this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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Solarpunk technology
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Technology for a Solar-Punk future.
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They're too expensive. These pods are designed to run of tracks whose commuter train lines have been abandoned due to low ridership.
Is it though?
I'm struggling to see any benefit here.
If ridership is low, you can’t run train often. And if you can’t run it often, people will not use it. It just does not work. This one has chance to work, since essentially you can run it on demand, like Uber.
Sounds like they need a shuttle bus which would be a TON cheaper and more efficient.
No, these pods on existing rails are potentially a TON cheaper. Even if you don't count the cost of maintaining the road (which is significantly more than maintaining rail tracks), the need for paying a driver makes most small shuttle bus services prohibitively expensive.
But the roads are already there. And R&D of this new and untested technology isn't cheap, either.
The tracks are also already there, and gyroscope stabilized monorail is a 100+ year old technology, not much new to develop about it other than using modern battery technology and some basic self-driving features for it.
In this case the rails are already there but unused.
That is also several strike against this. Those rails exist but they are all in really bad shape as they were nearly universally used without maintenance until it was no longer feasible. They are also generally in bad areas where there isn't much need for more transport - we already have roads in good shape (to run a bus on). The only thing this has over a bus is you can run them fully automated - which isn't enough IMO.
I think part of what makes tracks unusable for regular trains is when the rails become too misaligned. Of course that isn't an issue for a vehicle that only requires one rail. I kind of like this idea.
Sounds like they really found a gap in the market.. /s