Swedish podcars?!

[szatmar666]

Run time: 52:56 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=08SPc2yUc58   Posted on YouTube: November 21, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: November 21, 2008 By DU Member: szatmar666 Views on DU: 987

 
Podcars are car sized vehicles on guideways elevated over streets. Podcar systems have network topology where each pod is routed the fastest way from origin to destination. High capacity is achieved through short inter-vehicle distances. The direct travel to any destination results in high mean travel speeds, rivaled only by a car in uncongested streets. Podcars use electricity directly off the grid and are very energy efficient. The talk will give a broad description of the technology and the market situation and present a sample network for the Googleplex.

[GreenTea]

1. Car companies, Oil companies and highway contractors killed most mass transit projtects.....

in this country for over 70 years.

And who killed the electric car?

[SamuelB]

2. Very nice!

Podcars are comming to my hometown Stockholm within a few years! I'm so happy to see the all these big investments in infrastructure and science here in Sweden.

[JDPriestly]

3. Is this fantasy, a dream or has this been implemented?

A vehicle that weighs one pound? How could that be safe. This looks like one of those pranks by, is it the Millionaire Men?

[dbmk]

4. One _ton_ :)

[JDPriestly]

9. I understood him to say one pound.

One ton I can believe although that seems too heavy, but one pound?

[dbmk]

11. As a Dane I am probably more tuned into the Swedish English accent

And he did say one ton. :)

[szatmar666]

5. remember "Minority Report" w Tom Cruise? ;)

I think those were pod cars

[YOY]

8. That ported into one's domicile as well.

Sounds like an industry to create. An industry that will need workers. Workers that need a union.

Of course we'd rather make cars that use the same old fuels and technologies...

[comtec]

6. KnR for home viewing too long for work

.

[raystorm7]

7. The tech has been there but the real challenge is changing peoples mindset. Oil/Auto CEO's included.

[szatmar666]

10. another challange in the US is suburban sprawl

the whole progressive vs conservative clash on the economy in the US can be boiled down to the issue of suburban sprawl. Everything from energy, environment, transportation, but even social issues lead back to this fundamental commitment of the republican party to suburbs. When republicans are stoking hate within their ranks against women's right to chose the business elite's real agenda is population control.

In 1965 abortion was banned in my home country Romania by the dictator Nicolae Ceausescu with the expressed goal of boosting the communist party's industrialization project and create a larger labor force. A more densely populated area is cheaper to develop and operate, that's the idea. The republican dilemma between immigration vs. higher birth rate stems from the same economic question of planning long term sustainable growth.

Either way in order to support suburban sprawl they need to fill the population and productivity gaps between these sparsely inhabited areas with cheap labor ow suburbs ie. their constituency will wither away. It is impossible to build a podcar system that works in the US suburbs. This is an urban program designed for the EU. The dems should support a vast re-urbanization project before attempting something like this on a vast scale to undo the conservative mistake of putting all our eggs in the highway basket.

1 glance at the electoral map shows that this will be very painful for red states and red districts. Hence expect the coming decades' most important political showdown to be on public transportation and the auto industry between the red team vs blue team. It has repercussions on the environment, wealth distribution and even on what churches have more political power.