Autonomous vehicles are likely going to have to do more than just drive themselves: They’re also going to have to organize carpools. GM’s EN-V was cute and all, but this Akka Link & Go 2.0 is more like a tiny bus—which is a much more reasonable proposition for a self-driving, car-sharing fleet.
https://gizmodo.com/could-gms-tiny-self-driving-smartcar-actually-revoluti-1442166427
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTJa6-b1wf4
Released this week at the Geneva International Motor Show, the Akka Link & Go 2.0 is an autonomous car that’s designed to be social.
It has all the technology that allows it to drive unaided by humans—cameras, lasers—and it can transform from human-driving to computer-driving mode by retracting the steering wheel and pivoting the drivers seat around to face the back. There’s also a large screen there for watching cinematic gems like Escape from Planet Earth.
But this is the interesting part: The Link & Go 2.0 has an integrated system which connects multiple passengers over a network to help with carpooling and car-sharing.
So maybe before your city deploys its own self-driving taxi fleet, you can start your own private car-share with you and a few neighbors. Or how about opening up the car to your entire social network, and you can rideshare with them? Instead of ordering up Uber, you’d be able to find out which of your friends are nearest to you, and ping them to pick you up. [AKKA]
