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"Personal Rapid Transit" Is ULTra True PRT or Fake PRT?
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| "Personal Rapid Transit" Is ULTra True PRT or Fake PRT? |
| 10.23.05 (2:59 am) [edit] |
It's been a bad year for gadgetbahners.
Taxi 2000 is mired in a nasty lawsuit and Taxi 2000's biggest booster in its home state is under investigation by the FBI. That leaves ULTra, a UK company to carry on the work of bamboozling the public about PRT... but is ULTra's system true PRT?
If you go to the E.D.I.C.T. website,you'll find two links to gadgetbahn sites. One of the sites is Jerry Schneider's silly gadgetbahn site that links to other silly and bizarre gadgetbahn sites like this one . The other link is to something called Netmobil which is mostly about "cybercars".
Computer-guided vehicles are nothing new. A company called Frog makes them and Frog is mentioned in the ATRA announcement about the Dubai PRT proposal.
The FROG (Free Ranging On Grid) technology creates intelligent vehicles that can operate in any industrial environment.
The on board FROG-box® controls the vehicle based on electronic maps (route planning). While driving, the vehicles measure distance and direction traveled by counting the number of wheel revolutions and measuring the steering angle (odometry). External reference points are used to correct possible small inaccuracies in reference to the planned route (calibration).
In addition to common calibration methods as laser and ‘punktfolge’, Frog also offers dGPS (outdoor) and the patented grid solution. The grid is a systematic maze of reference points – often magnets embedded in the ground – offering the same free ranging capabilities as laser, but without its’ disadvantages.
Besides the navigation software and the grid solution, Frog has developed several components for the safe and reliable operation of Automated Guided Vehicles. These products include the magnetruler and the infrared sensor BEJO.
Clearly, ULTra has taken the Frog computer-guided, 4-wheeled electric buggy concept and stuck in on a roadway, not a slim guideway.... maybe personal, but hardly rapid and certainly without the capacity to define it as transit. A better description of ULTra would be APMS, automated people-mover. http://www.frog.nl/peoplemove...
It's ridiculous for PRTers to say that ULTra's system could do the job that trains and buses do every day in countless cities. In fact, the Taxi 2000 Corporation itself has heaped scorn on the ULTra system :
"This technology [Ultra] is different in many respects from the Taxi 2000 technology and has some distinct disadvantages. It uses a larger and heavier guideway that we believe will be more obtrusive and more expensive. It uses larger cars that we believe will be more expensive. Because it uses rotary propulsion and braking, it cannot operate in ice and snow conditions and cannot run at the close headways planned for the Taxi 2000 system. Because it uses battery power, it is speed limited. At this point it lacks a complete control system, as well as other vital features of a commercial product." http://www.roadkillbill.com/P...
Don't believe PRT hype... get the facts!!!
Learn more about PRT at the PRT is a Joke web site.
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posted by: PRT_Punk (reply)
post date: 10.23.05 (6:40 am)
If we stipulate that ULTra is indeed inferior to SkyWeb, then if and when it works as advertised, then it will prove that PRT works.
This will provide the case for its implementation world-wide. Heathrow is getting this system, you can't stop it now, no matter how many cartoons to thrash it with.
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.23.05 (7:49 am)
First there was no Heathrow project. Now there is but it isn't going to be good enough. Mr. Skeptic, I'm sure if you saw Jesus Christ walk on water you would say "sure he can walk on water but can he swim?".
Get a life, loser.
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.23.05 (8:59 am)
Ultra and Taxi 2000 are just two of many PRT companies. They all have different designs for different reasons. Why wouldn't they compare and contrast their designs?
What you don't understand is that PRT is bigger than whatever is going on in Minnesota. There are more players than just those in Minnesota, or for that matter, the United States.
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.24.05 (7:56 am)
"it cannot operate in ice and snow conditions"
Yeah, ULtra is definitely the wrong system for Dubai.
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.24.05 (9:59 am)
PRT-niks think that a proposed scam is a working system. A million British money units buys nothing but "commercialization". And a bunch of non-disclosed "milestones" to be hit first, yeah, that is going to work.
Dubai? A bunch of corrupt shieks carving up some petro-bucks for a 1km+ fun ride. Yeah, whee! go take a ride on the Camp Snoopy PRT. It actually exists, unlike Dubious Dubai...
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.24.05 (11:23 am)
Hey look everybody. Russell's back!
posted by: newbie (reply)
post date: 10.24.05 (1:14 pm)
Yeah! What's the story with competing PRT companies? Can't they get their act together? Central economic planning like the good old USSR is what we need!
More queues! Long live the glorious, industrious freedom-loving Avidor!
posted by: DuluthDon (reply)
post date: 10.24.05 (1:28 pm)
>It's been a bad year for gadgetbahners.
Man, the quality of your spinning is right up there with Fox, NewsMax and Scott McClellan.
One PRT system under contract and another on the way. Yeah, a real bad year for PRT.
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