Will they make the next Finance Minister give up his/her cigarette boat for travel between the centre and Bercy?
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Note that a Sea Bubble only costs about €30,000 ("Thébault reportedly has the backing of several investors and 100 people have already registered interest in owning one of the boats, expected to cost €30,000")
It's still a fairly cool idea on some level, but a) I don't understand why it's meaningfully better than a clipper-style river bus (though to be fair, I'm not familiar with mooring options on the Seine), and b) I expect it will be a lot more expensive than they're portraying, unless massively subsidised. The appeal of land taxis is obvious - buses may not take you where you want to go. But on a river you can only really go upstream or downstream.
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View PostAssuming that's true (and I'll believe it as and when they've got them under production, they still need specially trained and presumably licensed pilots for every four passengers (likely two passengers in practice). I imagine the insurance costs will be pretty huge as well (the prototypes on Youtube look like they'd capsize in a heartbeat).
It's still a fairly cool idea on some level, but a) I don't understand why it's meaningfully better than a clipper-style river bus (though to be fair, I'm not familiar with mooring options on the Seine), and b) I expect it will be a lot more expensive than they're portraying, unless massively subsidised. The appeal of land taxis is obvious - buses may not take you where you want to go. But on a river you can only really go upstream or downstream.
Judging by the few links I consulted the other day (dozens of links in French & English on the Sea Bubble project on the Net) the whole thing seems to have cost comparatively very little (can't remember exactly but it's in the few million € range, mainly funded by investors and loans). I imagine the Paris municipality will chip in though for the logistics side of it on the Seine, eg to adapt the quays into individual bays (photos on the Net).
Don't worry about those things capsizing, I would imagine the relevant French health & safety regulations are pretty stringent and basically if it's not river-worthy, it won't be allowed to operate. Some top nautical engineers have worked and collaborated on this project. If the wind is too strong on a particular day, I'd imagine they will be under obligation to stay at quay.
The harder thing by the looks of it for the Sea bubble maker will be to obtain the authorisation to go over the 8 mile/hour limit in the central bit of the Seine when they want to operate (ideally, they would want an up to 12 mile/hour authorisation). The Paris bit of the Seine is not yet Venice but it's getting pretty crowded (up to 600 boats use the Seine every day in central Paris).
From http://www.liberation.fr/futurs/2017...mouche_1562950 Restera à obtenir les autorisations de navigation de ce véhicule hors catégories. Ce ne sera pas le plus simple. «Il y a des contraintes fortes sur la Seine en matière de limitation de vitesse, pour ne pas générer de vague ni de bruit, souligne le directeur général adjoint de Sea Bubbles, Matthieu Faure, récemment débauché de chez Uber. De ce point de vue, le Sea Bubble est parfaitement dans les clous.» Mais l’«auto-bulle» devra également obtenir une dérogation pour dépasser la vitesse limitée à 12 km/h sur le tronçon parisien du fleuve.
Seems to be pretty successful (sorry, in French again but I'm sure you'll get the gist of it; in summary: strong interest from across the planet, these cities are probably waiting to see how it'll go in Paris to invest into this project):
Au-delà de la maire de Paris, les Sea Bubble entraînent dans leur sillage l’adhésion de nombre de ceux qui cherchent des modèles alternatifs de mobilité urbaine. Alain Thébault n’en revient pas de la viralité de son idée : «On a des marques d’intérêt de New York, Detroit, Genève, Tokyo, Melbourne, de l’Inde et des Pays-Bas… Poutine veut nous voir au Kremlin, nous serons reçus prochainement par le maire de Londres. C’est surréaliste !» A Chicago, la compagnie Water Taxi s’intéresse de près au projet. Mark Zuckerberg pourrait mettre des bulles-navettes à disposition de ses jeunes développeurs bloqués dans les bouchons entre San Francisco et Menlo Park. Et les discussions avec Google X, le laboratoire d’innovation d’Alphabet, pourraient aboutir à un partenariat technologique sur un modèle autonome (sans pilote). Pour démarrer, la société a déjà levé 4 millions d’euros auprès d’investisseurs comme Henri Seydoux (fondateur de Parrot), Philippe Camus (directeur général délégué du groupe Lagardère), la Maif et le fonds de capital-risque Partech Ventures. Une prochaine levée de fonds de 10 millions d’euros viendra soutenir la recherche et le développement. A peine plus d’un an après sa création, la valorisation de l’entreprise atteint déjà 30 millions d’euros.Last edited by Pérou Flaquettes; 25-06-2017, 14:15.
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I wonder if this type of boat is affected by the coriolis effect, necessitating a redesign and new name for the Antipodes? It is an unfortunate name.
It's also testament to how relatively cheap and easy computers and modern manufacturing techniques have made developing things like this.
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USD 10 million in venture capital funding so far
I'm still not sure how they are dealing with landings. Are they anticipating being able to land anywhere there's a quai?
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Originally posted by ursus arctos View PostUSD 10 million in venture capital funding so far
I'm still not sure how they are dealing with landings. Are they anticipating being able to land anywhere there's a quai?
These 2 photos below taken from the Net show what the landing bays could look like (I've got a few more somewhere in my PC, will try to find them tonight, need to walk the dog now for a good hour - energetic 11-month old labrador).
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Merci bien.
Seems to me that dedicated landing bays significantly increase the capital costs and regulatory complexity while making the comparison with the Batobus all the more obvious.
The very interesting clips you've posted make me think that they are using Paris as proof of concept, but are really targeting other cities that don't already have established infrastructure.
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Probably yes, it could be replicated across the world in many various ways and forms (public and private), a bit like the bike-sharing pioneering scheme in La Rochelle (1976) that was then duplicated the world over (La Rochelle then launched one of the first self-service electric car-sharing schemes in the late 90's, smashing place BTW if you’ve never been).
http://www.citymobil2.eu/en/City-act...n/La-Rochelle/
http://www.eltis.org/discover/case-s...ochelle-france
The potential for Sea bubble is there IMHO (from this article: The business plan forecasts between 3,000 to 5,000 bubbles to be produced by 2018, driven by professional drivers. The Sea Bubbles vessels would transport people mostly between tourist destinations.)
Two other interesting articles on the subject:
https://www.iims.org.uk/hydrofoil-wa...sions-concept/
http://www.futura-sciences.com/plane...volants-63471/
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But, again, why a taxi and not a bus? If you have one of two directions at any quay, and if you can't just hail them anywhere like a land-taxi, what exactly is the benefit of a personal vehicle that justifies the enormous inefficiencies?Last edited by Ginger Yellow; 25-06-2017, 20:01.
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- Apr 2011
- 2053
- A bottom-bottom wata-wata in Lake Titicaca
- Atlético Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca Pan flutes FC
- Buñuelos Arequipeños
Originally posted by Ginger Yellow View PostBut, again, why a taxi and not a bus? If you have one of two directions at any quay, and if you can't just hail them anywhere like a land-taxi, what exactly is the benefit of a personal vehicle that justifies the enormous inefficiencies?
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- Mar 2008
- 20915
- The House with the Golden Windows
- Fast falling out of love for football.
- WasPlain Hobnobs
dunno if I've already posted this
Courtesy of my baby brother -
http://www.marineinsight.com/know-mo...ack-your-ship/
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