Autonomous App-Based Water Taxis: Seabubbles are Coming to Paris This Summer

in #future8 years ago

Seabubble.jpg

Ride-sharing services have become an important transportation option in many parts of the world. Autonomous cars are coming soon, the experts tell us. But what about rides on the water? Aside from ferries and sightseeing cruises for tourists, we have largely ignored the possibilities for human transportation on the rivers, lakes and bays that touch our cities.

Ferries are useful, but they are like buses: they have fixed routes and schedules. Also, ferries require a lot of passengers, use a lot of fuel, and create pollution, much as buses do. What if you could hail a small water taxi with an app on your phone? What if it were solar-powered, did not make noise, did not pollute, and largely moved on top of the water, creating very little impact on the aquatic environment?

seabubbles.gif

Seabubbles is ready to open up the waterways again. While its water taxi looks like a concept vehicle from some futuristic show, the Seabubble is real. This company has been testing its prototype since last year and its boats are in production right now. The first production Seabubble water taxis will be tried out this summer in Paris, France. New York, London, San Francisco, and Geneva are other candidate cities where these water taxis could have a huge impact, saving people time, money, energy, and pollution.

Welcome to the future. It’s almost here.

Additional References:

Seabubbles site: http://www.seabubbles.fr

Telegraph article: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/10/27/paris-to-trial-flying-river-taxis-in-the-seine-next-year/

Bloomberg article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-11/flying-river-taxis-eye-customers-from-the-seine-to-san-francisco

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That's a great news! You by the way just gave me a nice thing to try this summer! I will definitely try those as soon as they will be available in Paris!

If you try one, please take some pictures and bring us a nice post!

That's a promise! Hopefully I will have more time for posting again by the summer :)

Saw this a while ago. Brilliant idea! Will save on commute time by a lot for everyone - even cars on the road.

The next generation is going to mock us for wasting our time "driving".

We're wasting a lot of things (time, fuel, pollution, etc.) that hopefully the next generation will be able to minimize. Yes, they will mock us, but the technology had to progress.

which generation is the 'next' generation?
the one still living at home with their parents?

This is really neat. Nice post @donkeypong thank you.

I'm still on the fence as to if these autonomous, driverless taxis, cars, boats, planes etc. are really scary or really cool. Whichever it is, we don't really have a choice, as it (the tech) is here and seemingly going to continue to be deployed at an exponential rate.

What is actually scary are human drivers.

LOL, yes, you have a very valid point!

It's the new world. Scary, but also cool. Old guys like me will have to get used to it!

Yes sir indeed! Something we will all have to accept in one form or another I guess. Flying around like the Jetson's would be pretty stinking cool though, and that time is creeping up on us rather quickly.

think of autonomous vehicles as horses.
they'll be smart ENOUGH.
smart enough to know where they are going
smart enough not to run into each other (and other stuff)
unlike many people driving today.

Thirty thousand deaths per year in the US alone
Plus a quarter million non-fatal injuries.
Plus billions of dollars in damage.
yup..pretty damn scary.

I would use these. Still hanging out for autonomous cars especially if they can operate outside of metro areas, would make country driving much safer!

They're coming soon, from what I hear. I'm not sure if my kids will need to learn how to drive or not.

We'll probably still teach ours as "useful skill to have" even if they never end up using it. Like survivalism XD (which I hope never to have a serious use for, because I'm hopeless)

sounds good.
it'll be interesting to see how well it works.

At least no human drivers to watch/disturb you "touching" your dates!

Just think of the possibilities!

This looks amazing ! I really hope that they release this in the us at some point .. wow what a way to travel

This is super cool!! Wow, it's so nuts how things that were once science fiction are now becoming a reality, more and more.
Your posts are really great because every time they fulfill a TIL for me. Love it :)

Looks Sc-fi. Probably there won't be a need for a driver and you will operating it by inserting STEEM tokens.

I think I have been watching too many cartoons. The animated version looks like they have 2 eyes and a smiling mouth.

Yep. I have gone completely insane.

Yeah...but a creative idea comes up from cartoon. Nice ! :)

I think we just naturally see faces even when there's no faces XD

Excellent post sir @donkeypong, very good information, what we saw in a movie of crazy fiction, today we see it as news, it is true what you say, the future is here, congratulations and many thanks for sharing

Hi, @donkeypong! Actual subject and is very interesting.

now soon uber on water

That's really cool. Wonder how long before Uber automates it.

Pretty new world.
A couple of years ago we were seeing all these innovations in famous Science Fiction movies and thought: "Yeah well it's cinema." Now they are becoming part of the real world. That's amazing!

Nice, I hope it works out well - seems to be a much better way to start introducing autonomous vehicles, since it'll be much easier to do it on water without any pedestrians walking around!

We're in the future. Aren't we? What's next is unknown. Technology is ever-growing, innovating, exciting and a little scary.

Are we in the future already? Now it all makes sense.

I certainly believe that we are in the future already :D

Very cool! Love Tessa ))

Super! The future is impressive!