Not fast, but not expensive.The story is beautiful and it has only just begun. After four years of development, the concept of electric public transport imagined by students of engineering schools in the Grand Est, called Urbanloop, is about to attempt to beat the world record for the lowest energy consumption for an autonomous vehicle. on rails. Objective of this concept of electric capsules without battery: to pass below the bar of 1 euro cent per kilometer. To mark the spirits, the Urbanloop aims to reach 60 km / h in order to display its capacity to transport the public over one kilometer in one minute for less than a euro cent. What arouse the interest of many public actors in France and not only. Proof,

[#UrbanloopRecord J-2] Objectif à atteindre le 28/05 : 1️⃣km en 1️⃣min, avec moins d'1️⃣centime de consommation énergétique !@UrbanLoop_Nancy @LorraineINP @regiongrandest @VilledeNancy @Grand_Nancy @ENSEM_UL @TELECOMNancy @geolnancy @ENI_METZ @PolytechNancy @ENSGSI @Labo_CRAN pic.twitter.com/LABF3pxSou

— Université Lorraine (@Univ_Lorraine) May 26, 2021

To compete for the most economical public transport ticket in the world, the Urbanloop was designed to break away from the mass transport modes developed until now. Thanks to its concept of intelligent and interconnected capsules, the capacity of which does not exceed two travelers, Urbanloop tracks the slightest loss of energy and can thus display unparalleled economic and ecological performance.

If, in itself, rolling capsules on a rail enclosed in a tube is not revolutionary and reminds the hyperloop of Tesla's boss, Elon Musk, managing to circulate thousands of these devices without risk on a network interconnected with a waiting time per station not exceeding one minute is a real feat. This tour de force is made possible thanks to artificial intelligence and the talents of the little geniuses of the University of Lorraine and nine associated schools (supervised by their teacher-researchers). See you on Friday May 28 at the Tomblaine site in Meurthe-et-Moselle where the Urbanloop project has a six-kilometer test loop. Who knows, it may be the future of SNCF's competitor that is emerging.