Heathrow Airport is now bringing in a new battery powered four-passenger personal rapid transport (PRT) vehicle which was unveiled recently at the Science Museum in London. The space age looking pods have “bug-eyed” windows with grey/white interiors. Taking passengers from Terminal 5 to various Heathrow parking lots and following a special narrow road, it will be easy to use. As the pod is driverless, all you have to do is type in your destination on a touch screen, press a start button and you will travel at 25 mph along a specially designed narrow road..
The reason the pods are so futuristic looking is because they were designed by Mark Lowson who worked for the US Apollo missions! He started work on them back in 1995 (calling them his ULTra Personal Pod Cars). Initially there will be 18 PRT pods, but it will be an expensive venture – costing $41 million. The cars should start operating next year and British Airways intends to invest a further $330 million with the intention of servicing the surrounding airport hotels. It might even be used to convey passengers to the airport rather than using buses and trains, but the Institute of Transport Studies are sceptical. The only drawback is the cost and whether our government can pay for the pods plus new road networks that will be needed for the pods to travel on.