The Text Message Bus of the Future
10 October 2006 by axxxr Researchers in Netherlands are developing a superbus that looks like a Limo and goes 155 Miles an hour and runs on electricity.To catch the bus, passengers text-message the dispatcher,and are picked up anywhere they want along special speedways constructed for the bus system.
The Superbus is a novel public-transport system being developed in the Netherlands by the Delft University of Technology. It is an electric bus designed to be able to switch seamlessly between ordinary roads and dedicated “supertracks", on which it can reach speeds of 250kph (155mph). It could thus present an alternative to much more expensive magnetic-levitation trains. The Superbus would be driven in the usual way on roads and an autopilot would be engaged when it reached a supertrack. The individual doors also allow for rapid loading and unloading of passengers, which will need to be fast if the Superbus is to live up to its promised door-to-door mission: instead of making predetermined stops, the vehicle will pick up and drop off passengers based on their text-messaged requests.This kind of flexibility is a central tenet of the project; the estimated three-year lifespan of a Superbus (as opposed to thirteen years for a standard European bus) will also allow the latest technologies to be phased in quickly as they become available.WATCH VIDEO source:economist
Comments On 18 Oct 00:19 smoked wrote NOOOOOOO! its I-robot all over again. Autopilot mass murder. Run away were all gunna die. On 11 Oct 16:25 etaab wrote Its either deceivingly large, or you'd have to get in it like you would a Ferrari, look how low it is to the ground and the roof barely rises much more than the wheels. On 11 Oct 13:50 sensibleone wrote At the moment, the bus seems to be more of a reality than the phone featured in the article. ;) On 11 Oct 13:08 antichrist wrote i wonder if that superbus will have 250km\h in a free fall :) On 11 Oct 12:16 Abbas wrote I think this is not possible for next 100 years, may be after that .................... On 10 Oct 18:39 axxxr wrote Actually they will be making these in time for the Next Olympics! On 10 Oct 18:31 govigov wrote looks good, but i can bet that it will never be realistically possible for a Veeeeeeeeeery long time. |
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