In 2018, the world's largest exhibition of transport technologies registered a record number of participants and guests, demonstrated 400 innovations and 155 world premiers. It attracted 160,000 visitors from 110 countries, 25 business delegations from 18 countries, which arrived in Berlin to familiarize themselves with 3,062 exhibitors. 89% of the participants expressed their satisfaction with the results of the forum, which is also a record indicator.
The SkyWay company - developer representatives visited the stands of other companies working in the segment of perspective transport developments. The results of the conducted analysis showed that industry leaders are going to further refine existing concepts, improving aspects of the operation of classic trains and buses. Comfort, automatic control systems, alternative fuels, comfortable interfaces and sharing models -- all that is showcased at the exhibition and presented in the already worked out state. It is difficult to say what our competitors have “up their sleeves", but most likely, there are the same trains, but in a different design and with other software.
On the other hand, interest in the string transport was evident: almost all major players have visited our stand. SkyWay has one of the most unique stands at an exhibition, as in fact, the high-speed transportat of such format is a rarity, especially with such unusual indicators: the maximum speed is 500 km /h, while the fuel consumption at this speed is 0.93 kg / 100 passengers. × km, which is a record for a high-speed, small capacity wheeled vehicle.
Additional attention to the SkyWay stand was attracted due to the fact that it was attended by the key persons of the company with whom it was possible to talk and find out the information of interest from the source. Anatoliy Yunitskiy, General Designer of CJSC "String Technologies" and the author of the string transport concept, was presenting the SkyWay high-speed transport personally.
As the SkyWay employees who were working at the stand noted, the exposition had impressed guests in a big way for several reasons: firstly, such developments are unique, the concept is fresh and unexpected, while from the point of view of design and technology it has been worked out at a high level. Secondly, no one expected this from the traditionally conservative and "quiet" Belarus. At the same time, the company creates an additional intrigue: if such an exclusive is shown at the stand, what remains behind the scenes?
The user characteristics of the new transport were also highly appreciated: there has been conducted a survey among the guests of the stand about their opinion of certain aspects of the new module's ergonomics, based on the visitors' experience of interaction with the presented exhibit. According to the results of the survey by visitors from 40 countries, the average rating of its design and ease of use was about 9 points out of 10 possible.
InnoTrans 2018 became for the creators of SkyWay a negotiating table, a meeting platform and an exchange of experience with the biggest players in the field of development of innovative transport technologies and with future consumers of our services. The participants of the exhibition showed a keen interest in the project, and it is quite possible that this interest will develop into full-fledged cooperation. In addition to the colleagues in the transport department, the business contacts were established with the representatives of the Ministry of Transport of Bahrain, the Development Corporation of Malaysia, governmental organizations of Iran and other interested parties.