Heathrow taxi pods become a glorious, driverless reality
By Vlad Savov 
posted August 18th 2009 4:19AM
posted August 18th 2009 4:19AM
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posted August 18th 2009 4:19AM
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Morgantown, WV and WVU have been running something similar, the PRT, since the 60's:
http://admissions.wvu.edu/undergraduate/discover/prt.asp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgantown_Personal_Rapid_Transit
Loved the PRT in Mo'town...easy to use and never left me stranded. I'm surprised that more towns don't have something like that.
@ovalstickers - it's a sad historical fact that in the US all the glorious plans for PRT (which started in early 50's) and even light rail / tram systems have been largely suppressed or run to the ground by the oil companies & automakers. The horizontal skyscrapers which you call suburbs are also a direct result of this, a car only domain highly unsuitable for any kind of mass transit system specifically designed to run cars and cars only.
And i thought these pod were going to be much more than that. Only from T5 to the car parks? C'mon Heathrow you can do better than that.
By the looks of it there's enough room for four guys in suits... so long as none of them has any bags. What if they all have a big ass wheelie bag, laptop and duty free?
I was there just a few months ago- why couldn't they have had those installed then?!
hmmm, not much different than the MetroMovers that Miami has had since the 80s.
I don't have much else to add to the discussion except that these are adorable and look like something out of Wall-E. I suppose this is just one of the many things being added before the Olympics?
So what happens when you want to go the other way since it seems there is only one track do you have to ride in a circle.
What happens in the winter when snow and ice builds up or if stuff gets caught in the tracks, etc?
I'm worried how long this could last. What's there to stop people from mindlessly tagging, littering, damaging or urinating in these pods, like most other Metro systems? Considering that you can have a pod by yourself or with your other punk friends, there's a likelier chance they'll do something stupid and senseless in these pods, abusing the system.
I'm sure there are security features like cameras and locked doors to prevent escape once the pod has been compromised.
heathrow? Where is that? England? When am I ever going to Europe? BAH!
I have this feeling that there will be a top gear top challenge...
put the stig or clarckson in the space pod and have james may slog through traffic and richard hammond on a tricycle
I'll give it one week for some one to high jack it and drive it of the track.
I will say though that if people will not play nice and keep new things in good condition, the gods will return and destroy all of civiliation. It is like a parent who takes away its childrens toys (along with most of their children).
Members of the mile-high club now have a new challenge at Heathrow.
Just if anyone still wonders what this is for - if you've ever been on a bus to a longterm car park at any airport, you'll know. Stop A. Stop B. Stop Z5. And so forth - with these, you just go directly.
Ultimately, they talked about rolling this out across all of Heathrow Airport - need to go from Terminal 4 to Terminal 1 - grab a pod. It makes perfect sense in an airport environment.
Oh, and they run on rubber tires - so they should be able to handle the same kind of terrain than a car (e.g. in snow)...
They also stick out a lot compared to their width and ride on raised tracks high in the wind at 'upto 3 times the speed of a car'.
I'm not sure one won't topple in a breeze, it's all well and good to CGI make videos where it's always sunny but that's not reality.
Also did they even think of how they'd get a snowscooper and de-icing truck on these tracks?
Can't wait for the first Fatwa's against the West written in marker on the device... :'(
ULTra is significantly more software, sensor, and communications intensive than traditional transit. A system may have 500 computer-driven vehicles driving with a precision better than +/- one half inch laterally and longitudinally, with 100 position updates per vehicle per second.
The U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has developed a long-term vision of self-driving (Johnny Cab) cars on U.S. roads called Automated Highway Systems (AHS). Automation will increase capacity (because cars will follow more closely) while improving gas mileage and safety. The current early DOT project in this arena is called "VII" and this effort is being complemented by automaker advances such as "stop and go adaptive cruise control." All automobile manufacturers agree that it will be impractical to remove ultimate responsibility from the driver in a conventional road situation for many years. In contrast, ULTra, offers fully self-driving vehicles now.
The ULTra PRT system features a battery powered electric vehicle (EV). However because the system design provides opportunities for recharge after every trip, battery pack size required is low, under 10% of empty weight. This overcomes the a drawback of conventional EVs, the excessive weight of the necessary battery pack. Further the system is connected to the grid for recharge, but because recharging only takes place at stations this saves 30% in cost and resource usage over conventional grid connected approaches. ULTra is a very practical and effective means for realizing EVs and grid connected systems.
It is now Thursday 29th of October and I still haven't seen one in use!
Forgot to add I frequently drive by its 'tracks' as I work for a small taxi company- http://www.airport-link.com None of my passengers could confirm it actually works.