People
seem to be extremely skeptical and always ask how can these little 2
seat PODS can possibly have any reasonable
hourly passenger carrying CAPACITY, especially compared to
light rail and buses that carry 100 or 200 people at a time?
The answer is technology... It
is by computer control and sensing that was very successfully
demonstrated way back in 1997...
The following data is from:
http://www.path.berkeley.edu/PATH/Research/demos/ (There are
several good PDF publications and videos you can download from that
page.)
DEMO '97 in SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA.
August 7-10, 1997.
This platoon control demonstration was held in San Diego by the
National Automated Highway System Consortium (NAHSC). PATH showed an 8
Buick LeSabre platoon in combined longitudinal and lateral control
on the
I-15
HOV lanes. The vehicles were driving themselves at 6.5 meters
spacing and 60 mph. The scenario involved vehicle #2 splitting, doing
a lane change, falling back and doing another lane change to join the
platoon back as vehicle #8. PATH also showed a single Buick mini-demo
at Miramar College, which Senator Boxer rode. The vehicle was fully
automated, going forward and in reverse, on a tight course set up with
cones.
The demonstration was such a success that, in February 1999, the
PATH team received the
UC Distinguished Service Award.
(CLICK
HERE to download the PATH .wmv video of this demonstration.
6.6 megabytes.)
Note that when you do the math you see that 6.5
meters (21.33 feet) at 60 mph is a spacing of
0.24 seconds between each Buick (time = distance/velocity =
21.33 feet/88 feet per second). SkyTran plans to operate with
double the above spacing between
vehicles, namely 0.50 seconds.
You should of course now ask yourself if their
has been any
computer and control systems improvements since 10 years ago?
You might want to think about the current DARPA Grand Challenge
autonomous cars for that answer! (We obviously love Moore's Law!)
