The car without driver – the best taxi service?

Car without driver - inescapable futuristic dream. And not just the futurists, but also ordinary people who are depressed and prices of some rudeness of taxi drivers. In England there has been the project of a taxi without the driver, which should make travel around the city cheap, comfortable and environmentally friendly.

55 percent of gas pollution in London is caused by private cars and taxis. No matter how you talked about the dangers of “dirty” cars for megacities, it is hardly possible to transplant all the drivers, conservative by nature, for electric vehicles. So … need to remove the drivers at all! At least, in taxi.

The project “OPTI”, proposed by Paul Piliste, involves production of a series of electric vehicles, equipped with a system of “inhuman” driving. There will be laser sensors that determine the distance to the nearest car and the edge of the road, control algorithms, 3G-Internet system and GPS, which tells the robot, the general direction of the driver. The vertical orientation of the vehicle makes parking; motor powered by lithium-ion battery. For all the taxis will simultaneously monitor live and electronic controllers.

The most interesting feature of such a “taxi without the driver ” – that night rates it will not exceed the daytime. On the contrary! Through the empty streets of the city at night to go much easier. That is why the system of payment of such taxi (Paul Piliste suggests that it will be travel tickets) will be standard, without regard to time of day – and robo-taxi gladly come to you, and four in the morning without grumbling and rubbing the sleep from his eyes.

Despite such promising prospects, there are problems. For example, the error of the GPS system can make a car without a driver’s dive into the nearest canal. So perhaps in the next five years will see these cars – but right now from 10% to 30% of crashes on U.S. roads are caused by gadgets and mobile phones.