Autonomous vehicles hit the road

Since the end of August, business travellers passing through Singapore have been able to pass a new kind of taxi. On the surface, there's nothing extraordinary about them: a car, four wheels, nothing but the usual. Except that the driver's seat is left vacant... Singapore has in fact become the first country to experiment with an autonomous taxi service following a partnership signed between the Singapore Land Transport Authority and two private companies, Delphi Automotive Systems and nuTonomy. Six vehicles are being tested, controlled by a microchip. According to Emilio Frazzoli, CEO of the American start-up nuTonomy, the service should begin in 2018 with a fleet of 78 vehicles. The City-State, chosen for the modernity of its urban fabric and the special attention paid to new technologies, could soon be emulated by other destinations in Europe and North America.

What's more, there's no need to cross the planet to embark on this autonomous mobility. In Lyon, two autonomous shuttles called Navly have been running in the Confluence eco-district since early September. These shuttles, operated by Keolis, use a guidance and detection system based on a variety of technologies, including laser remote sensing (LIDAR), odometry and stereovision cameras, to make their five-stop, 1.3-km journey. Navly even claims to be a "world first". The project is unprecedented, particularly in terms of the duration of the trial - one year - and the fact that the service is free.

It's only a short step from imagining a future without human drivers, and one that Tesla founder Elon Musk has not shied away from taking. True to his reputation as a "strong character", last year he called for the pure and simple disappearance of driving licences: "It's too dangerous, you can't have people driving two-tonne death machines!". Although analysts are not backing these arguments, they are also betting on the advent of autonomous mobility. According to IHS Automotive-Polk, 54 million autonomous vehicles will be on the road by 2035. This buoyant market has not escaped the attention of carmakers, who have been busy for several months now testing their pilot vehicles... without drivers! Audi, Volvo, Ford, Mercedes: everyone is sharpening their

prototypes, in Beijing, Gothenburg or Silicon Valley. This revolution is unprecedented in that it goes beyond the usual framework of car manufacturing. Digital giants such as Gafa (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple) and Natu (Netflix, Airbnb, Tesla, Uber) are eyeing up the autonomous transport market. The Google Car is even a pioneer, with six years' experience and nearly two million kilometres on the clock. Behind this race for intelligent vehicles is, of course, the issue of road safety. To err is human, so autonomous driving would be more reliable, or even infallible for the most optimistic. This is not the only objective of the companies involved: by freeing the driver from his or her task, many players intend to make the most of this new "available brain time".

SWIVEL SEATS

From a business point of view, the prospects are just as tempting. The autonomous vehicle could enable business travellers to work during their journey, or even organise mobile meetings to optimise travel time. In fact, the XchangE project developed by Regus and Rinspeed back in 2014 was a logical step in this direction: an autonomous car with swivel seats for mobile meetings. "The vehicle's infotainment systems allow passengers to connect to their desks to work efficiently or enjoy leisure activities, while the car takes care of getting them to their destination."said those in charge of the project at the time.

Other, far more ambitious - some would say far-fetched - ideas are already on the way. In its in-house magazine, Airbus recently imagined "the future of urban mobility". And the least we can say is that the aerospace group is thinking far, very far indeed, with this project christened "A3". The sobriety of the title contrasts with its ambition, which is to set up autonomous flying taxis called Vahana to move people and objects. Faced with the regulatory constraints that would make such a project impossible, one of the people behind this concept developed in Silicon Valley points out that "the traditional car industry was saying exactly the same thing about autonomous cars. And what do we see on the road today? Google cars. The rules are only a temporary barrier."Two events have corroborated this testimony. While the Vienna Convention required the presence of a driver who was responsible for the vehicle, a revision adopted in the spring stipulates that "... the driver must be responsible for the vehicle".automated driving systems will be explicitly authorised on the roads, provided that they comply with United Nations vehicle regulations or can be controlled or even deactivated by the driver". Another milestone was reached in June. The EHang 184 autonomous aerial vehicle was authorised by the Nevada authorities to begin a test phase. It is said to be capable of carrying a passenger for around twenty minutes, and could become the taxi of tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. Imagination in power, in short...