Monterey.- Honda began pilot tests of various autonomous cars, which stand out for one particular quality: they are the size of a telephone booth.
According to Business Insider, citing a Nikkei Asia report, Honda has already demonstrated several of these micromobility vehicles.
One was the single-seat minicar that looked like a shrunken phone booth, there was a two-seater, as well as a four-passenger model that looked like a golf cart.
Honda R&D is leading this research and development of ultra-compact electric cars and these are expected to be commercially viable by the end of the decade. Testing will begin at the end of November in Tokyo.
These self-driving cars are being developed under the CikoMa brand, which hopes to lead next-generation mobility using technology based on spatial reconnaissance cameras and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Despite Honda’s great commitment to micromobility, the tests will be carried out with four-passenger cars. Each of them will have a stereo camera in the front and another six located in the front and rear, which will be able to instantly detect traffic lanes and obstacles.
Although initially these cars will have a moderate autonomy, Honda’s intention is to increase it so that they can be fully autonomous within two or three years.
One of the challenges that Honda has is to eliminate digital maps. According to the company, its AI is capable of analyzing the roads and surroundings to automatically formulate the next driving route.
The cars will have four replaceable battery packs installed under the seats, which will allow them to have a range of about 20 or 30 kilometers on a single charge. The maximum speed of these vehicles will be 15 kilometers per hour, that is, the same as a bicycle.
Japan’s next-generation mobility market, which includes micromobility cars and electric minicars, could sell as many as 11,350 units by 2025, according to Tokyo’s Yano Research Institute.
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