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ULTra Robo-Taxi

Posted by michael on from the welcome-to-johnny-cab dept.

irksome writes: "Found a link on msnbc about a driver-less taxi pod. According to the article, the vehicle has begun road tests in the city of Cardiff, Wales. The pod, known as ULTra (Urban Light Transport) could make driver-free transport a reality and not just the stuff of futuristic fantasy."

2 of 282 comments (clear)

  1. gangway! by pangloss · · Score: 5, Funny

    from the faq:
    "We also plan a detection system that will automatically stop the vehicle if there is an obstacle in the guideway."

    Oh that's a nice feature to plan for ;)
    I suppose the original plan was to add big nerf-style bumpers instead so that at 25mph the unobservant kiddies would just bounce off gently :P

    heh, i just noticed this one:
    "What about vandalism?
    We hope that the system will be a source of pride to the community it serves so that vandalism incidents will be limited."

    In _some_ communities, *vandalism* is a source of pride, so "vandalism incidents will be frequent, persistent and guaranteed" :P There's a reason why this is debuting in wales and not nyc, eh?

  2. Electric Eye... by rufusdufus · · Score: 5, Funny

    I met a guy at CMU working on vision technology for Mercedes. Ostensibly, the technology would identify pedestrians and make a warning sound.

    It sort of worked too, at least from video tapes from a car driving down the street. It could identify human shape and draw a little box around it.

    The guy seemed a little distressed when I pointed out to him that his technology looked a LOT more useful as a robotic machine-gun targetting system.

    Funny how people can fool themselves.