Sometimes it seems like you just can’t win with commuting: driving is expensive (and wasteful if you don’t carpool) but public transportation is often a cramped, smelly, slow, privacy-devoid ordeal. This concept from Jan Maca combines the best parts of private and public transportation to make a strange but appealing view of future commuting.
The City Transport Vehicle is a small triangular-shaped vehicle that can transport one to three people in relative comfort. The all-electric contraption is full of comfortable amenities including television, radio and wi-fi, but by far the biggest benefit is that the vehicle is driverless and operates on a robust navigation system.
The small vehicles are meant to be used in a fleet: a city-wide alternative to buses and cabs. Passengers can order up a car by phone, by internet, or at any number of information points throughout the city. When ordering, the passenger specifies his current location, destination, and desired routs. The nearest available vehicle makes its way to the pick-up point and the rider can sit back and relax on the way to work, the club or wherever he needs to go.
The vehicles drive themselves using a combination of GPS, low-range radar, infrared cameras and real-time traffic updates. Routes can be adjusted mid-trip if needed (or if the passengers change their minds) and riders have a variety of payment options including a pre-pay card. We can’t see any cities shelling out for the necessary infrastructure to make this happen in the immediate future, but it seems like a solid concept for low-emission public transportation in the longer term.
