Main Content
Highlights
Robot taxis heading for London
Finding your way to London’s Heathrow Airport can be a nightmare—especially if you have parked the car at one of the public carparks three kilometres away. But from 2008 the problem is set to ease. Instead of waiting up to 20 minutes for a bus, passengers and airport visitors will be able to complete the trip in just four minutes aboard a four-seater automated “pod.”
If the Heathrow system proves successful, it will be introduced to other UK airports. The so-called ULTra system (Urban Light Transport) was originally developed as a driverless taxi by UK company Advanced Transport Systems Ltd and researchers at Bristol University (see TransScan March 2002.) At Heathrow there will be 18 pods travelling at 40km/hr at one-minute intervals.
