As cities grow bigger and denser, municipal transit authorities are looking towards providing effective public transportation. Additionally, the rise of electric and autonomous vehicles has given way to a great generation of auto pioneers.
On February 25th, three companies came together to team up and integrate the new i-Cristal, the electrical and autonomous shuttle, into cities around the world. These companies consist of the machine learning and data analysis company Mobileye, a global integrator of driver support and autonomous vehicle systems called Transdev ATS, and manufacturer of transport systems Lohr Group.
A melting pot of talents
These three companies put their skills together to develop the i-Cristal, a compact bus that’s decked to the nines with elaborate sensors and cameras to ensure a safe, self-driving experience. It sports a perception system called True Redundancy that, according to Transdev, makes up “two independent subsystems (cameras and radars+lidars) combine to enable robust perception”.
To help these cars learn their way around, the i-Cristal also includes Mobileye’s Road Experience Management AV mapping tech. This provides a crowdsourced map to help these cars’ systems work together to build a “global road network.”
We are proud to collaborate with @Transdev in a joint effort to make transportation safer and more accessible to everyone. This video shows some highlights from our partnership on the #autonomous i-Cristal shuttle.https://t.co/61C7suNQjY pic.twitter.com/EZ204bfWPL
— Torc Robotics (@torcrobotics) May 20, 2019
Compact and efficient
Designed for the urban commuter, this i-Cristal is able to hold up to 16 passengers. On top of that, it “can travel at speeds up to 50 kilometers per hour (31mph) and is designed to safely and efficiently operate within today’s public transportation networks with Transdev ATS’ solutions.”
Before the i-Cristal hit metropolises around the world, they must first be tested. Transdev mentioned that the “three companies will initially test vehicles on roadways in France and Israel, aiming to ready technology designs for production by 2022”. Furthermore, they said that they foresee the vehicle to be out in “public transportation networks by 2023.”
The big goal
Transdev ATS, Mobileye, and Lohr Group have engaged in this strategic partnership in creating i-Cristal and weave autonomous mobility “into the fabric of transportation networks”. Transdev shared that they aim to always be working on “optimizing the fleets, lowering transportation costs and improving customer experiences”.
Executive Vice President of Transdev ATS, Patricia Villoslada expressed her optimism on the collaboration for i-Cristal “to deploy autonomous vehicles in public transportation networks at scale, thanks to the combination of the complementary cutting-edge technologies and strong industrial expertise of the three partners.” Villoslada was also enthusiastic that, with the collaboration, they would be able to “bring new mobility solutions to reality in the next coming years.”
YouTube: i-Cristal: 100% electric & autonomous shuttle | Transdev
Photo credit: The images used are owned by Mobileye and have been provided for press usage.
