French autonomous car manufacturer Navya has slotted
its self-driving hardware into a fully-autonomous taxi. The pure-electric
Autonom Cab has room for six passengers, and hits 89 km/h given enough
room. Oh, and it’ll be on the roads next year.
Central to the car’s operation is the array of
sensors scattered around its exterior. Along with 10 Lidar sensors, there are
six cameras, four radars and an onboard computer to manage it all. Navya says
its mapping software also provides backup, although information from the vision
system takes precedence.
The car is Level 4 autonomous making it more capable than any other autonomous vehicle on the road,
barring the Waymo testers rolling around Phoenix. Although it’s capable of
hitting 88 km/h, the car is expected to average around 48 km/h around
bustling city streets.
Because it was designed from scratch as an
autonomous vehicle, the cabin doesn’t house a steering wheel or pedals. There’s
also no sleazy driver, determined to take you the longest, slowest route home,
which can only be a good thing.
At the moment, the company has partnerships with
KEOLIS in Europe and the USA, along with the Royal Automobile Club (RAC) in
Australia. These pairings mean the cab could, potentially, be on the roads in
the second quarter of 2018.
Users will be able to order the car through an app,
and simply hop into the cars for their ride. No word on whether the car will
have to rate the rider on a scale from one to five, but we’d be disappointed if
that wasn’t the case.
