Unimodal Systems, a company based in California, believes that commercially sustainable rapid public transport is sustainable and possible, and the company is working with NASA’s Ames Research Center to see if software used to control robots can be applied to these pods. The SkyTran personal rapid transport system will use three-seater pods and run on elevated magnetically levitated rails. SkyPods will hang beneath an elevated guideway and be propelled through interactions of electromagnetic fields.
The company believes that it will be possible to manufacture the pods on a large scale, thus bringing down the costs, plus the system will be profitable to operate, unlike other public transportation systems which usually run at a loss. NASA, on its part aims to see if its software can be effectively used on projects not directly related to aerospace projects.
Each computer controlled pod will be able to move at speeds of up to 150mph, and automatically navigate to the destination entered by the passengers. In doing this, the SkyPod will go non-stop and without any interruption to the traffic flow.
Via: Unimodal Systems/Discovery
