Heathrow taxi pods become a glorious, driverless reality
By Vladislav Savov 
posted Aug 18th 2009 4:19AM
posted Aug 18th 2009 4:19AM
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Wow, for once Heathrow is actually becoming modern. Let's just hope that the pods won't breakdown like T5's initial launch.
Well you know they will :D
probably lose your luggage aswell
lol
And your other half of your family too.
You keep half of your family in your suitcase?
What's wrong with trains - like the ones at Paris CDG? Too efficient for them?
They're still robotic and modern
These types of systems really should be the future of mass transit. Busses, trains, carpools, etc., have one giant shortcoming over individual vehicles in that they require you to go where everyone else is going, even if you want to go somewhere else, and on someone else's schedule.
A large-scale, automated, intelligent system of electric pods allowing delivery of occupants within a block or two of any address in a city would provide the best of both worlds. Sadly, I doubt any city is willing or able to invest in the infrastructure needed, fight the unions, etc. At least not during my lifetime.
Plus there would be the inevitable tragedy and subsequent when the system became self aware and utilized its halon gas fire suppression system to rid itself of all the parasites...
Hey, that looks quite high up. I hope it doesn't fall off it's rails. A few fractured bones for sure!
I've worked at Heathrow for over 2 years and to this day haven't seen a single one work yet; I'll verify this for myself!
Unfortunately there are people who don't know how to act in civilized society who would take the opportunity to vandalize. Transients may try taking one over to sleep in. Prostitutes may do tram "rides" (i guess the adventurous too can do their own). I guess the sexing is not so bad just clean up after yourselves. Perhaps theft, sexual harassment, robbery, and who knows what else.
I would love this kind of transportation but, things fall apart once people are involved. Perhaps our robot overlords can control us in better than we do ourselves.
I hope one pod can push another one, otherwise you're looking at a serious backup when one breaks on a single lane track.
Just another 50 years and that we'll have that Minority Report future that we've always wanted.
Maybe I'm showing my age but I immediately thought of Total Recall.
YES! I'm not the only one! I'm 24 and I immediately thought of Total Recall too! Johnny Cab!
Nah, I'm 25 and Total Recall was the first thing that came to mind when I saw this.
Hah, it actually reminded me of Logan's Run and the City's transport system with car pods running individually or realy really close together.
I saw Logan's Run in the theater -- a movie theater with only one screen! And no, I won't tell you how old that makes me.
lol yup johnny cab was very first thing poppoed in my head (though im 27) cant wait to rip out the animatronic driver and go drifting down the streets hop out and tell it to screw itself on the fare, and have it chase me down and crash in a fiery ball of explosive death...
nice ...but clearly designed for the UK. Judging from the guy sitting in picture #3... they will have to offer an ULTra Plus edition for the obese-prevalant USA market.
because, you know, there isn't even one person like that in the uk
there is, but he doesn't fly.
Doesn't look like it's really designed for everyone in the UK either. At 4 people per car, many of the families I saw over there would need 3 or 4 cars.
I noticed the UK model has no advertisements for dentists either....
But really, Copenhagen has got driverless metro for 7 years.. Pretty much the same when these taxies only drive on a 'special road network'
and London has had driverless transit since 1987. But this is quite different, it's a personalised mass transit system, of limited application initially, for sure, but quite remarkable nonetheless.
Forget the retro cool element, although yes they ARE retro cool, just think utility. Not having to wait for the driver in the minivan to get you into the queue under the tunnel is my vision of a welcome future.
Now where's the Star Trek Transporter so i don't have to sit on a plane for an hour?
I didn't get the retro part of retro-futuristic and retro-cool. From what angle are you people looking so it's retro, i see only post-modern-futuristic and not that much cool :S
For an hour? Damn, I'm psyched when a flight is ONLY an hour.
Actually, that's not true, if it's only an hour flight I'm driving.
Monorail
Mono... D'OH!
Thank you for driving Jonny Cab, we hope you enjoyed the ride ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha
lol.. and i thought i was the only one
that is def one of the coolest things I have seen in awhile
Why isn't this just as prone to congestion?
because instead of several human idiots who can't drive in traffic causing slowdowns, there a several microchips doing the job who don't talk on the phone, play with the radio, weave in and out without indicating, cut you off and obey traffic signals.
Things are always much smoother with robots in charge.
As long as you don't conflict with their programming and cause a fatal contradiction that results in the pod suffocating the occupants,.
Neat,
are you planning to make that transportation podcast you talked about in an earlier episode?
Cheers
I like it, looks very cool. Can't wait to take a ride on one!
Imagine how much fun a hacker would have..
If I was irritated enough (as is usual after a long flight) and the passengers I was with were annoying, I dont know where else I would be able to have as much fun farting.
"...zero emission electric vehicles"
OK, the pods themselves might not emit much, but that electricity has to come from somewhere you know. Electric doesn't mean green, it just moves carbon emissions somewhere else until that source is sorted out too.
It looks neat though, but knowing the UK government either nobody will fork out the money to make a mass-roll out or it'll be several billion more quid and a decade later than expected.
i would guess British airways/baa w/e will fork out... oh just thought I know a lot of engineers at Heathrow that would be working on fixing/maintaining these... maybe its best i don't use them!!!
Hehe! British Airways? Organise a transportation system? You're funny Steve! ;-)
Yes electricity can be zero-emission/green, using solar (not just photovoltaic, also boilers and mirrors) or wind or tides or renewable forestry even.
Tip my hat to my adopted country - Italy - and our local driverless pod service in Perugia.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2008/may/27/umbria.italy
Not just for suits either, but for all the rest of us, at €1 per journey.
Hey these actually have a more timeless design than those 2-minutes-from-the-future white ones from Heathrow. With the Italians already making arguably the best looking cars, motorbikes, scooters (and high fashion), this yet again proves their superior sense of style.
London has had Driverless trains since the mellenium. On the dockland light railway
since 1987, as it goes
One of the few sci-fi images from the 60s/70s that actually came true.
Although in seriousness - how long until this actually gets built at heathrow?
If you're gonna lay the tracks why not just integrate it with the existing underground system? Or make it like the DLR?
This is Walt Disney's vision of people movers put in motion! Walt had planned for a system almost exactly like this for what Epcot was supposed to be (the functional city of innovation, not the theme park).
"...transport four passengers /and/ their luggage between Heathrow's Terminal 5 and its business car parks..." ???
You've never used T5 before have you? The chances of you and your luggage arriving at the same time in the same place are remote.
No, Richy, I think YOU have never used T5. You likely read the reports on opening week, and think it is a nightmare. I have not yet experienced any luggage delays through T5.
Currently, the only really annoying thing about T5 is the messy security check, especially when connecting from one of the other terminals.