For the better part of a century, designers have been racing toward the next best thing in ride system technology… From simple carts powered by electric bus-bars, to high-capacity boat-based dark rides; from the continuously-moving Omnimover to the debut of Disney’s Enhanced Motion Vehicle (EMV) in 1995 that makes guests the center of the action… At each step of the way, evolutions in ride system technology have changed the ways that designers can tell stories.
But when we looked at the Seven Modern Wonders of the Theme Park World, one cutting edge technology stands out as the way of the future: rides untethered by tracks entirely. A new generation of trackless rides allow vehicles to do what once seemed impossible: to make choices; to diverge down new paths; to spin and dance around one another in precisely-calibrated near-collisions; to become alive.
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