Each WePod is able to carry half a dozen adults along a 200m stretch of road, and this is the maiden trial of its kind around the world. The trial at the moment would send people on a short journey back and forth along the side of a lake in the central Dutch agricultural town of Wageningen. It is definitely not fast at all, plodding along at 5 miles per hour (8kmph), although Jan Willem van der Wiel, the project’s technical director, shared, “But an unmanned vehicle has never been used on public roads. This is a milestone.”
This particular project looks set to be expanded in the months to come, and will soon function as a form of public transport throughout a 4-mile stretch in the town. Fully developed WePods will have a top speed of 15mph.