One of the things we miss about the old days of covering personal rapid transit is the way everything used to be out in the open.
Perhaps an outgrowth of the federally-initiated PRT effort of the Sixties, the leading PRT efforts of the 1990s-Early 2000s welcomed publicity, and actively disseminated the results of their work. That Raytheon was playing with millions in public funds obligated some openness, but that doesn't explain why the private Taxi 2000, and later university spinoff Ultra, was open with the public to varying degrees.
But today's would-be pod transit makers are keeping their cards close to the vest. In some cases the caginess is due to an enterprise not being on the up-and-up (e.g. Maglev Movers, IPERT1, 2, 3), but in most cases the caution arises out of business security. Four, count them, pod transit systems now exist in the world, and the competition to be the fifth might be just that tight.
