Existing Examples of Personal Transport Vehicles

So far I’ve talked about Personal Transport Vehicles based on chairs.

Our friends recommended a cute French movie Intouchables based on a true story of a quadriplegic and his caregiver. In search of his previous life of speed and daring, they soup up a wheelchair and speed past a Segway. 

But I had a revelation of the innovation in Personal Transport Vehicles on a trip to Portland Oregon. Browsing through the inflight catalog on the United flight, I saw a cool looking device called the Solowheel. But I’m always skeptical of things I see in those catalogs, in part because my daughter and I have a pet project of building a catalog of improbable things. 

While walking in the Portland Airport, I saw someone moving quite fast on the powered walkway – and his head wasn’t moving as it would be if he were walking rapidly. As he popped out at the end of the walkway, voila he was on a Solowheel! I watched him disappear down the hall. Later I saw him stop, pick up the Solowheel, fold up the steps, and board an airplane – I knew I had to blog about it. There are some videos on the Solowheel website which I recommend so you can see how easy this is to use – I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it in person, so I hope you enjoy them. 

While browsing, I got drawn in by self-balancing unicycles. One that intrigued me is the Enicycle. This shows progress toward a portable Personal Transport Vehicle that doesn’t require the skills of a skateboarder to keep from falling over, and that allows you to sit down while traveling. The video shows how easy this is to use, and how it can be used in everyday life. He doesn’t ride it onto the train, but he does carry it aboard, showing at least a partial demonstration of Hierarchical Nesting.

As usual, YouTube will lead you to some other interesting vehicles, if you are so inclined.

One is a protoype Toyota Riding Machine, sort of a portable Segway, being tested by Toyota. The thing that intrigued me was a comment by the announcer that Toyota says in the future it can be automated to take you where you need to go – and you thought I was just dreaming!

I’m sure there are other innovative ideas to come, but hopefully this establishes that several of the building blocks of my proposed Transportation System are just around the corner. 

So let’s get on with other aspects of the Transportation System and the impacts on our everyday lives.

Hierarchical Nesting – En Route Sequencing and Changing Vehicles

Sorry about the hiatus, but we’ve finished moving all our stuff into storage, and are in the Adirondacks for the summer while our new house in New Jersey is being built – 117 feet above sea level :-). Later I’ll describe some of the fascinating things I’ve seen in our travels.

My friend Jim has another penetrating observation: when he gets onto a Continuous Convoy Vehicle, he wants to read or relax, not be forced to move from one vehicle to another, as described in the February 12^th blog entry En Route Sequencing. As usual it’s an excellent question and brings out an important architectural feature of my proposed transportation system: Hierarchical Nesting – this simply means than Autonomous Vehicles can ride inside others, and move from one vehicle to another.

Taking the train from the Long Branch Station to New York Penn Station, there are about 18 stops. I said before that you could do with this with only 2 Continuous Convoy Vehicles, although this would mean changing vehicles every station – so let’s see how that would work.

I ride my Personal Transport Vehicle, or PTV, to the Long Branch station. There is a Continuous Convoy Vehicle, or CCV, waiting for me (I’ll discuss the cool features of the scheduling system later), and my PTV takes me aboard and moves to an available space. As the Continuous Convoy approaches, my CCV accelerates and links on in front of the Convoy.

Now the En Route Sequencing maneuver starts: everyone who wants to get off at Little Silver, the next  station, moves to the rear CCV, and everyone else joins me in the front CCV. As we approach Little Silver, the rear CCV detaches, decelerates and stops at the station. Meanwhile, the CCV that was at Little Silver has accelerated and linked in front of the CCV I’m in. Now everyone who wants to get off at Red Bank, the station after Little Silver, moves into the CCV I’m in, and my PTV moves me to an available space in the CCV from Little Silver, which just joined the Convoy. This continues at each station until we reach Penn Station in New York.

Now you can see why Jim was concerned about all that shifting from one CCV to another. But with my PTV autonomously moving me as needed, I can ignore all the motion, and continue with my reading, writing, or resting. 

Also my PTV can whisk me through the various transport media to get from my home to the Long Branch Station, and from Penn Station to my final destination in New York City. There are cool new opportunities the scheduling system can arrange for me along the way, but I’ll save those for later.

Another question Jim raised is who owns the PTV? Is it like my personal automobile, or is it more like a taxi? The answer is: it could be either. Because the PTV is autonomous, it can either stay with me when I’ve reached my destination, or it can go off to help someone else. 


Note this also eliminates the parking problem: the PTV is quite small and can stay with me unobtrusively continuing to serve me, or it can return to my home or anywhere, or it can go off to help someone else – you start to see the opportunities this new system opens for both innovation and services.

What does a PTV look like? Is it like a small automobile, or is it more like the vehicle that can disappear under my travel chair? The answer of course, is that it depends on how far you need to go, and how fast, and what other services you want. This will be a hot area for innovation, styling, and flexibility. For the types of travel I’ve outlined in this example, I’m thinking of the traveling chair model, because the PTV is riding on other vehicles for any distance. I’ll discuss these options more in the future as we consider additional services and transport media.

Next time I’ll talk about a really small PTV I saw in action in the Portland airport.