Ramblings from an Automation Mad Man
By Jerry Maldonado- VP Business Unit Strategy, Customer Lifecycle Solutions
You’re in the big city and running late to your next appointment, the streets are crowed with vehicles, the subway station is many blocks away, and the rain is coming down hard. It’s a big presentation and you can’t be late, so you might try using a cab or maybe a service like Lyft or Uber is the way to go. But today is the future and in the future why not simply call a POD to come get you?
PODS are the dream of the future well maybe not so much futuristic anymore but fledgling. They are self-driving vehicles that is powered completely on electricity and can run in an urban area that need no drivers. No, they are not like the electric buses you might find in San Francisco. They are battery operated vehicles that are totally self-driving! PODS hold up to 6 people and can relay news and information, act as a Wi-Fi hot spot or simply a quick quiet ride to your location. They can be outfitted to travel on specialized roads or via above ground rail systems (at least in future systems). In fact, these Pods are totally autonomous knowing when they are in service, need a charge, taking a break, or in need of maintenance.
Sounds pretty good, just call a pod and tell it to take you somewhere and whisk - you are on your way. With the use of the central computer you are routed the most efficient way to your destination, avoiding pitfalls and incidents in any way possible. With an overhead rail system it may be a express lane in the sky to downtown or uptown, maybe popular destination will have their own skyway devoid of cars, trucks, vans, buses and pedestrians.
So you’re probably wondering how close this technology is to a reality . . . well closer than you might think. You know the term, “the future is here tomorrow”? If you want a taste of the future, head to London’s Heathrow airport Terminal 5 and check out the shuttle service between the parking lots and the terminal. The pod system has been running effectively since 2011, and while it is just a simple shuttle between two points, the ride is deemed cool as you tool around in your own little capsule. The pods are electric and autonomous. Pods appear about every ten seconds, if one is not standing at the station waiting for you. They travel down guide way tracks using sensors and lasers to navigate the system and other pods. Each pod gets direction from a central computer which sends data on fastest route and relation to other pods. There is a manned control room to make sure all is fine and if you really want to talk to a human.In 2009, there was announcement of a city wide PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) system where PODS would be the vehicle of choice in the city. This came from the designers of Masdar City, Abu Dhabi's new post-petroleum city proposed a massive PRT system. The system was to be incorporated with a flatbed system that would shuttle package and materials into and out of the city. The project would use solar energy and thermal storage systems to power the POD cars 24 x 7. Unfortunately due to budget cuts, the system was shelved and only the prototype system is currently running from the university to several stops.
There were critics that felt that the system was too complex and costly and that strides need to be made to reduce the infrastructure of the system. Others feel that the system would not work in a large scale environment and it would not be very stable if it did. But I see systems out there that if leveraged, could make the POD car more like the Johnny cabs of the 1990 Sci-fi action movie, Total Recall. In Total Recall, their version of taxi-cabs where semi-autonomous vehicles with a robotic driver at the wheel, the driver made the vehicle autonomous or provided a manual possibility once removed. They traveled the same roads as other vehicles and passengers just needed to provide and address or location for the cab to go. If we look to the self-driving cars in work today by GOOGLE, AUDI, FORD, and others, they are based on the platform for the pods of tomorrow , coupled with the central dispatcher and autonomous function of today’s Pod Cars , a POD car of the future would exist on today’s infrastructure as well as tomorrows new elevated platforms.As for scalability, one only has to look at warehouse robotic maker kiva to see scalability in action. The kiva system utilizes robots and shelving systems to store items for sale and distribution. The robots are capable of lifting 1.5 tons are autonomous and according to manufacture specs are limitless in the number of robots in operation. And when you look at online giant Amazon using these in ten of their locations then you know the system is reliable. In fact many of the top online retailers already leverage the little orange kiva workhorse
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Only time and politics will tell if the POD car will be the next wave of technology for the transportation industry. But one thing is for sure, if taxi cabs drivers had issues with Uber and Lyft…. just wait till riders want to start podding their way around town
Follow the Ramblings from an Automated Mad Man every other Wednesday. Did you miss the last post? Read it here: Star Trek and Today's Healthcare is Not So Different