ConnX is a means of transportation never seen before, because it looks like a hybrid between a cable car and a bus. Developed by the Italian company Leitner, this curious innovation has just successfully passed a feasibility and safety testing phase, and Within a year it will be ready to roll around the world. The objective is clear: to offer a vehicle that can move both on ropes to easily overcome large slopes and on tires for city streets.
From cable to the city
Cable cars are increasingly popular means of transportation, especially in the modern urban environments of cities that are anything but flat, such as Mexico City, Caracas, Medellín or Toulouse. They can move a large number of people without having to resort to traditional roads, using a silent and non-polluting electric propulsion system, in addition to being a point of interest for tourists, since they open up views that are usually very impressive. The ConnX project is based on the experience of a leading company in the cable car segment, Leitner (of the HTI Group), based in South Tyrol, and was officially presented at the World Transport Congress held in Vancouver, Canada .
Video presentation of the cable car-bus
ConnX takes its name from Connect and is a good representation of a cabin-based system that can be safely and quickly detached from the ropes to accommodate an autonomous electric vehicle. In this way, passengers can move from one vehicle to another without problems, to more easily reach places and points, even very far away.
This double solution can also avoid obstacles that can limit the action of urban cable cars and, at the same time, speed up road travel. The tests were carried out at the Sterzing experimental center and the ZalaZone Automotive Test Center in Hungary, and the achievable speed is almost 40 km/h or 10 meters per second.
Article originally published in WIRED Italy. Adapted by Mauricio Serfatty Godoy.
