Image: Lee Durant/Ultra Global PRT

The pods — similar to those used at Heathrow airport since 2011 — will be fully electric, with motors mounted at each wheel and charging handled by an inductive system set up along the route, and like Google, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz’ autonomous vehicles, the pods will use a combination of GPS, sensors, and high-definition stereo cameras to navigate the city and avoid pedestrians, but according to the Daily Mail, the initial plan is to have specific lanes for the vehicles and a joystick to control the pod if something goes awry.

Cool, aye?

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This little robot has a big promise. It’s designed for remotely accessing areas previously only accessible on foot, providing less risk to personnel and able to navigate over extremely rough, steep, and loose terrain with a combination of 4 independently controlled tracks that drive and arms that walk. Of course this design feels like it’s a military technology but maybe, just maybe it can find its way into the medical or maintenance uses. We can only hope.

In these videos, it pulls a Hummer, and climbs some stairs with a human on its back. The secret to all this torque, is transmitting the power to the ground through those 4 independently moving tracks which help a great deal. ASI says it has juice for two hours.

Just put a gun instead of that man, what is it then? Google T-1 my friends.

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