Driverless cars in Masdar

More about this in a rather uncritical article in the RIBA Journal. Zero-carbon Masdar, in the UAE, is proceeding rather more slowly than originally planned, and the super-duper network of driverless cars is now reduced to a fleet of 13 vehicles acting as shuttles on a single route from the edge-of-town car park to the downtown area. The architects are barely able to contain their excitement, though, because the design of the pods is a little bit like the Dymaxion car that Buckminster Fuller imagined way back in 1943. Architects like Norman Foster, who is responsible for Masdar, can't help loving Bucky because of his boundless optimism that technology will solve all problems - so stormin' Norman owns a replica Dymaxion car (pictured). For a slightly different view of Fuller, see this review in the London Review of Books.