rapid transit systems, or PRTs. These systems abandoned centralized control for a simpler distributed solution based on set timings, speeds, or flocking behaviour. By placing the headway logic on the vehicles the reaction timing was dramatically improved, because they no longer had to communicate with a centralized system for traffic information or instructions. PRTs generally worked on headways of less than 10 seconds, which greatly increased the passenger density of the system as a whole. This allowed the vehicles to be much smaller and still retain the same system capacity as the larger GRTs, while offering the sort of personalized car-like operations that Individualized Automatic Transit envisioned. Cabinentaxi In 1969 Demag and MBB independently started projects studying PRT systems as a result of the HUD reports. At the time, the Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie (BMFT) was involved in a wide variety of transport research, including a variety of maglev trains for high-speed service, several automated railway systems, as well as more mundane research in railway safety and signalling. Significant within the transportation development programs of the BMFT was the direct involvement of the VOV (German Association of Public Transit Operators), the Deutsche Bundesbahn (German Federal Railway) and their safety experts. This assured that when development was completed, the systems would meet German (and by extension international) public transit standards. When the BMFT learned of the separate efforts at Demag and MBB, they urged both companies to combine their efforts under a new joint operating company, which became Cabinentaxi. BMFT provided 80% of the total funding, considerably less than their counterparts in the U.S., which completely funded by the UMTA. By this time the system had been well-defined, and was committed to true PRT point-to-point service. In order to avoid stops along the way, stations were "off-line", on separate guideways placed beside the main routes, allowing en-route cars to pass them by. The cars themselves would handle switching along a pre-defined route, which allowed them to be directed to an optimal path in a network of any complexity. Studies suggested a three-passenger car for the basic system, although in order to increase capacity they also had cars with seating for 6, 12 and 18 passengers. These larger cars would normally be planned to operate in GRT fashion in order to increase the overall capacity of the network in the early development stages, where small networks in dense areas would not