These autonomous pods are re-imagining safe public-transit by making local trams and buses smaller - Yanko Design

Although this sense of paranoia is fairly recent, the thought of stepping into an overcrowded bus or subway should probably strike fear and panic in well-nigh of us. Imagining "Public Transport" without the give-and-take "Public" tin be difficult. How exercise you create a mass transit organisation that's bespoke, and that doesn't involve multiple people in shut proximity? And moreover, how do you manage this arrangement while ensuring it's benign to the public and condom for cities?

Those are some really tough questions, and NewDealDesign seems intent on looking for the answers. Having worked on a whole slew of smart-mobility projects, including the recently-debuted 'Serve', an democratic commitment robot for Postmates, the San Francisco-based visitor carried their wealth of research and experience into Rolla – the time to come of city-based mass-transit.

Rolla takes mass-transit and personalizes/isolates it. Remember of something on the lines of individual ski-lifts, or cable-cars traveling on the same network… minus the cables. Designed as a cabin that moves, the Rolla is an unabridged network of human-sized, human-friendly pods that yous can pace in and step out of (another relevant example that comes to mind is that of an elevator). The Rolla has the ability to piece of work on fixed routes similar a public bus, allowing you lot to hail one and step in, as well as on personal routes, letting you summon a Rolla on an app. Designed for relatively brusk journeys, the pod allows yous to stand inside it equally information technology travels to your stop.

What the Rolla gets right is its simplicity and intuitiveness. It's a culmination and combination of familiar experiences that allow you easily trust it without 'fearing the underlying tech'. The pod feels a lot like a motorbus or subway, allowing yous to stand up within it and grab onto a handrail, while the app for bespoke journeys works quite similar a cab-hailing application. The pod'due south relatively open also, sort of like a tram, enabling y'all to hop on and hop off in a heartbeat as it autonomously travels through the city's networks. This minor size and open up format not only makes the Rolla friendly and unassuming, information technology as well makes it piece of cake to disinfect between journeys every bit the pod travels through a sanitation-station between multiple trips, cleaning itself for the next passenger.

Its open and welcoming design is reinforced past an immersive and memorable experience. The well-nigh SIM-carte shape of the Rolla is instantly iconic, with expressive LED headlights on the front end indicating the pod's intent equally it autonomously drives. The inside of the Rolla, however, is designed to be dynamic, with light-piping that gives the vehicle a designated colour – yellow for public transport, purple for individual transport, and blue for fixed private routes like within a campus. The interiors are outfitted with displays too, that tell yous the road and time, welcome individual riders, and bear witness your progress on a map for clarity.

While Rolla currently exists simply as a concept, it provides a bully framework for how cities can adapt to the pandemic by providing public transit in a manner that's prophylactic. The individual pods can easily be deployed on a urban center's roads with no additional infrastructure like stations or rail. They run on electric energy, and something as simple as solar panels could ensure that the vehicles run for longer on sustainable energy. They can operate on pre-designated passenger vehicle routes besides, reducing the demand to programme out new routes, and given how easy information technology is to roll out new Rollas, the entire organisation of democratic pods can easily be upgraded every bit cities expand!

Designer: NewDealDesign