It seems that the next obvious step in transportation will be vehicles that will drive themselves safely and efficiently. Now, while you may think that it is a thing of the future, you’ll be happy to know that such a system of autonomous vehicles is already working in the UK.
A total of 21 fully-operational ULTra PRT ‘pods’ are doing their thing on some 6 km (4 miles) of special ‘roads’, in and around London’s Heathrow Airport. The pods are fully autonomous, as they have a lot of on-board computing power, but they are also controlled by a central computer which keeps them from crashing into one another. They have a top speed of around 40 km/h (25 mph), are fully-electric and have car-like tires and steering systems (they are not train-like or monorail-like in any way).
The people behind the project are really proud, especially because it is quite a complex project which works. Furthermore, the 1,500 people it moves about every day are all extremely pleased with the system. We really like the idea of an intelligent pod which can get you anywhere safely and without burning oil - we hope they catch on!
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