TIS Weekly (#59): Public Transport For The Win
[July 24th, 2016]
While flying cars, autonomous personal cars and the Hyperloop are still a few years away for the average consumer, there are a number of innovations in transport that are within reach for everybody. Especially in public transport, there are quite some (autonomous) transport systems being tested right now! Here are a few of the rides that might take you to work in the coming years.
Transport
The ‘cutest’ smart buses around
Meet Wurby en Welly, two autonomous vehicles that are being tested on the public road since January. The WEpod project manager refers to the pilot as ‘educating the vehicles’, as the WEpods still have to learn to interact with other road users. The small vehicles carry a handful (6) of passengers from train station Ede-Wageningen (NL) to Wageningen University campus. Both are completely autonomous: no steering wheel and no brakes.
Transport
German comfort and convenience
We can definitely see this coming to all urban areas in the near future! The bus looks very much like a normal bus on the outside, but on the inside it’s a completely different story! Follow the Mercedes-Benz Future Bus on its 20k test drive around Amsterdam.
Transport
Toyota’s two for one deal
The Toyota i-ROAD is a hybrid between a car and a motor cycle; the optimal convenience of a motor bike and the comfort of a car. It’s not for sale yet, though people in Tokyo can already use it as part of a ride sharing project. It’s a super small electric vehicle, but still can travel for 50k on a single charge. Ideal for urban environments.
Gadgets
And now for something completely different
Traveling by plane can often be far from relaxing. Heading to the airport and hitting a traffic jam while you’re already late. And if you travel with low-cost airlines you have to walk to the very end of the airport. You can’t prevent traffic jams, but you can make getting the departure gate more fun: in comes the Modobag!
OK that’s it for this week, friends of innovation. Keep on submitting, keep on voting, keep on innovating. Questions? Remarks? Ideas? hello@tis.tv is the address! From TIS with love, Erwin Blom.
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