Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
The big picture problem is that we have an inherently unsustainable transportation system.
So this challenge is an enormous opportunity to totally alter the way that we transport
ourselves.
The transportation industry is moving towards the electrification of transportation. And
so it's just a matter of finding ways to plug the car into that electric grid.
NARRATOR: As transportation systems expand and energy costs rise, the system has a greater
and greater impact on the environment. Many creative people and companies are rising to
the challenge of creating a more efficient transportation.
Arcimoto's mission is to build products that help shift to a sustainable transportation
system. First product is a very efficient vehicle for everyday driving, not just a replacement
for the car. We're actually creating a form that weighs less, much more aerodynamic, has
less rolling resistance. So we gain both the benefit of the electric drive and a new form
factor that's more efficient by design.
Many of the jobs are going to be the same between the conventional vehicle industry
and the new electric vehicle industry. It's everything from design, engineering, product
assembly and manufacture, assembly supervision, marketing, all the way through the creation
of the product.
For students who are looking to get involved from a product creation point of view, there
are a wide degree of skills that would be useful to have. A strong grasp of mathematics
and physics, an understanding of mechanical dynamics, basic 3D modeling and design are
all skills that would be useful.
I work with auto manufacturers and charging station manufacturers to get electric vehicle
infrastructure. There are going to be a lot of different opportunities all the way from
designing the charging stations to fabricating the parts that go in the charging stations
to the people who are going to be putting those together and be installing them. So
there's a lot of traditional jobs that are out there that are just going to have more
opportunities for employment.
NARRATOR: While it's crucial to make our individual cars more efficient, it's not enough. We will
also need to make our mass transit systems more efficient, and more convenient.
TriMet is a relatively large transit agency. We have about 650 buses. We also have about
120 light rail vehicles.
We do have a lot of opportunities to reduce our impact when our mechanics and our bus
drivers and others really focus on how efficiently they run our buses and our light rail vehicles.
We can save quite a lot of energy and reduce a lot of pollution.
We've seen a real growth in demand, and that means our system has to continue to grow.
So we have a lot of need for more operators and more mechanics, people that help design
how the system will continue to grow. There are a lot of jobs for construction and engineers,
landscape architects and designers that can help to build that system out in a cost effective
and environmentally sound way.
United Streetcar has fabricated the first modern American made streetcar in more than
58 years. A streetcar runs on electricity. There's no emissions, so it's not fossil fuel
dependent.
As the streetcar is implemented in different cities, you see a spectrum of jobs being created
and those are local jobs.
As a project manager, I work with the mechanical design of the project. I do everything from
procurement to testing, and help make it come together as a complete unit.
If you're interested in mechanical things, if you like to figure out how things work,
mechanical engineering can open up a lot of doors. There's plenty of job opportunities
in the U.S. coming up with green technology.
NARRATOR: Electric vehicles and mass transit are only a sample of the industries within
transportation. For us to meet the challenges our world faces, we will need innovation across
all transportation systems, and there will be hundreds of thousands of green jobs for
decades to come.