Thursday, February 12, 2009

In the heart of the lands of Big Oil

Electric cars?

Photobucket
The United Arab Emirates is planning a bunch of “personal rapid transit” devices: driverless taxis that run on electricity and could hit the streets of Masdar as early as this year.

Built by Systematica, the PRT system will help keep Masdar (a planned city in Abu Dhabi) completely car-free. The vehicles travel at speeds of roughly 7 meters per second, with the longest routes planned for about 2.5km, and will be located two stories beneath street level. Riders will pay about the same price they'd normally drop on an equivalent taxi ride.

4 comments:

DB said...

They are also building huge solar panel fields. I am starting to think they know something about their oil fields that they aren't letting on to the rest of the world...

ellroon said...

OHhhhh boy... I never thought I'd actually live through such predicted 'interesting times' as these. Better go oil up my bike....

Steve Bates said...

7m/s is about the same as 15mph. Not bad. How soon can we have them in cities here?

ellroon said...

I want one for each foot.