We are seeing continuous news about different autonomous vehicles that move on land, sea and air, but we hardly see any vehicles that move on the train tracks.
But that is no longer the case, because some engineers who previously worked at the SpaceX company have created a company called Parallel Systems with the idea of profoundly modifying something as classic as rail transportation.
And it has occurred to them to design an autonomous electric vehicle that circulates along the train tracks and that can carry freights on it. The vehicles work in pairs, and two of these vehicles can carry a 50-ton container a distance of 800 km and be recharged in an hour to make another transport.
You can see some photos below.
If we take a closer look, it is a very versatile and flexible system, and therefore it can be adapted to very different rail transport needs, especially freight. Different packages can be placed on standard traction platforms to be transported.
And because the traction systems are autonomous, they can be programmed to go in the required direction. Two containers that travel “together” side by side for part of the journey can then be directed to two different rail locations.
I think the idea is very good and the solution very simple and original. It has the advantage that all the tractor elements are the same, which makes its manufacture cheaper. Being autonomous, it does not require on-site personnel, but rather someone to control it remotely. Consequently, transportation costs are significantly reduced.
Both the company and the idea are very new and will take some time to become a reality, but they have a good chance of becoming operational in the market.
If we stop to think for a while, we see that new ideas and companies continually appear that turn the current reality around to offer us possible different and better realities.
These are the vectors of the change that is taking place in our society at ever faster speeds.
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