Self-Driving Monorail Cabs Enhance Rural Mobility

MonoCab, a German mobility startup, has created small, autonomous cabs that carry passengers around rural areas via a monorail, in an initiative designed to increase sustainable mobility in remote areas.

The mono cabs look like small cabins, with seats and a table inside for passengers to use on their journey. 

Users can order a cab to pick them up using an app, with the autonomous service available any time of day and night.

MonoCab’s research project aims to create an "individual public transport" system that reuses thousands of miles of disused railway lines, as part of a German government initiative to meet the challenges of growing mobility. 

The cabs use a sensor-enabled gyroscopic system which allows them to balance on one half of a railway track, meaning cabs moving in opposite directions can be in operation at the same time.

A Google translation of a company statement said it is “promoting mobility justice through the rapid reactivation of disused routes in rural areas with small and light, AI-based rail vehicles, as a significant contribution to creating equal living conditions in cities and rural areas.” 

The service is currently being tested on disused railway lines in the sparsely populated region of Ostwestfalen-Lippe in Germany, with a planned trial operation on the Extertalbahn railway line scheduled to start in 2028.

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