The Mountain View City Council passed on funding New Age pod car technology, disappointing futuristic minded travelers.
The council voted on Tuesday night to decline further talks about creating a $750,000 federal grant program to fund a demonstration project headed by Mountain View company, Skytran, who builds the "pod cars."
The Mercury News reported that council members said they were unwilling to back an unproven technology in the face of worsening traffic congestion, particularly in the North Bayshore Area. The two-person pod cars SkyTran is developing would have been propelled along an elevated track by magnetic levitation.
"They haven't sold a project yet and that makes me nervous," Councilman Jac Siegel told the newspaper. "Because if it's viable, I think people would be beating their doors down wanting this product. It isn't happening yet."
The council agreed in the end to maintain its current level of general support for personal rapid transit technology.
VIDEO: Futuristic Pods Considered for Mountain View
(Original report from 2012)
