"There have been no major new innovations in transportation in the past century, since the car and airplane." Drones, jet engine, viable CVT, ICBM, space shuttle, maglev, turbine cars, nuclear-powered engines, helicopter, hovercraft, jet ski, snowmobile...
Today's automobile technology is vastly superior to a century ago, in power, speed, efficiency, and safety.
None of those are 'major innovations in transportation', as is clearly demonstrated by the fact that most people do not ride ICBM's to work everyday, the fact that automobiles had almost entirely replaced horses before CVT and turbines, and the fact that planes had partially replaced ocean liners before jet engines. (In fact, some pre-WWII planes are still in everyday commercial use today.) You are likely confusing 'major innovations' in the sense of technical accomplishments with 'major innovations' in the sense of innovations that had a large impact on s...
I was studying in the LW Study Hall, and during our break someone posted this link to the official hyperloop announcement:
http://www.spacex.com/sites/spacex/files/hyperloop_alpha-20130812.pdf
One member was doubtful it would get past regulations, and another said "tentative p>0.05 that a hyperloop gets made by 2100", which was met with "p>0.05 that uploading people and moving them between bodies will be available by 2100".
It struck me that people might be interested in betting on things like this, or at least having a conversation about it.
A few predictions to start: