people pod

See also: people-pod

English

Alternative forms

• people-pod

Noun

people pod (plural people pods)

1. A mobile cabin that attaches to an aircraft or helicopter.
   • 1965 December, “Biggest -- and Ugliest -- Chopper”, in Popular Science, volume 187, number 6, page 88:

     With a people pod snugged underneath, it can even transport troops.

   • 1969, Bay Area Transportation Study Commission, Bay Area transportation report, supplement I:

     Innovations such as the helicopter-carried people pod now being demonstrated in Los Angeles may be in use by 1980.

   • 1978, United States Army Aviation Digest - Volume 24, page 16:

     Additionally the U.S. Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory, located at Ft. Rucker, AL sent a team to test the toxic gas levels inside the people pods, when flying with doors open.

   • 1994 September, Gregory T. Pope, “Commandos Spring From The Wings Of Jump Jets”, in Popular Mechanics, volume 171, number 9, page 15:

     Using its own money, the company has spent a year designing and building a people pod to hang from the wing of an AV-8B Harrier jump jet.

   • 2012, Gordon L. Rottman, Vietnam Airmobile Warfare Tactics, →ISBN, page 9:

     It could lift a 155mm howitzer, or a van-like “people pod” taking 45 troops and was also capable of being fitted out as a command post or an emergency operating room.

2. A bus-like compartment carried by a lift truck, proposed in the late 1950s for transporting people and luggage from the airport terminal to an aircraft.
   • 1956, Jet Age Planning: Quarterly Progress Report - Issue 1, page 15:

     Its concept is as follows: "Passengers are to be transported from the terminal together with baggage in a detachable bus-like compartment called a people pod on a lift truck.

   • 1957, Modern Materials Handling - Volume 12, page 198:

     Some of the concepts involved, which ought to be applicable elsewhere, are: people pods, as shown at the Cleveland show last June, which pick up unit loads of passengers for direct transportation to aircraft at the runway;

   • 1958, American Lumberman & Building Products Merchandiser, page 126:

     An unusual sight at the recent Northwestern Lumbermen's Association convention in Minneapolis was the Youngblood Express, a "people pod" coupled with a 20,000-pound straddle carrier.

   • 1968, United States Congress Joint Economic Committee, Subcommittee on Economic Progress, Public Facility Requirements Over the Next Decade:

     Typical estimates for advanced design passenger handling systems are as follows: Boarding bridge over wing: approximately $300,000 each. People pod lounges: approximately $200,000 each. Mobile escalators: $70,000–100,000 each.

3. A driverless electric car for transporting a single person.
   • 2009, Automotive Engineering International - Volume 117, Issues 1-6, page 8:

     Each battery-powered people pod looks a bit like George Jetson's egg-shaped sky-car except for the two well-grounded wheels below.

   • 2012 April 10, Jeff Cobb, “Former GM R&D Head Predicts Driverless Cars By 2020”, in Hybrid Cars News:

     In China, GM has demonstrated its EN-V concept to reportedly enthusiastic acceptance, and is working out the bugs there in a model “eco city” for the little personal people pods.

   • 2016 March 20, Steve Hanley, “Autonomous Electric People Pods Coming To European Cities This Year”, in Gas 2:

     The vehicles were already available in the form of electrically powered people pods designed and built by EasyMile of Toulouse, France.

4. (science fiction or futurism) Any of various cars for carrying a small number of people as part of a public transportation system.
   • 1968, Railway Age - Volume 164, page i:

     If you believe your Sunday papers. the answer is supposed to be "people pods in pneumatic tubes."

   • 1974, Margaret Early, Gwendolyn Kerr, Judith Busch, Ring around the world, →ISBN, pages 256–257:

     These little cars are called people pods. Each one has seats for two to four people. To ride in a people pod, you first buy a ticket from a computer. You push buttons on the computer to tell it where you want to go. You put the ticket in a slot in the small computer on the people pod. The computer then controls your ride along tracks under the city. When you get out of the people pod, or out of the parking building, you go up to the street.

   • 2011, Chloe Rayban, Terminal Chic, →ISBN:

     'Yeah, and conveying themselves round in those cryonic selfdrive people pods.

   • 2012, James L. Lowther, The Group, →ISBN:

     A people pod—a bi-rail system where each person gets into his or her own pod or car.

   • 2015 June 15, Amanda Schupak, “Elon Musk to build Hyperloop test track in California”, in CBS News:

     And now, much like the linear accelerators he designed to push his theoretical people pods, Musk is planning to encourage forward movement on more Hyperloop designs.

5. A small chamber for a single person.
   • 1993, Car and Driver - Volume 39, page 112:

     For what amounts to a transmission tunnel with two people pods, the Viper's cabin is actually quite roomy.

   • 2000, George Ivanoff, Carole Wilkinson, Real sci-fi, →ISBN, page 56:

     When they came to the people pods on Crater Street, Ace hid in the underground holding pod, hoping they wouldn't find him.

   • 2004, Andy Cameron, The Art of Experimental Interaction Design, page 94:

     Life-sized people pods and a bespoke 'blue screen' sequence engage the visitor with real people and their actual city.

Anagrams

• pod people