So I have been looking at Gadgetbahns, most of them French
First TELLi (and no, no idea why the i is small)
It's the most train-like of the lot, will have battery and hydrogen options (so that’ll mean battery), 120km/h max speed, 200km between charges, and they say “interoperable” - I assume that means able to run on regular lines, so will have solid crash worthiness
It has a few oddities though
It seems to have single axels, like a 🇬🇧 Pacer
The renders have solar panels on the roof - good luck getting enough power from those!
And rather than a ramp or a lift, the train itself adjusts height for different platform heights
Background https://www.groupe-sncf.com/fr/innovation/mobilite-territoires/telli
Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZakHS1l9HKw
OVERALL: not sure why you'd build this from scratch, but minus a few of the oddities it will likely work
Second, DRAISY
Not to be confused with a draisine, as this one has a roof on it. But given it has only 2 axels, and a weight of 20 tonnes, it might ride as rough as a draisine!
It also has a friendly face seems to have nice large windows that... SNCF will probably plaster with stickers telling you to not forget your bags
But I digress
100km/h, 100km range, batteries
But then it gets weird
They're not clear how autonomous this is meant to be - there is not a driving cabin
Also there is no way I can see you can mix this with other trains - so forget serving terminus stations with this, or running freight on the same lines
Also it charges “at the platform” - which means how? No pantograph like TELLi
Background: https://www.groupe-sncf.com/fr/innovation/mobilite-territoires/draisy
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SUAuxuDy1k
OVERALL: this one looks really sketchy to me. How would you deploy this?