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Comment by reaganaut | Hacker News Reader

Self-driving electric cars are going to transform our existing road network into one giant PRT system, without having to build expensive proprietary track.

Given that Google are leading investors in self-driving technology, I really wonder what Eric Schmidt sees in SkyTran!

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Exactly. Monorail systems of the 1980s never really had their breakout moment, either, likely for a lot of the same reasons. Dedicated, elevated right of way can get expensive, not to mention the cost of each elevated station with ADA compliance. It also adds quite a bit of blight, which is apparent in the sample renderings.

I've been comparing the coming evolution of transportation to the evolution of computing. Shared servers (equates to buses), dedicated servers (equates to car ownership) and cloud computing (equates to the idea of on demand autonomous vehicle networks).

I think the sweet spot really is having these atomic units that can act independently (off rails, stop anywhere without stations) but are a cooperative part of a larger network. It's going to entirely change transportation. It's the first alternative I've seen for America that can genuinely rival car ownership.

I would guess that stations are the real problem here. To make this kind of transportation system really useful, you need really lots of them.

The videos show them as small elevated platforms reachable by a single flight of stairs. Would be low cost as depicted but I see no way that it would get safety or ADA approval in that form. Add an elevator and it gets much more complicated. Have them dip down all the way to street level and there's a much bigger footprint required.

The plus is the stations could be quite small, closer to the size of a bus stop than a subway station.

And the routes themselves could be much more diverse than a subway or light rail line, though probably not a lot more than buses.

Is India's road network really suitable for high speed PRT as-is? If not, the question becomes how SkyTran track compares to new highway, per foot.

For consistently high volume routes I could see it being superior to SDCs. You could move a lot of people out of a place with minimal waiting.

It could also be part of a network, with transfers to and from SDCs, which could be arranged to be waiting per passenger at the terminal.

Say you have a major sporting event letting out. These could run from the stadium to smaller collection points for SDCs. Less congestion, less miles traveled for SDCs. Faster, too.

These could be the city-wide movement system, and SDCs the 'last mile', so to speak.

It's possible they're more efficient in maintenance and energy per passenger mile, as well.

SkyTrain looks like it has similar cost/benefit profile as subways. It leaves the surface traffic untouched and transports on a previously unused level.

Building the tracks has to be considerably cheaper and faster than digging tunnels. Capacity is probably lower, but this should be able to travel on demand and 24/7. I also wonder if people will accept these car swooshing by their windows 24/7.

Much more energy-efficient, really cheap, doesn't take much space: http://www.skytran.us/benefits/

Goes up to 150 mph: http://www.skytran.us/maglev/

Seems to me it works pretty well in combination with electric self-drivers. Use skytran for lower cost and probably faster transit, hop on an electric taxi when your destination isn't near a station.

I've been a fan of this system for years now. Eyeballing the capsule design, I think it could go much faster than 150 mph. However, there would be tradeoffs in the infrastructure design. Think about comfortably travelling at 300 mph anywhere in the country with a 5 minute walk or golf cart ride to the nearest station.

Maybe SkyTran is a good choice for countries without decent roads or an uneven landscape or no obligatory traffic rules?

So true. Why build dedicated infrastructure when electric cars and bikes are so much cheaper and flexible?

Roads are freaking expencive to build and maintain. These pods look a lot more useful than self driving cars or subways and likely cost less than highways.

Heavy car use, electric or not, encourage a much lower city density and an urban sprawl. Cars have to be parked somewhere and mixing cars and bicylists or pedestrians is never that great.

I believe in a good mix of metro services, bike lanes and on-demand autonomous cars. But a lot less private cars in the centre of town.

Will self-driving cars ever get to India?

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