Metro, work, water water. Take the ferry like getting on a bus or a metro train? This is the vision of the "CAPTN Vaiaro" project . Led by the University of Kiel in Germany, this concept of electric and autonomous ferry is a green solution to meet the crucial needs of the moment. For the project teams, the idea was to integrate the ferry with other modes of transport so that they together form a chain of mobility. CAPT, which stands for “Clean Autonomous Public Transport Network”, is therefore not just a simple ferry but a mobility solution that integrates with transport networks as a whole.

Electrically powered ferries are self-contained; they would navigate 24 hours a day. An application could even make it possible to "order" a ferry: that is to say that the boats avoid sailing empty, in the evening for example, if no passenger wishes to use them.

Float on the water. Electric propulsion should also allow ferries to navigate faster, and therefore optimize performance to offer a real solution for transport to inhabitants (without forgetting less noise pollution and pollution). As such, the students imagined two different ferries: the “Floating Platform” and the “Passage”. The first is a huge glass cube with a fin at the back that can accommodate passengers with bicycles or even scooters. And the second has a more "architectural" design with a trellis-shaped structure. Inside, seats and dynamic displays on the walls of the ferry will be able to show the temperature and time of arrival, for example.

Their concept caught the eye of the Design Talent Award jury , who said, “This project takes a very creative and innovative approach, imagining how a car-free city can nonetheless span both sides of a canal. ”An innovation which could, within a few years, really emerge from the water and become a reality.

Photo credits: CAPT Vaiaro.