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If you think driverless vehicles are the future of transportation, you may be correct. Using driverless vehicles for public transportation got a step closer to reality this month, with a self-driving pod that is being tested in the Greenwich area of London, England. This pod, called “Harry”, is moving people around Greenwich to test how driverless vehicles can interact with the public.
The project is called GATEway, short for Greenwich Automated Transport Environment, and is designed to “understand how automated vehicles will fit into our future urban mobility needs and the barriers that need to be overcome before these vehicles become a reality on our roads.”
The experiment does not test new technology. Instead, it tests the way existing technology can be integrated into society.
Greenwich, home to museums for time and navigation, is one of four places in the UK where the pods will be tested. The other places where they will be tested are Coventry, Milton Keynes and Bristol.
Harry has no steering wheel or brake pedal, but navigates using sensors and a pre-loaded 3D map of the area. It has five cameras and three lasers to detect obstacles in its path. A safety steward is on board to take control of the pod in case of an emergency.
Harry holds up to four people (three passengers and the safety steward) and can travel at speeds up to 10mph/16kmh. It is being tested for the next few weeks in Greenwich on pedestrian paths, but not on roads with other vehicles.
This experiment in Greenwich is intended to see how pedestrians and cyclists may adapt to driverless vehicles. Other planned trials include pods delivering packages and pods being used on roads with other vehicles.
This video shows the pod being tested in Greenwich near the O2 Arena:
If you are in Greenwich during the next few weeks you may see the pod, but you can’t get a ride in it during the trial. Passengers had to reserve a spot to be part of the experiment, and spaces filled up quickly. Over 5000 people applied to be a passenger in Harry but only about 100 were chosen.
Great response to the driverless pod trials in Greenwich this week @HHCDesign @RCA @GATEway_TRL #inclusivedesign #Driverless pic.twitter.com/4BI3Z5Z0NZ
— GATEway RCA (@GATEway_RCA) April 7, 2017
You can, however, ride in a similar pod at Heathrow Airport in London. The Heathrow pods run on tracks so are not interacting with pedestrians, cyclists or other drivers.
If the trials are successful, the first pods could be operational on the roads of the UK in 2019.
Poll
Would you like to ride in a driverless pod? Vote in today’s Wonder of Tech poll to share your opinion:
Learn More and Get Involved
You can learn more about the experiment at the GATEway website. There you can add your views about where you would like to see the pod travel and share your thoughts about driverless public transportation.
You can also read comments to see what others think of driverless pods.
Your Thoughts
Would you like to ride in a driverless pod? Would you like to see these where you live? Do you think the public will accept these pods as a new form of transportation?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
Hi Carolyn,
Happy Monday 🙂
What fun! The idea of riding in a driverless pod sounds fun! However, I’d rather wait for it to become full-fledged, once the basic trials are over to see how successful it is before giving it a try! No rush there! But it would surely give us the freedom to move around effortlessly. I wonder though, whether it would work in crowded places, like our city?
Thanks for sharing. Have a nice week ahead 🙂
Hi Harleena, Yes, I thought riding in the pod would be fun too! Good point, there is no need to rush. If the experiment works well, then we could be seeing these pods in a few years. But if they don’t work then we might be glad we missed the ride.
I do wonder how the pods will be received by pedestrians and cyclists. Harry moves pretty slowly, but in the future pods might be a bit speedier. It will be interesting to see whether pods are indeed in our future!
Hi Carolyn,
I also wonder, what would be the effect of this pods in our city transportation policy and laws. If this pods will be speedier in the future, it will be more of a concern to the public as there will be some fear and “what ifs” concerning the safety of the pods.
But on the brighter side, this is a breakthrough invention and helps reduce the carbon footprints and also an environment- friendly technology.
Hi John, Good point, it’s not clear how much Harry will resemble actual pods that would operate in traffic among other vehicles. That’s great that GATEway is starting slowly but we have to see how the pods will eventually work.
You’re right, pods such as Harry would be much better for the planet than diesel buses!
Wow Carolyn
It looks like the future is just around the corner 🙂 It would be interesting to get a ride in such a driverless pod, but I am not sure I would like to be the first after a firmware update 😉
Hi Thomas, Yes, many people signed up to be passengers in Harry. I would want to do that too, but perhaps not for the first ride!
Hello Carolyn,
A driverless vehicle sounds interesting but at the same time, I am not sure I will get on one right about now. I heard about Uber testing the auto driven vehicle in Pittsburg last week and there were all sorts of positive comments and reviews about that as well.
It is nice to see where technology is taking us, but a little scary sometimes.
Hi Praveen, Good point. Being in a driverless vehicle can take a leap of faith. We are really depending on tech to keep us safe.
But we may someday take this technology for granted and regard vehicles with drivers as less safe. It will be interesting to see what the future holds.
Hey Carolyn,
This is an interesting idea and has the potential to go a long way with right kind of implementation approach and proper security protocols. I think a lot of people nowadays are warming up to the idea of driver-less vehicles or automated vehicles, and we got a first hand experience of it when we hosted a demo of integrating Tesla Beta with Built.io Flow. Looking forward to know more updates on this project. Cheers!
Hi Shonali, Yes, driverless vehicles certainly seem to be in our future. We hear more and more about them and some day they may become the norm. Imagine the day when a car with a driver seems odd!