Hail a flying ‘Sea Bubble’ eco-taxi for your trip down the Seine
Paris looks to have pipped London to the post in the race to become the first city to be served by hi-tech and environmentally friendly ‘‘flying’’ river taxis.
The futuristic egg-shaped river shuttles, the creation of French yachtsman Alain Thibault and Swedish windsurfer Anders Bringdal, are due to be tried out in the French capital next year at the request of its environmentally conscious city hall.
Made of fibreglass and highdensity foam, the solar-powered vessels can carry five people and, with the help of foils fixed to the hulls that reduce drag and cause the shuttle to ‘‘fly’’ about 70 centimetres above the water, can reach up to 30kmh.
Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, helped the start-up get off the ground and the team was repaying that favour by testing the vessels on the Seine, Thibault said.
‘‘If London had helped us out I think we would have started out there,’’ he said, adding that city authorities and private firms around the world had been in touch with him to find out more about the project but he had had no contact from officials in London.
Thibault hopes that eventually his ‘‘Sea Bubbles’’ could be hailed on apps such as the Uber taxi service, and he estimates that fares in Paris will be around €10 (NZ$15) if and when the project is given the green light.
The yachtsman has raised around €500,000 in investment to develop the prototype, which he plans to exhibit at the high-profile Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January.
‘‘Next [northern hemisphere] spring we will hold a public demonstration on the Seine in front of the National Assembly [parliament] in Paris with five Sea Bubbles,’’ he said.
Thibault has just returned from New York, where he met with officials interested in having hundreds of Sea Bubbles working the Hudson River, and he says he has been told of other potential plans to buy a fleet of 1500 in Florida.
‘‘But we are taking no orders at the moment. We first have to finish the prototype,’’ Thibault said, adding that he hopes that the Sea Bubble may eventually become driverless.
If the vessels are granted licences to ply their trade on the Seine, the plan is to build specially designed docking stations where passengers can hop on or off. The docking points would also serve as charging stations.
The Paris test will come just a few months after mayor Hidalgo, as part of her battle to reduce pollution in Paris, pedestrianises a three-kilometre stretch of highway that runs along the northern banks of the Seine.
The office of the mayor of London did not respond when asked about its attitude to the Sea Bubble project.
There is, however, still hope for the British capital to get into the ‘‘flying’’ river taxi game.
‘‘Once we have gone beyond the prototype and have fully developed the Sea Bubble, we might, after Paris, begin with London or Geneva,’’ said Thibault. –