Pod on Demand

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P.O.D

Pod On Demand

P.O.D or Pod On Demand is a smartphone and smartwatch app that allows commuters to book a Pod - a personal autonomous vehicle proposed as a solution to Singapore's transportation needs. There are 3 constituent elements to the proposal: the P.O.D app, the Pod vehicle and the Pod network.

The Pod concept seeks to radically - not incrementally - transform the transport experience in Singapore, with the goal of changing the public perception of commuting and at the same time, usher in a new era of transportation through the application of near-future technologies. To do this, the Pod concept offers the following possibilities:

AN ON-DEMAND SERVICE

Regardless of how accessible transportation is in a city, there are still situations where a lack of public or private transport leads to unnecessary
commuting problems. The Pod concept aims to eliminate that by being available on-demand wherever, whenever you need a transport. Being an autonomous vehicle, Pods are able to ply the roads without a bias for location, timing or need for incentives, allowing for Pods to be deployed to locations at any time whenever a commuter needs one.

A PERSONALISED ENVIRONMENT

Commuting in cities and urban environments are often synonymous with a lack of personal space, air and noise pollution, dense crowds and psychological stresses. The Pod concept seeks to upend that, offering a personalised environment made possible through 360 degree displays embedded in the interior of the Pod vehicle. Through the In-Pod Interface (IPI), commuters are able to choose and customise the environment (e.g. beach, forest etc.), ambience (e.g. birds chirping, waves crashing etc.) and lighting - allowing for a fully personalised space that encourages and enables mental rejuvenation from the ills of urban commute.

CONTEXT AWARE AND INTELLIGENT

Each Pod is equipped with a suite of sensors internally and externally, enabling them to issue contextually relevant information to passengers such as reminding them to take their items. A universal translator allows commuters to verbally communicate with the Pod in almost any language (tailored for Singapore's environment, hence the focus on English, Chinese, Malay, Tamil and various dialects), allowing the unfamiliar or elderly to commute with peace of mind.

Pods are also able to collect data on speech patterns, new words, slangs and colloquialisms used by commuters, allowing engineers to feed it into a neural network to improve the accuracy of the universal translator, as well as enabling a more natural voice control syntax. This, when coupled with information on journey and personal preferences from the P.O.D app, allows for Pods to tailor bespoke journey experiences based on individual commuters' likes and dislikes.

END-TO-END

Pods - being semi-private autonomous personal transports - are much smaller than cars and are thus able to bring commuters much closer to their destinations without having to park (since they leave immediately upon the commuter alighting).

MORE AT ONCE, SAFER

Human-driven vehicles are, most of the time, moving more of their own mass than the driver's. The personal nature of the Pod allows for efficient use of energy, moving just the commuter instead of empty seats. Furthermore, the autonomous, computer controlled nature of Pods enables them to be packed much closer to each other as compared to human-controlled vehicles, reducing the need for following distances.

This allows for more Pods to be on the road at once and on a macro-level - it allows for optimised Pod fleets that minimise wasted energy (moving empty seats) and wasted space (only Pods with commuters will be on roads), enabling an overall smoother traffic experience.

COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE

Leveraging on the collective behaviour of decentralised, self-organised systems made possible via swarm intelligence, the Pod network is designed to react and adapt to rapidly changing traffic conditions on a macro-scale while maintaining resilience in the face of challenging cyber-security landscapes.

The Pod network itself has no centralised control structure. Individual Pods follow very simple rules - only knowing their current status, destination and immediate intent, and are only able to communicate these information with other Pods in the immediate vicinity. However, these Pod-to-Pod interactions enable the emergence of "intelligent" global behaviour on a macro-scale, allowing for a resilient, intelligent transportation network that is able to function, adapt and react to rapid and unpredictable conditions. The decentralised nature of the network, coupled with the individually simply Pods, also enables the network to circumvent cyber-security issues commonly faced by centralised control networks.

The Pod Vehicle

ELECTRICALLY POWERED

The Pod vehicle is envisioned as a 3-wheeled, front wheel drive electric vehicle. The all-electric nature of the Pod allows for smooth and gradual speed changes, as well as eliminating almost all of the noise and vibrations associated with internal-combustion engines. This ensures that commuters are able to enjoy smoother, more relaxing rides.

COMPOSITE SKIN

The vehicle chassis is composed of a polymer composite for increased crash worthiness and weight efficiency, ensuring that Pods are able to effectively protect commuters in the rare event of an accident, as well as accelerate to respectable speeds for efficient commutes.

FRONT WHEEL DRIVE

The front-wheel drive system was chosen to enable benefits to commuters such as more interior space, increased frontal protection in accidents as well as increased vehicle traction in unpredictable weather conditions. Production wise, the front-wheel drive system enables Pods to be produced faster at a lower cost - key requirements of a national transport system

The primary use case of the smartphone app, detailing the booking process all the way through to a successfully completed journey and feedback.

THE SMARTPHONE APPLICATION

As the P.O.D app will be utilised by commuters of all age groups, it was designed based on the following principles:

intuitiveness, functionality and clarity

These 3 principles are reflected in the app through the incorporation of:

Flat design language

Using flat, 2D design elements to minimise visual complexity. This is essential for the app to cater to audiences of all age groups and capabilities. While Skeuomorphism might improve the intuitiveness of apps via relation to real-world objects, ultimately the need for reference memories and the added visual complexity of unnecessary visual ornamentation reduces the clarity of the application.

Emotion-based colours

Using colours to guide users based on emotional reactions (e.g. blue as the brand colour due to the association with calmness, with the navy blue shade providing a sense of credibility and trust; green is associated with progressive actions, while red is associated with regressive actions.) enables the app to increase intuitiveness above basic interpretations of functions based on text and language.

INFORMATION MANAGEMENT

By limiting the information displayed on screen to only those that are actually capable of empowering commuters to make decisions and/or feel reassured, the app is able to minimise information overload and reduce visual complexity, allowing for quick and reactive functionality emphasised through seamless animated transitions.

SEAMLESS FLOW

The animated transitions between states or screens in the app was designed to merge and flow seamlessly - elements expand into the next while revealing updated functionalities, while text fades away as the conditions change. This ensures that the app feels cohesive while injecting a sense of dynamism into the user interface.

The booking process, showcasing the different ways you can get a Pod, as well as the different Pod variants. You can summon a Pod without keying in any destinations (tell the Pod where you wish to go when you board), or enter a destination and go the entire journey without having to speak.

The arrival process shown here occurs after you successfully book a Pod. The countdown screen lets you know how long it takes for your pod to arrive, while the GPS navigation guides you to your Pod.

The journey process appears upon boarding a Pod - showing you the key information about the journey. When you alight, you are shown the remaining value of your pod-wallet.

THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY