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submitted 4 months ago by floofloof@lemmy.ca to c/technology@beehaw.org
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[-] 0x1C3B00DA@fedia.io 3 points 4 months ago

on-demand pods that travel on existing abandoned railways.

They're reusing existing tracks.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

Hmm, so your thinking is they're not allowed to modify the existing tracks at all?

It just seems like building and maintaining a machine that lifts these pods, that's gotta be a magnitude more expensive than a slight change to the rails...

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 4 months ago

I don't see why it'd be that expensive, it'd basically just be a fancy crane.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 2 points 4 months ago

I'm not saying that it's hugely expensive. I'm just saying that a Y-shaped rail with a switch should be significantly cheaper.

Particularly, moving parts are a pain for maintenance. These kind of systems, you want to operate for 20+ years and the less bearings there are to oil, the better.

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago

Look at the wheels, flanges on both sides.

I don't think that's compatible with switches.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

I'm definitely willing to believe that they've got monorail-like flanges. That would probably help with stabilizing. But where the hell are you able to see a picture of the wheels? There's a few angles in the video which quickly show the wheels, but I can't actually see much anyways. 🫠

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 4 months ago

it's very visible in the first shot of this video where they do some test runs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2al1oFolWM

[-] redcalcium 2 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

They're probably marketing this as requiring zero infrastructure changes to attract buyers and investors. Just put the pod lifter at the end of the track and it's done.

[-] Ephera@lemmy.ml 1 points 4 months ago

Yeah, that's quite possible, that they offer it for marketing. Maybe also to give municipalities an option to try out the system for a few months and see, if it attracts much interest. If it doesn't, you can just pack up the pods and cranes, and market it to the next city.

I was mainly confused how off-handedly this gets mentioned in the article, as if that was clearly the logical method for moving a vehicle from one place to another...

this post was submitted on 17 May 2024
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