Renault EZ-Pod

02.06.2019 admin 0 Renault,

Renault presented the new EZ-Pod robotic autonomous electric platform which is built on the Twizy chassis and is designed to transport people and goods over short distances. Renault calls this “micromobility to cover the first and last mile.” In the “follow me” mode, the EZ-Pod will roll alongside the user and carry his stuff.

The electric car expects to get access to some pedestrian streets and even pass inside buildings, for example, to take home an elderly person, a disabled person or a mother with a child and heavy bags. Hotels, airports, shopping centers, campuses, large parking lots, and so on are likely to become the main place of work of the robocar.

In the parking lot, the EZ-Pod covers an area of three square meters. The doorway is located only on the left side and always remains open (as Twizy microcar EZ-Pod has no doors). Simple and bright interior designed for easy cleaning and along with plastic can offer environmentally friendly materials.

There are no steering and pedals in Renault EZ-Pod. Inside there are two seats from Twizy and a pair of displays with information about the trip. The autopilot equipment includes a front-facing camera, a lidar, as well as two short-range and long-range radars (they are mounted front and rear). The location is tracked in real time by GPS.

The length of a two-seat EZ-Pod is 2570 mm, width is 1260 mm. Since we are talking only about short trips around the city, the size of the battery was “reduced to an absolute minimum.”

Since the EZ-Pod is compact and moves slowly (in pedestrian areas — 6 km/h), cars are easy to combine into “convoys” to transport groups of passengers. Renault says, this is not a concept, but a demonstration model, which is under development and will be developed in accordance with user feedback.