Launched the world's first commercial self-driving car

From Tesla, the company of super creative billionaire Elon Musk to the Google search giant, there are many big names are participating in the race to bring unmanned vehicles to the consumer market . But surprisingly, a small company in France surpassed all these names to become the first to launch a commercial autonomous car.

Induct, a company with only 40 employees in France, has become the first company to launch the first commercially available (possibly mass-produced) unmanned vehicle: Navia . This car is not as beautiful as Tesla or BMW, but is expected to become a pioneer for the unmanned vehicle market.

Launched at CES Consumer Electronics Fair 2014, Navia can carry up to 8 people, and cost up to $ 250,000 (5.27 billion VND). Navia runs on electric power and uses laser sensors to detect and avoid obstacles on the way, instead of using GPS like previous unmanned vehicles. However, the maximum speed of this car is only about 20km / h.

Projector light, Navia sensor (left) and emergency stop button (right)

Induct declared that Navia is a truly different product, because this car is "smart, autonomous and environmentally friendly". Users can "call" Navia via smartphone or computer. When boarding, they will use the touch screen to select the destination.

Navia does not use rails, so can operate on all routes. However, this car is only really suitable when used to move in large areas such as airports, universities, stadiums and large stages, instead of participating in traffic like cars. normal bowl.

Navia's sensors will identify images like this to avoid obstacles and find their way

"Imagine a city with noisy, pollution-causing buses. Instead, they are eco-friendly, automated robot buses that you can" call "from your smartphone. " , Pierre Lefevre, CEO of Induct introduced his product.

"Navia can drive completely automatically, powered by electric power without emissions, safe and easy to use. This is a great solution for pedestrians to move in large spaces."

Currently, Navia is being used for testing at the Lausanne Federal Institute of Science, Switzerland and at the Atomic Energy Agency, Abingdon.

"The price of maintaining a short distance driving service in the US, including driving, is about $ 200,000 (about 4.2 billion VND) each year. Navia is a safe, environmentally friendly solution that can help reduce costs from 40 to 60% ".

Currently, Tesla, the company of talented billionaire Elon Musk, is pursuing plans to launch commercial autopilot for the next 3 years. If this goal is met, Tesla will bypass Google. The search giant began participating in the race to create commercial unmanned vehicle products four years ago.

Tesla has turned commercial electric cars into reality, and may soon turn unmanned electric cars into reality.

The reason for Google's self-driving car production was slower than expected due to concerns that car manufacturers would be held accountable for accidents, according to Financial Times sources. . However, Google has tested many models with radar-like devices on the streets of California and Nevada. Google's software power overwhelms all competitors, and therefore the prospect of electric cars "driven" by Google is entirely feasible.

But Tesla's ambition is bigger than all other manufacturers. According to analysts, companies will have to take at least 10 to 15 years to launch cars to drive to the market. Daimler and Nissan announced "hope" to launch self-driving cars to the market later this decade. Tesla gave 3 years. Considering the achievement of launching a commercial vehicle running 100% on the first electric energy in history as well as other "super-fancy" projects, such as super-speed trains moving from city to city in the A few minutes, Elon Musk's Space X space tourism project, Tesla company will most likely continue to succeed.