JPods Networks in Oklahoma

 

Walkable Cities are the engines of Economic Development

 

Pirates and Patriots

Tesla, by violating very law that gets in Musk's way, has delivered 3 billion self-driving miles on roads with a 9-times better safety record. The Smart Summon promo video demonstrates driving a Tesla with no driving in the car at all. How many laws are violated by operating a vehicle without a licensed driver?

Half a Century of Self-driving cars

The problem is with regulations, not with technology. Self-driving cars have been providing radically greater safety for half a century:

Walter Cronkite covered Tricia Nixon opening the first digital transportation network on Oct. 24, 1972. The Morgantown PRT network has since delivered 150 million oil-free passenger-miles with only two minor injuries. Injuries on roads are 11,200 per million (link).

Barrier to Innovation

As documented in Congressional study "Automated Guideway Transit" the only barrier for "four to six decades" to transportation innovation is Federal regulations. Federal regulations resulted in a century of rotary telephones and the 25 mpg efficiency of the Model-T. Restoring communications to free markets in 1982 resulted in the millions of jobs digitizing mobility. Restoring  soon as free markets are restored to transportation

JPods Patent

JPods improves on the Morgantown PRT by removing the need for a central computer. JPods are a network of distributed collaborative computers (robots) moving physical packets, the Physical Internet®.

JPods vehicles, like the personal car, are designed to carry 1 to 6 people. This makes JPods infrastructure light and inexpensive. The small packet size means many more stations and trips that tailor the trip to the traveler. JPods small size allows many different pods tailored to many different uses. There are pods for passengers, cargo, water, etc....

Three-minute summary of JPods.

Why Suspended?

Suspended networks are well understood with incredible safety records.

  • The suspended train in Wuppertal, Germany moves 25 million passengers/year with one fatal accident since it opened in 1901. They are safe, but noisy and lack JPods' ability to personalize each trip to the needs of the traveler.

  • The H-Bahn is a great idea, but the packet size is still too large with heavy infrastructure and few stations. Humans do not typically travel in groups of 50 to 100. We travel by ourselves and with our family. The packet size should match the need for the travelers.