Heathrow Pod: Driverless cars ferry airport passengers

Heathrow Pod - driverless transport at Heathrow's T5

Heathrow Terminal  5 (T5) didn’t have the easiest of starts, with endless teething problems making air travel even more fraught than it already is.

But things have improved a lot, and T5 is now one of the better places to depart from, if depart you must. And from today it should get easier, with the launch of the Heathrow Pod shuttle system.

The Heathrow Pods are driverless cars designed to ferry up to four passengers at a time from Heathrow’s business car park to the main terminal.

The pods – the UK’s first Personal Rapid Transport System – can travel at up to 25mph and carry up to four passengers at a time - and their luggage – with the passengers able to select their destination.

The Pods are on-demand and available for 22 hours a day in the week and 21 hours at the weekend. Whilst waiting for passengers the Pods can recharge themselves, and they cut the time from business car park to the terminal by at least ten minutes.

The Pods are going to get rid of around 50,000 bus journeys round Heathrow every year, and they consume 70 per cent less energy per passenger than a car and 50 per cent less than a bus.

Almost makes you want to book a flight.

By Cars UK