Rolla Self-Driving Pod Proposes a Very Elegant Alternative to Public Transport

Add to this the fact that the developments of 2020, which continue into 2021, have instilled a feeling of paranoia about sharing the same public space with strangers, and you get it why New Deal Design declares that “we need a new kind of transit.” Rolla is a proposition in this sense.

Rolla is an all-electric autonomous pod that can serve both for public transport and private rides, which does not need additional infrastructure to run in either capacity. To boot, it has a very small footprint that makes it ideal for the urban environment. Think of it as an elevator or a cable-car, but plopped on four wheels and unleashed onto predetermined or programmable routes, with a friendly interface and a very unassuming presence.

Rolla is still a concept right now, and, as far as we know, there are no plans to bring it into reality. Still, it serves the purpose of offering a possible look at how the future of mass transit might look. It’s quite elegant and safe, to be honest.

You can see the Rolla concept detailed in the video below, courtesy of YankoDesign.

The idea for Rolla was inspired by the realization that public transport is no longer a solution to anything in any of the world’s ever-crowded cities. Neither are ride-sharing services like Uber or Lyft and least of all ride-sharing services for two-wheelers, which have rendered city pavements full of abandoned scooters. Biking is always a good alternative to beat traffic, but that’s an individual solution—and, if offered as a ride-sharing option, not one that many would take.

Public transport is good in theory but no longer as successful when applied in real life. So New Deal Design took the idea of mass transport and downsized it into the Rolla pod, an autonomous pod that can carry up to four passengers.

Rolla can be used in the same way as a bus (but with a considerably smaller capacity), rolling on a predetermined route. Users hail it by hand and hop on it when it stops. When they reach their destination, they simply press a button to stop the pod and get off.

It can also be used for private rides, with users summoning the pod on the Rolla App. In this case, they would program the route in advance, and the Rolla would be on its merry way once the ride was over.

To distinguish between the types of use, Rolla would use LED lining inside: purple for private use, yellow for mass transit, and blue for campus use. On the front, it would have LED lights that would signal to pedestrians its intentions—a feature that is already being considered by carmakers, following research showing that pedestrians need to make eye contact with the drivers in traffic.

The interior is smart, with dynamic displays that show the route and the time, welcome messages, or progress on a particular ride. Inside the cabin, there would only be room for standing, preferably while holding onto the rails. Rolla is half-open in a bid to make its footprint as small as possible, but it would undoubtedly not do well in cold or rainy areas. The safety element of this no-door configuration is also another downside of the project, as is the fact that it has no sitting room. Presumably, only young, non-pregnant, fully-abled, and not-exhausted people would want to ride it, and then too at their own risk, lest they fell out at a sharper turn.

The only thing working in favor of the pod being doorless is that it would allow for quick and frequent cleaning and sanitization between rides. Whether anyone would want to risk catching a cold or falling to their death for that is a discussion we can choose not to have for the time being.