Sustainable mobility

The key to attract private car travelers to public transportation is to offer privacy, on-demand and door-to-door service.

The solution to this is CabiBUS, a new minibus for on-demand ride-sharing with a private cabin for each passenger.

With 6 cabins, available through 3 doors on each side of the minibus, it is small enough to reach also all narrow streets and roads.

It is the prerequisite for a public transportation solution that provides unique advantages against existing systems. But it's not to be seen as a competitor to public transit, on the contrary, it will be a part of the public transportation system offering a higher level of service at a little higher price.

CabiBUS has a better total efficiency than todays bus and trams since it takes the passenger a much shorter way without changes between routes. Few people live by a bus/tram stop and work at another stop along the same route. Today buses have to follow the route and schedule they are assign to even though the buses may be empty. CabiBUS adjust to changes in transportation demand resulting in higher utility of the vehicles and also the streets and roads.

CabiBUS is more convenient, safe, reliable and environmentally friendly than any other means of city and regional travel. The vehicle needs no special tracks, lanes or stops to be built which provides a low initial investment and good scalability. It can be produced in vastly larger volumes than buses and trams which provides economies of scale and low cost per seat. The vehicle is compact, as opposed to larger buses, and it can move on all navigable roads and streets across the region and offer real door-to-door transport. CabiBUS personal cabin will be the only way most passengers will accept to travel when driverless public transport is introduced, eliminating possible threats or infections from other passengers and allow them to work, read, make phone calls, sleep, use the Internet without being disturbed.

How does CabiBUS work?

Each cabin have a big touch screen where the passenger can see the road in front of the vehicle to prevent motion sickness, use Internet, select temperature and light and get trip information. Individual filtered ventilation eliminates the risk for infections and airbags protects in case of accidents.

IT systems for booking and route optimization allows travelers to order the trip by telephone, Internet or an app. You can also subscribe to regular trips to and from work. Such systems are available and also developed by new companies like Uber, Didi Chuxing and Lyft. A new study led by Professor Daniela Rus at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) found that 3,000 ride-sharing cars could transport 97 percent of New York's taxi customers—with just one third the current traffic. And if carpooling was done with 10-passenger vehicles, just 2,000 vans could replace the 14,000 taxicabs in New York City.

CabiBUS will be a highly connected vehicle that use mobile Internet connection for a number of features:

• Passenger login and billing.
• Passenger entertainment and work on the large Internet connected touchscreen in front of each passenger.
• Vehicle route instructions from the control central.
• Vehicle tracking.
• Vehicle and passengers security monitoring.
• Parents can use videoconference to follow kids travelling to school, activities and friends in a safe way, also communicate with them from another cabin.
• Vehicles can send and receive traffic information like speed, congestions and accidents that will make the route planning system more effective.
• Vehicle control systems can be remote updated, like in Tesla.

Electric drive is the key to sustainable transport, reducing the traffic pollution in cities. It will also ensure lower transportation and maintenance costs. Autonomous driving technology  will add a substantial cost reduction and make CabiBUS the most cost effective system for public transport in and around cities.

Parcel delivery

Most numbers of CabiBUS vehicles are required in weekdays, mornings and evenings, for the daily commute to work, school and daycare.

During off-peak hours the vehicle can transport different types of goods/packages. When you book a shipment you simply put the package in one of the cabins and when the door is closed the system will only allow the receiver to open the door at the final destination. In that way up to 7 different shipments can be transported safely at the same time.

But the cabins can also be made exchangable so that, during off-peak periods, passenger cabins can be replaced with 2 and 3 compartment cabins for parcels, increasing the capacity up to 19 shipments.

E-commerce is increasing the number of deliveries and this system can help make the last mile goods transport more effective and economic. And of course, reduce fossil fueled transports of goods.

The vehicle

CabiBUS is basically a compact electric minibus with 3 doors on each side for a total of 6 passengers. Each passenger has a separate compartment (cabin) with space for hand luggage, independent climate control and other facilities to make the trip efficient and comfortable. It also has a rear cabin that can be booked for a wheelchair passenger, baby stroller, foldable bike or luggage. This will greatly improve the mobility possibilities for wheelchair users.

Communication

In front of each passenger is a large display for information, Internet, work and entertainment. The display can also show video from a camera in front of the vehicle if the passenger is more comfortable with that. When the CabiBUS stops for a passenger to exit, the display shows video from a camera in the back so that approaching vehicles can be observed.

Safety

All around airbags in each cabin will provide a much higher passenger safety in case of an accident than in open interior Robotaxi, buses and trams.

Self Driving

Autonomous CabiBUS will offer a substantial reduction in public transportation costs while also increase the safety. Since a control center will run the system, autonomous level 5 will not be required, level 4 with remote control that can take over if the vehicle needs assistance.

More about the development of self driving technology here.

More abot the vehicle on this page CabiBUS, the vehicle

Online booking and payment

An IT system is used for travel booking and door-to-door journey planning. Pick up bookings are made by phone, mobile app or the Internet. The payment system is simple because no changes are made, the traveler can get to know the price in advance, even if the price is based on length of journey. Low risk of vandalism because each traveler's check in to his pre-booked cabin.

Infrastructure

For CabiBUS there will be fleet service centers in every fleet region with

automatic charging, cleaning and cabin exchange. 

Tesla has demonstrated an

automatic charging solution for their cars.

Another example of automatic charging is ROCSYS

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9i38HPyhhxM

Market size

There is a huge global market for public transport solutions. According to Navigant Research, the global smart urban mobility infrastructure and services market is expected to grow from $5.1 billion in 2015 to $25.1 billion in 2024.

But new solutions and technology must compete with the traditional ways of transportation. One example is in the city of Göteborg, Sweden, where the municipal assembly has decided to build a 5-mile, three-station train subway for USD2.5 billions with start in 2018. The decision has met a massive local resistance on the grounds that it is a very expensive way to transport just a relativly small number of passengers a day. The lack of a subway now is due to the soft ground on which Gothenburg is situated. Tunneling is very expensive in such conditions and the critics also claim that there is a large risk for damages to city and buildings during the 9 year construction time and after.

An interesting comparison is to make the same investment for a CabiBUS solution. As an example, start with the 7 passenger Tesla Model S 90D with All-Wheel Drive and Range Upgrade to 270 miles (EPA) total cost $91 000. A CabiBUS version with three doors on each side, 6 cabins, will probably have the same, or lower, price if a city orders 27 500 of them for $2.5 billion. With an occupancy of 5 passengers during traffic peak hours they can transport 137 500 passengers simultaneously. If all of these previously were single private motorists it means that traffic is reduced with 110 000 cars. Based on a medium occupancy of 3 passengers and trip time of 30 minutes they can deliver 2 million trips/day and exceed the doubling goal of public transport for the whole region with a wide margin.

Another example of old thinking is that the politicians in Göteborg decided in March 2018 to go forward with the plans to invest another UD$2.8 billion in more large buses and trams until 2035. They based the decision on an investigation that not included the possibilities with the autonomous technology. The local newspaper published our comments here (only in Swedish)