New Volkswagen Gen.Urban autonomous taxi to rival Tesla Cybercab
VW is looking into driverless car technology, inspired by Cybercab and Robotaxi
This is the new Volkswagen Gen.Urban and it’s being used right now to test Volkswagen’s upcoming autonomous-driving technology.
Research is being undertaken on the public roads in Volkswagen’s home city of Wolfsburg, and VW says that the Gen.Urban can now drive autonomously in urban traffic.
The Gen.Urban’s test run is 10km (6.2 miles) long and lasts 20 minutes - roughly the same distance over which we experienced an autonomous Nissan Leaf on British roads recently.
However, as well as being a bespoke car, the VW has notably different features - or lack of. Like the Tesla Cybercab (previously referred to as the Robotaxi) that was revealed last year, the Gen.Urban has no steering wheel or pedals. For the current testing phase, Volkswagen says that a ‘trained safety driver’ monitors the Gen.Urban from a passenger seat, with the ability to intervene using a joystick.
The aim of Volkswagen's new project isn’t just to test autonomous driving, it’s to also see how occupants react to having no driver or driving controls.
Dr. Nikolai Ardey, Head of Volkswagen Group Innovation, explains: “the key to a positive customer experience is to build trust – through meaningful interaction, a relaxed atmosphere, and intelligent assistance systems that respond precisely to the needs of passengers. We will benefit from these insights across the entire [VW] Group in the long term."
In the Gen.Urban, passengers are able to customise the climate and ambient lighting seat positioning - Volkswagen says the front dash screen can be adaptive for ‘information, light, and sound’.
Volkswagen, like most manufacturers, has implemented ‘Level 2’ autonomous driving into its cars for a few years, featuring elements such as adaptive cruise control, automatic lane centering and even automatic lane changing. Level 3 autonomy can manage driving tasks without the driver, so long as the driver is ready to take over control at any time.
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