UFOs serving the mobility of tomorrow. The very first rail which will accommodate the “Urbanloop” will be laid this Tuesday in the presence of the Minister Delegate in charge of Transport Clément Beaune. A symbolic gesture for this small autonomous shuttle imagined by the eponymous company founded in 2019 intended to serve various key buildings on the leisure island of Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, while construction work has already started in the month of September to welcome a first fleet. But what is this “ecological capsule”, described as “technological innovation”?
Driven “thanks to artificial intelligence algorithms”, these autonomous vehicles, barely three meters wide, capable of transporting two seated people, but also a bicycle or even a person with a disability and their companion “operate without battery, thanks to very low voltage power supply via the rails. Thus, the “Urbanloop” holds “the world record for the lowest energy consumption for an autonomous vehicle”, jointly specify Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines and Urbanloop.
Like a “general public test”, the first free capsules should circulate by the end of spring 2024, in order to be ready to serve the fan zone of the Olympic and Paralympic Games which will be installed on the site of the island of leisure activities in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines. There, on a 2 km circuit, ten capsules will be deployed to circulate “at a top speed of 50 km/h” between the leisure center car park and the Canardières relay sector, not far from the location. planned for this festivities space.
“Showcase of French know-how”, it is “the first guided transport in the world without waiting at the dock and the only one to be approved at these speeds without the presence of a driver on board”, rejoice the two project leaders. In addition, this full-scale experiment should also make it possible to “validate the relevance of this mode of transport in order to consider wider deployment within the urban area”. The line will then be operated there for a little over a year by Keolis.
But other “Urbanloop” projects are already on track. This is particularly the case in Nancy, in the Grand Est region, where the metropolis has just ordered a fleet of capsules for 2026. On a 7 km long loop, they will make it possible to connect a parking lot “in record time”. relay installed on the outskirts of the city in its city center.
