They run on-demand (instead of on a timetable) and travel point-to-point with no stops in between.
In the future, they might even pick you up at your house.
Sounds ambitious and a bit weird.
So I met with Mark Seeger, Founder & CEO at Glydways, to find out more.
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For example, The Eno Center for Transportation has been tracking the costs of transport projects since 2009.
Seeger even believes the company could even run public transportat a profit, which has never been done before.
There are a lot of cost reductions in terms of infrastructure.
The vehicles travel on guideways 1.5 meters wide, about the width of a bike path.
Further, smaller vehicles are cheaper to build than big ones.
Its not entirely clear how the cost for underground or above-ground guideways factor in.
But it gets a lot more challenging at peak periods.
InSan Josethe company has bid on a project to get people from downtown to Mineta San Jose International Airport.
It opened fortenders or bidsfor tech solutions in 2019.
Yep, just cars in tunnels.
Theyre not even pretending a hyperloop is involved.
But also in the race are some pretty comparable products to Glyways, including MexicosModutramand2getthere.
This includes a minimum of 30-year financing.
The struggle for adoption
The biggest challenge for Glydways is getting US local government buy-in.
Someone offering an effectively free public transport system may sound awfully appealing.
However, Seegler admits:
A lot of cities have said to us, We love it.
Its free, and we want it.
Why would we say no?
But well, its unproven.
And we dont want to be first.
But lets forget Glydways disaggregation.
I will be following its progress closely.
Story byCate Lawrence
Cate Lawrence is an Australian tech journo living in Berlin.
