Towards a new mobility concept for cities: architecture and programming of semi‐autonomous electric vehicles

Purpose – This paper aims to focus on cybernetic transportation systems (CTS) due to their effectiveness for solving mobility problems in cities. A new mobility concept is proposed which allows to attain the same flexibility of the private passenger car but with much less nuisances. It is based on small semi‐autonomous electric vehicles, which may be used to complement mass public transportation, by providing passenger service for any location at any time. Design/methodology/approach – A set of automatic guided vehicles for public transportation are described. Two different control paradigms of the fleet are compared: centralized vs distributed control. Findings – The pros and cons of both control approaches are highlighted so as to support decisions about the configuration of a CTS for people transportation on public places. Originality/value – The paper provides a new offer of transportation for people in short path cities downtown or public gardens, in order to move people based on sustainable and efficient public transportation systems.