Why?

JPods was started in 1998 by Bill James, a West Point graduate and infantry veteran to end America's foreign oil addiction.

Background on packet-switching being applied to physical packets:

• 1957. Digitizing mobility, applying the concepts of packet-switch computer networks to move people and cargo in cities began in 1957 by cleaning a pig barn with a half-barrel suspended from a rail. A 7-year old child, too short to use a wheel barrel, could move tons by lowering the half-barrel with its chain and pullly, filling it, raising it back up, and pushing it out the the manuer spreader. 

• 1970's. As an Infantry officer, helicopters were used to similarly pick-up and deliver cargo nets of supplies.
• 1980's and 1990's. Software was written to appply packet-switched computer networks to Just-in-Time manufacturing processes (ASIDataMyte) and selling processes (WebClerk).
• 1998. it became clear that oil-wars since 1991 would continue so long as America lacked the self-discipline to be energy self-reliant. Efforts to patent the Physical Internet® began. US Patent 6,810,817 was filed in 2002.
• 2006. A working prototype was build and demonstrated. We had the tech. It is 10X less expensive to operate.
• 2006-2020. Efforts to break the government monopolies that block innovation were made. Here is a small sample to mark the efforts:
  • 2008. San Jose
  • 2011. TEDX Atlanta
  • 2012. Garden Girls presentation to Fremont City Council.
  • 2914. Secaucus passes the Solar Mobility Act only to be blocked by NJDOT.
  • 2015. Boston City Council Hearing
  • 2017. Contract to build JPods in China. Still pending building the US manufacturing base.
  • 2919. Letter of Intent from Goldman Sachs relative to building $4-6 billion in JPods networks in Atlanta. Blocked by Georgia DOT.
  • 2020. Pirates and Patriots. Purposefully violating every law that gets in their way, Tesla delivered 3 billion self-driving car miles on road while improving safety 9 times. The barrier JPods grade separated networks of self-driving cars is not technology, it is Rights of Way acess.
  • 2020. Proposal to Las Vegas summary of the 10X benefits.

Barrier to Innovation, Federal Violation of the Constitution:

In 1982 the courts declared the Federal communications monopoly unconstitutional. With Federal control of the means of production ended, with free markets restored, the Internet commercialized.

Unlike the courts ending Federal violation of the Consitution in communications, Federal violation of the Preamble, post Roads, Ports, Commerce, Necessary and Proper, and Amendments 9 and 10 continue in transportation.

In 1975 Congressional study BP-244854, "Automated Guideway Transit" faulted Federal regulations as blocking transportation innovations "except for minor cosmetic changes" for "four to six decades". 

Perpetual oil-wars and Climate Change are consequences of Federal violation of the Constitution.

The Boston Tea Party was a demonstration against a government transportation monopoly that triggered a Revolution. To prevent rebuilding that path to war, on Sept 14, 1787 the Constitutional Convention voted 8 states to 3 to forbid Federal taxing to build highways and canals. The Constituiton specifically Divided Sovereignty between Federal sovereignty over warfare and state sovereignty over welfare as stated in the Federal mission statement, the Preamble:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The importance of this Divided Sovereignty, this compound-republic is explained in Federalist #9, #10, #28, and threaded though others. Federalist #45 clearly states the prohibition from Federal taxing for highways:

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce; with which last the power of taxation will, for the most part, be connected. The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order, improvement, and prosperity of the State."

Links to:

• 21 Presidential veto messages that underscore the importance of Divided Sovereignty, separating the t warfare and wellfare. 
• Approximately 34 state constitutions spefically forbid government monopolies.
• The Confederal States of America clarified their Commerce Clause "To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes; but neither this, nor any other clause contained in the Constitution, shall ever be construed to delegate the power to Congress to appropriate money for any internal improvement intended to facilitate commerce"
• Eight Presidents declaring foreign oil addiction a national security threat.
• The Road to Racism, the racist consequences of Federal highways being repeatedly build through low income neighborhoods.
• Replacing 46% of 400+ ton-mpg freight railroads with 25 mpg roads since The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1916.

Car is the Right Answer, the Highway is the Wrong Network

Summary of JPods:

• Packet Size. Free markets clearly demonstrate the car is the right answer for moving people and cargo in a city, 85% of trips in the US are by car, 55% of trips in Europe are by car. But the highway is the WRONG network. The correct size packet for moving people where they which to go is 1 to 4 (maybe 6). 
• Energy Self-reliance. To be sustainable the energy to power a mobility must be integrated into it physics. JPods cuts the energy required to move people and goods in cities by 90% and uses the distributed nature of the network to harvest the solar energy to power the network.
• Economic Lifeboats. JPods can build economic lifeboats, durable against rising gasoline prices and supply shock. The lifeboat paradox is that if every community had one, they would not be needed.

Here in an image from 2014 of a network setup in Atlantis Energy Systems factory in Poughkeepsie, NY. 

Overwhelming Need

Opening the Market in China

Barriers to innovation have been less severe in China than in the US. JPods has existing Letters of Interest for potential JPods networks including customers such as Anshan, Kunming, Linyi, and Jiu Zhai Gou.

Privately Funded

JPods intends to build a privately funded mobility network in Secaucus, New Jersey, to demonstrate a cost effective way to move people, cargo, and waste while creating sustainable jobs. Computer controlled, suspended vehicles move 1-6 people or cargo on elevated rails and operate at 10% of the energy required by cars, buses, and trains. Solar panels mounted over the rails can gather enough energy to power the network. We offer on-demand, personal mobility regardless of age, ability, or wealth.