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| Volkswagen Robot Car |
Four years ago, Daimler dazzled with a self-driving luxury
lounge in Las Vegas with a concept vehicle boasting a sleek interior that
promised to pamper its well-heeled passengers into the automotive future.
The present year the Mercedes Benz maker is back at the
annual Consumer Electronics Show, though with a more utilitarian slant: a
bubble-like autonomous shuttle designed to reliably ferry people and goods
around town at limited speeds.
Driverless cars might not start on public roads for some
time, shuttle services in confined areas have started to look more feasible, at
least over coming years.
Sales of Autonomous Shuttles will reach about 1 million
vehicles in 2020 and could more than double to 2.5 million by 2025, estimated
reports.
The rundown of some
of the main concepts being shown at CES this year and elsewhere:
Daimler’s Vision Urbanetic is an on-demand mobility solution
for as many as 12 people. It has an electrically-powered chassis with
switchable bodies to transform into a cargo-version sibling.
Bosch’s driverless shuttle is a concept designed for four
people. A concierge service provides reservations, recommendations, travel tips
and users can pay via Bosch’s e-payment service.
Volkswagen’s latest Sedric concepts are a mini school bus,
or autonomous taxi for four, suitable for car sharing or personal use. It is
likely to hit roads around 2025.
May Mobility, meanwhile, is a BMW-backed start-up ferrying
Detroit workers from a parking garage to offices. The six-seater electric
vehicles still have attendant on board and the shuttles operate on loop on
downtown Detroit public roads.
Other contenders include Continental’s Cube autonomous
shuttle, while ZF Friedrichshafen, another large German auto parts supplier,
has teamed up with start-up e.Go Mobile to start making driverless vehicles
from late 2019.
Technically obstacles remain substantial for self-drives
facing situations on public roads that are often difficult to predict.
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