A while back we speculated on what the autonomous vehicle would look like, given that having a dashboard, steering wheel and even forward facing seats were no longer necessary if a car no longer has a driver.
It seems almost certain that the future driverless cars will take a very different form the vehicles we travel in today.
Now the Singaporean mass transit agency has unveiled its trial autonomous ‘pod’ that’s designed to carry 32 passengers.
How the pod integrates with other transport modes and interacts with general road users will be interesting to watch, but illustrates why thinking about the future of public transit has to look beyond apps.
The big question is how will these technologies change the economics of public transit and the behaviour of users. It seems we’re about to find out.