In terms of public transport, the next Olympic Games in Paris will be an opportunity to inaugurate a new Greater Paris metro line or the extension of line 11 to Paris-Orly airport. But you can also take an Urbanloop shuttle service. Nothing to do with Hyperloop, the still theoretical ultrafast transportation project imagined by Elon Musk.
On the contrary, it will be a small, autonomous, free and electric railway shuttle, the purpose of which will be to connect the parking lot of the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines leisure center with the fanzone of the Olympic Games and the Paralympic Games on the Island of Leisure, through a two-kilometer circuit, without stops or connections.
Minimum power consumption
The first lane of this circuit was laid this Tuesday by Clément Beaune, Minister of Transport, but the first works began in September. Ten capsules will circulate through this circuit.
Specifically, these are small autonomous vehicles, three meters wide, controlled by artificial intelligence algorithms, and that operate without batteries thanks to a very low voltage electrical power supply through the rails.
Urbanloop is a project carried out by four engineering schools near Nancy since 2021. Its main advantage is its very low consumption, a shuttle has also broken the world record for lowest energy consumption for a rail vehicle with 0.047 kWh/km.
Technically, the lanes form interconnected loops and there are algorithms that optimize movement in real time: route, speed, load shedding of overloaded loops. A shuttle can carry one or two passengers, or a person on a bicycle, and travel at speeds of up to 60 km/h.
In addition to Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, Urbanloop will be implemented in Nancy in 2026. It involves connecting, over seven kilometers, a parking lot installed on the outskirts with the city center.
Source: BFM TV
