
Google Chairman Eric Schmidt Invests in SkyTran - JDDunn9
http://allindiaroundup.com/news/google-chairman-eric-schmidt-invests-in-ankur-bhatnagars-skytran/
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reaganaut
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!

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

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Retric
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.

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wtcross
PRT is a great technology. I think it's a step in the right direction, away
from cars and buses. When I first learned about the volume of people it can
transport I was surprised.

There is work being done at North Carolina State University by some great
minds to make this technology a reality. (I have no affiliation with this
effort, I'm just aware of it)

[http://ecoprt.com](http://ecoprt.com)

Cities, business with parking decks or lots, universities, and lots of other
things can benefit from this. It doesn't have to be a large scale effort right
away.

Check out the simulations the EcoPRT guys have done:
[http://ecoprt.com/simulations/](http://ecoprt.com/simulations/)

I'm excited to see more people thinking about this problem!

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jcfrei
I always feel like the hindrance to new public transportation systems is never
the technology or the price. A lot of existing public transportation systems
are superior to cars, like metros, aerial tramways, even buses. The biggest
problem public transportation faces is the lack of adoption. And in my opinion
this is because people never felt and never will feel comfortable about
transportation if they have to abolish the basic "horse and carriage"
metaphor. A moped is just like a small horse, more powerful and less heavy on
maintenance - but otherwise the metaphor holds - same with a car. A train
however violates the basic "horse and carriage" metaphor - you can't put a
train inside your garage (stable) over night and it won't be just waiting for
you once you leave your house. skyTran has the same problem - and I really
believe if we want such technology to be adopted we don't need to improve so
much the technology as we need to change its perception in the eyes of the
people.

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superuser2
A public transit system crosses the threshold from 100% useless to extremely
useful at the instant that it's good enough to not drive.

Conservatives rig the game in most cities so that a small, infrequent,
unreliable bus system is built. Then they can say, "Look, no one uses public
transit here! This is a waste of money." And they're _right_ , because it is a
waste of money until you commit to a _massive_ all-at-once expenditure in the
hundreds of millions to billions. Which they won't ever let you do.

Government wants to half-ass things (excuse me, "pilot" them) but public
transit doesn't work when it's half-assed.

~~~
jcfrei
I agree. Public transport has to be treated like a network. A network's
usefulness increases with the number of connections it can make. A half-assed
public transport system will never convince people and if it's done right it's
usually very very expensive. Switzerland has excellent public transport, but
only because much of it is run by a national, government funded enterprise
(SBB) and is considered a matter of national cohesion (hence splurging so much
money is accepted by the public).

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Numberwang
I'd love for technologies like this to become a reality, but it seems unlikely
this specific implementation will be able to carry any substantial volume of
travelers.

~~~
staz
Same here, I saw their presentation video here
[https://vimeo.com/98497797](https://vimeo.com/98497797) and I'm left
wondering, their capsules are roughly the same size of a car, so how does that
save any space at all?

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flexie
The distance between the units in a transportation system such as railroads,
freeways or this Skytran is called "headway". Headway is mainly determined by
breaking time. They say the capsules can break to 0 in just 16 meters so
theoretically you could have one capsule per 20 meters or so (although I doubt
that would be safe or feel comfortable). That's 20 meters for 2 passengers,
which means that you need 1 km track for 100 passengers. If the Skytran really
goes 250 km/h you could move something like 250*100 = 25,000 persons per hour
per rail if the capsules are full, or 12,500 if they are half full. That could
easily compete with cars, trains, metro systems, buses etc.

But if the headway is really 100 meters, then we are down to 20 persons per
km, and if the Skytran really "only" goes 150 km/h then we are transporting
some 3,000 persons per hour if the capsules are full or some 1,500 if they are
half full which is much less than a typical metro.

If we go by one capsule per 20 meters, we would use up to 12,500 capsules per
hour meaning that we would have to launch another capsule with one or two
passengers from side tracks onto the main track every .29 seconds in peak
hour. And they would not be launched on the track from the same end station
and unloaded on the same end station but from many different stations on the
track. That's a job for a programmer to figure out how that's done safely but
I don't see it happening.

And quite frankly, if you do have the backing of NASA and rich investors and
this whole thing is so cheap and fast to build as they claim, why don't they
just build a full scale version in some town somewhere? I see only animations
and prototypes.

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danmaz74
> why don't they just build a full scale version in some town somewhere? I see
> only animations and prototypes

They're building a demo 500m track in Tel Aviv. We'll see if it works as
expected.

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waterlesscloud
The Tel Aviv track was supposed to be done by the end of this year. Maybe
Schmidt got inside info that triggered this move?

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gregpilling
I wonder why they don't mention shipping goods. If I want to send a 5 pound
box to an address in the city I live with (5 miles), with UPS it is $12.86 .
If there was a way to ship with this system, that might be cut way down.

Of course, self driving vehicles will also compete in this space. I wonder who
is going to invent the hybrid system? for short distances it is an autonomous
car, and then for long distances it climbs onto a rail system like this (a
mini version of today's shipping containers on rail).

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ajmurmann
I saw a talk about this at Yuri's night at Moffet Field in 2008 or 2009. I was
really excited about it. My former university in Paderborn, Germany was also
working on a similar system, RailCsb, that allowed the pods to form convoys
and that way save space and improve aerodynamics. All really exciting.
However, much time passed and neither project seems to be anywhere near actual
deployment. I think on-demand public transportation is long overdue and the
technology seems totally feasible. However, society seems to be too risk
averse and the bureaucracy seems to kill any project like this. We can't even
build a proper high speed train in the US!

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danmaz74
This reminded me a lot of a website a friend shared on Facebook, and that
looks to me a lot like a scam:
[http://skywayinvestgroup.com/en/](http://skywayinvestgroup.com/en/)

Anybody, has anybody first-hand info about this?

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vermooten
It's more a Shelbyville idea.

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Animats
Google needs a transportation link between their new domed Googleplex and
their private airport at Moffett Field. I was expecting a private Hyperloop,
but this is more practical for a short run.

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rebelde
I wonder how much of this is PR-driven. Is Eric Schmidt spending his evenings
and weekends searching for investments like this? Or do Google's PR people
come to him saying: "You should invest in this. It will be good PR for
Google."

(I have no problem with this project. I wish it success.)

