Autonamous Pods, state of the art driverless vehicles, are being developed in order currently in order to
try and make the future of travel easier. In is thought that the Pods will be prove to be really beneficial
for those who are blind or have a visual impairment. The new developments for these pods have been
on display this week, from Monday 29 th Many to Friday 2 nd June. As part of the display, members of the
public will be able to look more closely at what is being developed in order to bring driverless cars closer
to a reality.
The INSIGHT Project, will see these Autonamous Pods installed by a British based consortium at
Heathrow. The Ultra Pods that are located at the airport will be turned in to the modern driverless
vehicles. The Pods which are being designed have the intention of providing the capacity for shorter and
low speed journey, as opposed to the high speed pods of science fiction. Therefore, these Pods will be
ideally suited for shorter low speed journeys, such as transporting a number of passenger and their
luggage around a rail station or airport. It is thought that the Autonamous Pods will also be a good
transportation idea for places like hospitals and car parks.
It is thought that these driverless Pods will be fitted with cutting edge technology such as 3D imaging
and sensors which should make the Pods able to travel through areas that contain pedestrians while
making sure that the passengers and the people around the Pod are kept safe. It is though that these
sensors will also protect the Pod around road users and other types of vehicles.
One of the Automatous Pods will be part of a display as part of the Thinktank Science Garden which is
taking place this week in Birmingham’s Eastside this week. The Thinktank will allow all members of the
public as well as those that are blind or visually impaired to examine the Pods, with specialists on hand
to answer any questions and receive any feedback that could help the development of the Pods.
