13 High-Tech Road Improvements

As technology is enabling car manufacturers to create smarter vehicles, a number of road improvements are also being made for the purposes of safety, sustainability and entertainment. Although the image of an asphalt road has become so familiar to drivers, this is being changed with innovations like VolkerWessels's roads made from recycled plastic, the Netherlands' SolaRoad and the glow-in-the-dark highway N329.

Perhaps one of the most novel roads of all is the Ashinoko Skyline in Japan. This road is lined with numerous grooves like a record, so that when a car passes over its surface, the rumbling and vibrations that a driver experiences are actually in tune with a popular anime theme song.

As far as looking even further into the future of road improvements, Audi's Urban Future exhibit imagines that roadways will be completely digital and have the ability to change color in order to communicate specific messages to drivers, cyclists and pedestrians.