The original note, as written at the time
A re-imagining of Renault’s pod based modular transit system. The modification is to try and see whether we can build such a system with wheels other than the floating mechanism. Maybe a system of six individually liftable and movable wheels can be used. We could explore with single person pods too. At some time in the future it should be punishable to use other large transport vehicles other than pods.
Ongoing development
A re-imagining of the pod-based modular transit system, using wheels rather than the floating mechanism — perhaps six individually liftable and movable wheels — with single-person pods explored as well.
The wheels are the right instinct because the floating mechanism is the expensive part. A pod system that needs a prepared surface with embedded infrastructure is a system that can only exist where somebody has already spent the money. Six independently liftable wheels let a pod climb a kerb, level itself on a slope, and run on an ordinary road.
Liftable is the key word. A wheel that can be raised is a wheel that can be spared, so a pod can lose one and keep going, or change its footprint to fit a narrow lane. That is a robustness argument as much as a manoeuvrability one.
The single-person pod is where the idea becomes interesting rather than merely clever. A one-person vehicle is a bicycle with weather protection and a motor, and it is the only class of car that could plausibly replace the car for most urban journeys — if it were cheap, safe and permitted.
The last line of the note is the part I would argue with. Making other large vehicles punishable is a policy that arrives only after the alternative exists and works, and in most cities it would be a tax on people who have no alternative. The better sequence is to make the pod so obviously better that the law is a formality.
The wheel is the door. Walk through it one at a time.