18 driverless pods will be coming to Heathrow airport in London in 2008.

The driverless capsules, guided by sensors alongside the pathway, will take passengers and their luggage from the car park to the terminal lounge.

Instead of huddling under a shelter to wait for a bus, passenger will be at most a minute away from the pod.

“People may arrive at Heathrow in style in their BMWs and Mercedes, but then they have to hoik their luggage out of the boot and clamber on to a bus,” said Martin Lowson, of Advanced Transport Systems. “The transport will be waiting for you rather than you waiting for the transport.”

In the future, the pods’ sophisticated computer technology would, for example, take a passenger to the correct terminal once the flight number is tapped in on a console. The computer could also read flight details on a chip embedded in a frequent flyer card and the capsules could even go direct to the check-in desk.

Via Autopia The Telegraph.