Everyone agrees that cities are crowded, and that cars are a major reason for gridlock, pollution, and noise.
What to do about it remains a much-debated argument.
Half Company is a design firm with a very new and novel approach to solving both people movement and noise pollution in a city.
Their solution is called Halfgrid, and it’s a series of elevated pods, like ski gondolas, that traverse a city, where people and goods can move seamlessly. The differentiator in their concept is that the cables don’t move, but the pods do, using AI to allow for most efficient and flexible movement as possible.
The pods themselves are small enough for just one person, making them compact and unobtrusive, meaning on a cityscape, they’d blend into the scale of city streets. They would operate electrically with almost no noise, meaning noise and air pollution would also be reduced.
Using the pods for last-mile good delivery as well would eliminate the need for as many trucks in a city, further reducing congestion and pollution.
Halfgrid is just a concept at this stage, but we like it’s innovative take on a problem that plagues cities around the world.
Described as:
“a fully autonomous transit system for people and goods, running on a separate layer above the ground and based on the smallest unit possible — an individual person-sized pod”.
“Half Company is planning to create a prototype of the system with a few capsules, with the ambition of find a partner to help it develop the project further.”