ARTICLE: Driverless 'taxi' to be unveiled

From: Beat Weber (extropy@iiti.ch)
Date: Wed Jan 16 2002 - 13:26:07 MST


http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_496862.html

Driverless 'taxi' to be unveiled

Cardiff City Council is about to unveil a test track for its Urban Light
Transport taxi system.

The so-called Ultra is a driverless, personal vehicle which runs on its own
raised guideway and is activated by a smartcard.

Empty cars are automatically sent where they are needed and the city claims
the system will be the first of its kind anywhere in the world if it is
adopted.

A team from Bristol University are developing the project with the help of a
£1.6 million grant from a French technology group.

The system was created by the university's Professor Martin Lowson who
previously worked on the moon-landing space programme.

A Cardiff council spokesman says the circular test track has been built on
land near Cardiff Bay and is about a mile long.

Academics and engineers will test a number of prototype vehicles on the
circuit to see how well and cheaply it can operate.

Story filed: 20:17 Wednesday 16th January 2002



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