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Self-balancing commuter pods ride old railway lines on demand (newatlas.com)

submitted 1 year ago by poVoq@slrpnk.net to c/technology@slrpnk.net

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[–] ltxrtquq@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Project founder Thorsten Försterling tells us that the team is working on a track-installed machine that will be able to lift individual pods off of one rail and place them on the other (without passengers in them at the time), keeping them from all collecting at either end of the route.

Still sounds dumb to me. How much effort would it be to lay down a second track, rather than invent a gyroscope-balanced pod that can propel itself along a single railroad rail, along with a specialized machine to move it over to the other rail?

[–] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 12 points 1 year ago

invent a gyroscope-balanced pod that can propel itself along a single railroad rail

No need, it was invented over a century ago.

Here's a good video about it: https://youtu.be/kUYzuAJeg3M

[–] poVoq@slrpnk.net 11 points 1 year ago

Just dealing with with land rights for the extra space the second track would need is a nightmare. And the very idea of these is to use existing tracks without getting into new track construction.