New rope technology to double elevator travel heights in today’s tallest skyscrapers

By Natt Garun Published June 12, 2013

KONE UltraRope — Image used with permission by copyright holder

There’s a constant race between cities and countries around the world to see who can build the tallest building in their geographical neck of the woods. For the longest time, the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia held that record – only to be shattered by the likes of the Taipei 101, Tokyo Skytree, and of course, the Burj Khalifa. Architects everywhere are now aiming to reach new heights – but no matter how tall those skyscrapers will be, that record won’t hold for too long. Finnish elevator manufacturer KONE has unveiled a new hoisting technology that could allow elevators to travel at twice the distance that’s currently possible.

Traditional elevator hoisters are made with steel ropes. While the material is durable, it’s pretty weighty, which limits elevator travels to a distance between 500 to 828 meters (1,640 to 2,716 feet) above ground – the latter of which is the current height of the Burj. With KONE’s UltraRope, the material is made of lightweight carbon fiber with a high friction coating. The combination allows for a lift that can not only travel farther up, but faster as well.

Recommended Videos

Currently, the fastest elevator in the world can be found in the Taipei 101. This Toshiba-developed elevator can fly up at a speed of 33.7 mph, taking passengers from ground to roof (and vice versa) in a gut-dropping 30 seconds. KONE’s UltraRope technology implies that not only will the elevator zoom past 2,700-feet above ground, it can do so in less than a minute.

“KONE’s UltraRope will take elevators higher than they have ever been before. In the future, it can enable travel heights of up to 1,000 meters,” the website estimates. That’s 172 meters/564 feet higher than the Burj Khalif’s Otis elevator, which travels slightly slower than the Taipei 101’s.

The company also boasts other benefits to UltraRope, claiming that the material has twice the lifetime of conventional steel elevator ropes and consumes 15 percent less energy. The technology may be a breakthrough in elevator manufacturing, but we’ll hold onto our stomachs that these rides aren’t just fast, but safe and comfortable.

Topics

Emerging Tech

Former Digital Trends Contributor

An avid gadgets and Internet culture enthusiast, Natt Garun spends her days bringing you the funniest, coolest, and strangest…

Cars

Range Rover’s first electric SUV has 48,000 pre-orders

Land Rover Range Rover Velar SVAutobiography Dynamic Edition

Range Rover, the brand made famous for its British-styled, luxury, all-terrain SUVs, is keen to show it means business about going electric.

And, according to the most recent investor presentation by parent company JLR, that’s all because Range Rover fans are showing the way. Not only was demand for Range Rover’s hybrid vehicles up 29% in the last six months, but customers are buying hybrids “as a stepping stone towards battery electric vehicles,” the company says.

Cars

BYD’s cheap EVs might remain out of Canada too

BYD Han

With Chinese-made electric vehicles facing stiff tariffs in both Europe and America, a stirring question for EV drivers has started to arise: Can the race to make EVs more affordable continue if the world leader is kept out of the race?

China’s BYD, recognized as a global leader in terms of affordability, had to backtrack on plans to reach the U.S. market after the Biden administration in May imposed 100% tariffs on EVs made in China.

Cars

Tesla posts exaggerate self-driving capacity, safety regulators say

Beta of Tesla's FSD in a car.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) is concerned that Tesla’s use of social media and its website makes false promises about the automaker’s full-self driving (FSD) software.
The warning dates back from May, but was made public in an email to Tesla released on November 8.
The NHTSA opened an investigation in October into 2.4 million Tesla vehicles equipped with the FSD software, following three reported collisions and a fatal crash. The investigation centers on FSD’s ability to perform in “relatively common” reduced visibility conditions, such as sun glare, fog, and airborne dust.
In these instances, it appears that “the driver may not be aware that he or she is responsible” to make appropriate operational selections, or “fully understand” the nuances of the system, NHTSA said.
Meanwhile, “Tesla’s X (Twitter) account has reposted or endorsed postings that exhibit disengaged driver behavior,” Gregory Magno, the NHTSA’s vehicle defects chief investigator, wrote to Tesla in an email.
The postings, which included reposted YouTube videos, may encourage viewers to see FSD-supervised as a “Robotaxi” instead of a partially automated, driver-assist system that requires “persistent attention and intermittent intervention by the driver,” Magno said.
In one of a number of Tesla posts on X, the social media platform owned by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, a driver was seen using FSD to reach a hospital while undergoing a heart attack. In another post, a driver said he had used FSD for a 50-minute ride home. Meanwhile, third-party comments on the posts promoted the advantages of using FSD while under the influence of alcohol or when tired, NHTSA said.
Tesla’s official website also promotes conflicting messaging on the capabilities of the FSD software, the regulator said.
NHTSA has requested that Tesla revisit its communications to ensure its messaging remains consistent with FSD’s approved instructions, namely that the software provides only a driver assist/support system requiring drivers to remain vigilant and maintain constant readiness to intervene in driving.
Tesla last month unveiled the Cybercab, an autonomous-driving EV with no steering wheel or pedals. The vehicle has been promoted as a robotaxi, a self-driving vehicle operated as part of a ride-paying service, such as the one already offered by Alphabet-owned Waymo.
But Tesla’s self-driving technology has remained under the scrutiny of regulators. FSD relies on multiple onboard cameras to feed machine-learning models that, in turn, help the car make decisions based on what it sees.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s technology relies on premapped roads, sensors, cameras, radar, and lidar (a laser-light radar), which might be very costly, but has met the approval of safety regulators.