Driverless, Electricity-Run Taxis Will Dominate UAE Eco-City
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February 3rd, 2009
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he United Arab Emirates is planning a bunch of “personal rapid transit” devices: driverless taxis that run on electricity and could hit the streets ofMasdar as early as this year.
Built by Systematica, the PRT systemwill help keep Masdar (a planned city in Abu Dhabi) completely car-free. The vehicles travel at speeds of roughly 7 meters per second, with the longest routes planned for about 2.5km, and will be located two stories beneath street level. Riders will pay about the same price they’d normally drop on an equivalent taxi ride.
Morgantown, West Virginia has the the only PRT system in place right now, built in 1975 when the cost of the technology was many times higher. An equivalent system to the Masdar one (though to a much smaller degree) is currently under construction at Heathrow airport in London. [Gizmodo, Treehugger via Dvice]
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