Behold: the Scania AXL – the Swedish manufacturer’s concept for an autonomous dump truck.
An actual prototype rather than a render, the AXL’s cabless chassis is driven by a biodiesel engine, using seven cameras, multiple radars, and a laser to navigate its environment.
Quarrries and gravel pits – being remote and largely free of pesky humans – might well be the first place autonomous vehicles start full time work.
Related: the Volvo Vera and the GM Surus.
Behold: the Citroën Ami – an all-electric concept vehicle designed for short term city rental (with or without a driver).
Envisaged for rental use from 5 minutes to five hours, the Ami has a tiny footprint, fairly accommodating cargo space for its small size and a smartphone dock via which you tell it where to go, what music to play on the way there and so forth.
Autonomous vehicular grocery stores, anyone?
Oh go on then.
On trial with the US supermarket chain Stop&Shop this year.
The Astro Elroy – a single seater semi-autonomous passenger drone capable of 71km/h and 25 minutes of flight time carrying up to 116kg.
Although it has onboard controls for emergency manual override, the idea is that the passenger enters their chosen destination and the drone does the rest.
Behold: the Ford F-Vision concept – a prototype take on the future of electric semi-trucks unveiled at the IAA Commercial Vehicle Show in Germany this month.
In ‘self-drive’ mode, the wraparound windscreen blends back into the streamlined bodywork – a feature, claims Ford, inspired by the ‘adaptive abilities of Marvel superheroes’, thereby earning itself an atomic wedgie.
PLAY – an installation by Swiss artist Urs Fisher at Gagosian Gallery in New York: nine autonomous office chairs pre-programmed with choreography devised by artist Madeline Hollander swirl, swivel and interact with one another, sensing and avoiding visitors, who are free to walk among the herd.
When the chairs run low on power, they dock automatically with a machine inside the gallery which replaces the battery and processor housed inside each seat.
Behold: the Volvo 360c concept – an all-electric, fully self-driving vehicle with an interior that can be configured as an office, living area or sleeping pod for passengers of the future, sharing the road with other autonomous vehicles on journeys of up to 320km.
Behold the GM Surus (Silent Utility Rover Universal Superstructure) autonomousTruck – perhaps the purest expression of the autonomous vehicle concept – a loadable cargo platform powered by a HYDROTEC fuel cell with a 640km single charge range.
The Symbioz – Renault’s vision of an autonomous electric vehicle for the 2030s. Envisaged as part-car part ‘living room’, the Symbioz parks inside the home, offering backup power in the event of a outage as well as an extension to the living space, rising on a hydraulic platform to the roof terrace where occupants can enjoy a spectacular vista of Renault’s brave new world.
It’s mad altogether.
