UC Berkeley and CyberTran International Join Forces to Help Solve Traffic Congestion and Other Auto-Related Problems

September 14, 2017

Submitted by admin on Wed, 2016-10-12 16:53

The University of California, Berkeley announced today that it has joined forces with CyberTran International Inc. (CTI), STANTEC, a global Architecture and Engineering firm, and a group of small businesses to apply jointly to the MacArthur Foundation’s 100 & Change Grant program. The grant would finance the development of a rapid –over 100 mph – UltraLight Rail Transit (ULRT) system technology pioneered by CTI.

UC Berkeley’s Partners in Advanced Partners in Advanced Transportation Technology (PATH) has decades of experience in the automated vehicle field.

“We can definitely apply our automated vehicle system technology to ULRT,” said researcher Xiao-Yun Lu.

“ULRT has the potential to revolutionize how we travel and commute,” said CTI President Dexter Vizinau. “Automated rail shuttles that travel in a network up to speeds of over 100 mph will reduce the cost of building and maintaining transit systems while greatly increasing convenience and providing an alternative sustainable mode to today’s congested highways and roads, and reducing toxic emissions.”

The MacArthur Grant program will award only one $100M grant applicant per year.

“These funds will help us to bring this very important technology to market at low, medium and 100+ mph speed applications. Our team is ably skilled to succeed in introducing this radically innovative and effective technology to the globe,” said Neil Sinclair, CTI’s Chairman. ”We are very happy to be teaming with UC Berkeley’s PATH group along with the rest of the team on this project.”

ULRT is a computer operated on-demand and direct-to-destination transit system using individual rail shuttles. Studies have shown the system to cost an order of magnitude less to build and operate. It was originated at the US Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory. The program proposal is a three year $100M project resulting in the completion of the commercialization of the technology. CTI engineers compare ULRT to the Internet.  Vehicles travel under computer control to off-line stations based on real time passenger demand.  The demand can come from passengers in stations pushing a button, or through smart phone pre-scheduling.

CyberTran International’s offices are at the UC Berkeley Global Campus at Richmond Bay in Richmond, CA.