-edge technology can make huge profits The transportation industry is very competitive and the money that can be made encourages companies to be ruthless in keeping their science and technology a secret from competitors who might steal it to make money from it themselves Transportation is changing Today cars trains ships and planes are not just faster than ever before but smarter too AUTOMOBILE SECRETS The global automobile manufacturing industry is worth a staggering 2 billion Such huge sums of money bring out the secret and sometimes dark side of business and of some businesspeople Car companies are very secretive when developing new technology especially technology connected to self-driving vehicles 4
tomorrow's secrets STEALING SECRETS A former Apple engineer has been accused of stealing trade secrets related to Apple’s self-driving car project Trade secrets are closely guarded devices or techniques used by a company in making its products They are the intellectual property of the company Intellectual property is ideas that are protected by law so that no one else can use them without the owner’s permission Information was allegedly downloaded to the employee’s personal computer a few weeks before he quit to join a self-driving startup in China He was arrested and the legal case is ongoing Imagine a day when vehicles talk to each other It is coming Vehicle-to-vehicle V2V communication allows vehicles to wirelessly exchange information about their speed location and direction Vehicles not the humans behind the wheel become aware of other vehicles in the area Your car might use the messages it receives from other vehicles to decide if there is a potential crash threat It can send this information to the driver with an alert such as a sound or a visual sign on the car dash Alternatively it can take immediate action such as turning the steering wheel or applying the brakes One day pedestrians and bicycles may be able to use V2V communication to allow motor vehicles to see them even when the driver cannot This could help save many lives 5
BENEATH THE SURFACE Sleek and deadly black submarines glide through the dark depths of the oceans killer machines ready to strike at a moment’s notice Famous inventor Leonardo da Vinci had an idea for an underwater vessel in the 1500s but he kept his sketches a secret because he was worried about their misuse Secretive by their very nature the development of submarines has always been powered by the latest and most closely guarded science GOING NUCLEAR Like nearly all transportation most ships depend on fossil fuels such as oil coal and natural gas to run motors Burning fossil fuels creates pollution and the planet does not have an unlimited supply of these fuels Refueling also requires making regular stops which is something that stealthy military submarines prefer not to do The use of nuclear power for ships was originally a top-secret suggestion considered by the U S government in the 1940s By 1989 there were more than 400 nuclear powered submarines globally A nuclear reactor produces energy by splitting the nuclei of atoms the tiny particles that are the building blocks for everything Russia keeps the designs of its submarines top secret but gave the world a glimpse of its Vladikavkaz sub codenamed Paltus during a 2018 parade 6
on Earth A risk of nuclear reactors is that if they accidentally release that energy particularly in a small hard-to-escape space such as a submarine it is deadly In 1961 this happened onboard the Soviet submarine K-19 killing 22 crewmen SECRET SUBS The U S navy’s designs for new nuclear submarines are a closely guarded secret At present navy designers are at work on a faster more powerful submarine the Columbia-class The cost of designing the vessels without even building one is estimated at 4 2 billion The Columbia-class will have propellers turned by super-quiet electric motors making them stealthier than other subs Currently all U S navy submarines are nuclear powered DARK SCIENCE SECRETS In 2015 the United States and China agreed to a truce banning private companies from using the Internet to steal trade secrets Three years after signing the truce Chinese hackers got into the computers of a company working for the U S navy Information about submarine and undersea weapons technology was stolen This means that China now knows what weapons are carried by U S submarines and at what distance U S submarines can detect enemy submarines This will give the Chinese an advantage in the event of any hostilities between China and the United States 7
