 GlydwaysTHE SCOOP Silicon Valley autonomous transportation company Glydways has won a contract to build an experimental mass transit system that shuttles travelers the 10 miles between Atlanta’s convention center downtown to its airport, the company told Semafor. Backed by venture capitalists like Vinod Khosla and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Glydways plans to make small, electric-powered autonomous vehicles that travel along a fixed path. Executives say its compact AVs can move people at rates comparable to rail at a fraction of the cost. Its shuttles are more narrow than traditional vehicles — about 5 feet wide compared with 8 feet for a Ford F-150, allowing it to shrink the footprint of mass transit. The transport system requires dedicated lanes, such as elevated platforms, and uses small, diagonal pullouts for loading and unloading. The company says Glydways’ infrastructure is less of an eyesore, in part, because it takes up far less space than large parking lots for automobiles or train and bus stations. Glydways says its system is capable of carrying 10,000 people per hour in a roughly six-foot-wide lane. A 12-foot-wide highway lane can carry a max of about 2,200 people, by comparison. Light rail systems can transport about 10,000, but they require an even wider width. Glydways has two similar programs in the works, including one in the Bay Area connecting the San Jose airport and BART passengers in Contra Costa County. The founders say that using autonomous vehicles on regular, city roads will do little to solve the intractable and growing problem of urban congestion. They also say traditional systems, such as buses and rail, have become prohibitively expensive for cities around the world. | 
