Can 'Personal Rapid Transit' Really Replace Buses and Trains? — Streetsblog USA
Can 'Personal Rapid Transit' Really Replace Buses and Trains? — Streetsblog USA
Is a shared autonomous vehicle on a dedicated track really the same as public transportation? San Jose thinks so — and officials are about to bet big on it.
Does anyone actually see a good use for this? Sure it would be better than typical car travel, but has some of the same issues of tire, battery, and road wear, etc. Since it requires dedicated roads anyway, it would be better to use trolleybuses with dedicated bus lanes for reduced battery dependence or preferably electric tram lines which are much easier automated and with reduced rail wear compared to road & tire.
What they are looking for is an automated people mover. The only benefit of personal transit would be that an arbitrary destination can be reached without any transfers. At that point it's just small automated cars...
As far as I can tell you can't necessarily reach an arbitrary destination since per the article - "the robovehicles exclusively run on dedicated roads about five feet wide". Though I suppose it could stop at an arbitrary point along those roads.
One assumes there is some form of intersection so that it can transfer from road to road.
However in the end it has all the negatives of a self driving car (which on dedicated roads could be reality already), with all the negatives of not owning a car. They take up a lot of space in the city, as does parking (and there must be a lot parked all day to ensure you can get home during rush hour), and you can't leave your golf clubs inside just in case you can join a last minute game.