Mechanical Menagerie #11: Pod People (The Good Kind)

NEXT

Credit: Tommaso Gecchelin

The Next Future Transportation company has a plan to change the way transportation on the roadways works. They have designed cubes that can drive on the road, hold 10 people and are capable of attaching to each other. It’s an excellent idea in regard to transfers as the video shows cubes attaching and detaching from each other rapidly. They have plans to extend this idea into taxis, mobile businesses like food or merchandise, business cubes for companies and delivery cubes. My main concern is the safety aspect which wasn’t addressed. The cubes are just that, cubes. There doesn’t seem to be much space between the wall and the outside so I’m wondering what will happen in the event of a crash. Will people be safe inside? Is the material capable of withstanding impacts or will it shatter? You’ll see below that the odds of them crashing into a car or person is low but other people can easily lose control and crash into the cubes. If those other people are in control of tractor trailers or trash trucks I really doubt that the cubes will survive a violent impact. In order for these cubes to be viable they will need a form of safety. But let’s move on to the phone app aspect.

Credit: Tommaso Gecchelin

This video showcases the way you can select routes for faster travel times or cheaper rates, pick who to travel with and even pick meals to have if your travel is longer. If you do order food a different pod will attach to you with the food or beverages, depending on whether or not you paid. Just in case you thought that they just had flashy videos, here are some test demos demonstrating that it does exist and is being worked on.

Credit: Tommaso Gecchelin

Here is their website if you’re curious about their plans.

http://www.next-future-mobility.com/

For $1 per month you can gain access to updates about upcoming articles available only to patrons.
https://www.patreon.com/tomeoftrovius

Private Business Trains

Randvu is a concept railway designed by Charles Bombardier & Martin Rico after reading Atlas Shrugged with a wish to own small, luxury business trains. Instead of dozens of carts, it’ll just be two. This is the same idea as a road you pull onto with your car except it extends the idea to railways.

https://www.yankodesign.com/2017/09/06/vip-urban-railways/

For more articles related to technology go to Mechanical Menagerie and check out my other pages for excellent content on science, technology, history and more!

The best way to support this website is to share it and this article across social media and with your friends.

Support my site on Patreon for as little as $1 per month. You contribute to the articles, you create the supply AND demand. For only $12 a YEAR you can play an active role in facilitating the creation of amazing personal content available to very few people:

https://www.patreon.com/tomeoftrovius

You can support me on Minds by signing up for a monthly subscription or reading my Blogs:

https://www.minds.com/TomeofTrovius

Pick freedom over censorship. Sign up today at Minds.com:

https://www.minds.com/register;referrer=TomeofTrovius

For questions or submissions contact this e-mail account:

asktomeoftrovius@gmail.com

Check out my Steemit blog:

https://steemit.com/@tomeoftrovius

Watch my videos from DTube, connected through Steemit, and up vote them:

https://dtube.video/#!/c/tomeoftrovius

Join the Discord and join the discussion: