Patent ID: 8090489

Claim:
A transportation system, comprising: a network of roads for traveling to and from various destinations; a plurality of vehicles for transporting passengers, each vehicle situated within said network of roads, and each vehicle comprising: a power supply; a positioning system, for identifying the position of said vehicle; a transmitter, coupled with said positioning system, for displaying position and velocity information of said vehicle on a display surface attached to the vehicle; a receiver for scanning the displayed position and velocity information from other vehicles in the vicinity of said vehicle; and an automatic steering system, coupled with said receiver, for steering said vehicle through the network of roads without collision, in order (i) to travel to a destination designated by the at least one passenger, when said vehicle is transporting the at least one passenger, (ii) to travel to a source for picking up the at least one passenger, when said vehicle is empty, and (iii) to travel to an available docking station, when said power supply is low; and a plurality of docking stations, each docking station situated at a roadside of said network of roads, and each docking station comprising a charger for charging said power supply of a vehicle that is docked at the docking station; wherein said displayed position and velocity information is encoded as a plurality of color stripes, and wherein said receiver comprises: a scanner for scanning the plurality of color stripes; and a decoder for decoding the plurality of color stripes into position and velocity information.