On 24/5/23 16:30, Tony Galloway wrote:
> These things are optically guided, having some buried guidance system

> defeats the purpose of being “trackless”. Hardly useful for something

> touted as “cheaper than trams because there’s no track”.

>

I think the recently hyped Chinese battery electric multi-artic is
optically guided - it follows road markings. Modern machine vision
should make this more robust that the original optical systems that
would get lost when it snowed.

I find it amusing the the commonly used PR photograph shows the 'tram'
changing claims and imaging on the adjacent traffic lane as the body
swings out.

It will be fun when some mischievous uni students go out one night and
repaint the road markings and send them off in a ditch.

> Primove was an induction based power supply system AFAIK, not a

> guidance system. It was intended for electric vehicles following a

> fixed route, not necessarily trams, and failed due to the inefficiency

> of induction compared to direct contact systems, and the improvement

> in battery technology since it was invented.


The distance between the sender and the receiver needed for robustness
in and outdoor environment killed the power transfer efficiency being
subject to an Inverse-square law.

Breda also tried something they called 'tramwave' using magnets to
activate a surface contact system, it didn't make it past 'field trial'.
Only Alstom's APS has survived. And that's not what I would call
reliable. (Despite multiple trackwork shutdowns and many APS 'power
boxes' being replaced, there are still dead segments on George Street)

>

> Anyway, it’s just another over-hyped guided bus, a solution in search

> of a problem.

Yep, to get any sort of 'buzz' for a bus proposal they have to call it a
tram. :-)

And back in NSW they were desperately trying to get the public to call
the trams 'light rails' as the marketing people considered 'tram' too
old fashioned. Then come along the bus boosters calling their
multi-artic guided buses 'trams' because they think that sounds more
high tech or something.

Probably says something about how bad a public perception exists of the
humble 'motor omnibus'.