🚤  Automated and eco-friendly water taxi

🚤 Automated and eco-friendly water taxi

A new automated and eco-friendly water taxi launches in the Netherlands. It’s called the Roboat and it’s now navigating the canals running through Amsterdam.

Linn Winge
Linn Winge

Share this story!

The Roboat is a massive breakthrough for automated floating vessels and wants to bring about change in the live, automated floating boats and wants to bring about change in the life of people living in urban areas with waterways, like Amsterdam.

This automated and eco-friendly water taxi is able to transport people as well as goods around the city. But not only that, it can also provide scientists and environmentalists with environmental sensings. The Roboat can pick up important pieces of data on Amsterdam's canals. Besides these characteristics, this water taxi features the ability to pick up garbage littered through the canals.

To the team, creating a boat that is climate-friendly was very important. The Roboat is about the size of an actual rowboat. It’s wirelessly charged, and between charges, it can run about 60 miles.  

Optimist Daily writes, “Developers envision the autonomous boat improving vital infrastructure for Amsterdam. Yes, it will clean up the canals and deposit them (the garbage) in floating dumpsters along the way. Still, multiple Roboat’s could also assemble and float together to form an impromptu pontoon bridge in areas where a regular bridge might be out of service. The new technology offers many opportunities for water travel and metropolitan cities like Amsterdam living on the water.”

The next Roboat model is being developed with the help of experimental data collected by the prototypes paddling through the canals of Amsterdam today.

🌊 $1 billion to be invested in cleaning up lakes
One billion dollars are to be invested in cleaning up the Great Lakes in the US. Besides being one of North America’s treasured and iconic wonders it’s also home to thousands of species of animals, fish, insects, and birds.