Small autonomous electric vehicles or cybercars, may be a flexible solution to public transport systems in specific areas. They could complement mass transit and non-motorised transportation, providing passenger services for any location at any time. Such systems are known as cybernetic transportation systems (CTS).
Cybercars are small autonomous electric vehicles. They could provide an alternative to the motor car in an emerging new approach to mobility. Cybercars try to offer the same flexibility as the private car, but with much less nuisance and environmental impact. Their potential has been investigated in the European CyberCars and CyberMove projects. Cybercars use technologies which have the potential to contribute to a sustainable development of cities. These vehicles have fully autonomous driving capabilities and are specifically designed for public use in cities to provide on-demand door-to-door services.
Cybercars, mobilidade para todosThe European project CyberCars was an opportunity to test and exchange best practices for the development of a new platform for urban mobility. A major part of the work carried out during the project was the development of several key technologies to improve the existing systems: better guidance, collision avoidance, energy and fleet management, and the development of simple user interfaces. The work was carried out on a cooperative basis in order to reach a consensus on the certification techniques for these systems, which currently suffer from a very imprecise regulatory framework.
The CyberMove project attempted to demonstrate that cybercars have enough potential to make an essential contribution to the sustainable development of the cities of tomorrow. The results of the selected test sites were published and disseminated to support other cities in planning future targets for increasing the physical capacity, energy saving, reducing traffic congestion and potential safety improvements.
In the CyberMove project a comparison was made between new cybercar-based transportation systems in several historic cities. Public demonstrations were carried out in these cities to demonstrate that cybercars offer a cleaner and safer mode of transport for everyone, including people who cannot (or should not) drive, and a better level of service than private cars (individual, door-to-door, on-demand transportation). The essential goal was to demonstrate that the new mobility concept has the potential to make an essential contribution to the sustainable development of the cities of tomorrow. The ultimate aim is to create an alternative transport system that can make city centres more attractive and sustainable.
The advantages of Cybernetic Transport Systems (CTS) include the reduction of congestion, better air quality and energy conservation, increased safety when compared with manual driving and no need for a driving licence. Moreover, cybernetic cars are easily moved from one location to another and, when not needed, they can drive themselves autonomously to a remote parking area. The concept and associated technologies may be appropriate for delivery of goods and even for refuse collection. The flexible design of CTS makes it possible to optimise overall system performance. CTS technology has already reached suitable levels of reliability, safety and user friendliness that they can be useful to solve some mobility problems in cities.
Although the first Cybercar was introduced in the 1990s, the first operational project started at the end of 1997 at Schiphol Airport: the Parking Hopper (Frog). Other examples of automatic guided vehicles in the Netherlands are the ECT container terminal in the harbour of Rotterdam and the ParkShuttle II in Capelle aan den IJssel (Frog). During the Floriade in 2002 Yamaha provided a large number of cybercars based on an adapted chassis of a golf car offering transport up the hill. These cars were later donated to and used in the CyberCar and CyberMove research projects. This meant research could focus on technical issues only, such as improving guidance, navigation, collision avoidance, energy management and the user interface. The design of the vehicle itself was less significant at that stage.
Cybercars, mobility for allYamaha’s cybercar, or Automated Guided Vehicle (AGV), is comparable with Frog’s Parking Hopper. Another example of this type of People Mover or Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) is Robosoft’s CyCab. All are small vehicles for two to four people potentially offering individual door-to-door transportation and are capable of driving in a mixed-use urban environment. Another type is the shuttle. The ParkShuttle II, for example, uses a dedicated lane with fixed stops, but tests (e.g. Delft, Monaco) show that implementation and application in a mixed urban environment is possible as well. Other types of shuttles, like the ULTra (BSA), use a specific infrastructure.
In general, cybercars are considered to be more suitable in specific (designated) environments with different target groups, such as hospitals, university campuses, airports, golf courses, leisure and business parks, where the distance covered is considered to be small. Likewise, they may be an option for tourist use, providing a fun experience and particularly suitable for old towns and cities – but careful marketing would be needed.
Several improvements are needed before cybercars can be transformed into a public transport mode for a large number of people. The major difficulties concern safety (internal and external), accessibility, comfort, space, costs, speed, vulnerability, driving experience, design and product value. Some of the main ideas for improving cybercar systems (vehicles, system management, user interface, new applications, etc.) try to satisfy the general criteria listed here. Several solutions were presented, some of them solidly practical and others wildly impractical.
The most important improvements to the actual cybercars that will be needed to develop a new product are improved industrial design, mass customisation, voice communication, low maintenance cost, longer battery life and higher speeds. Some extra options should be added, such as wireless internet, air conditioning, a platform ramp and dynamic route information. It will also be necessary to ensure flexibility (no set route), improve the sensors, add lighting, provide automatic doors and make the cybercar more noticeable (light and noise).
The ideas collected during this exercise will be used by the IPN for the further development of the cybercar concept.
