New Self Driving Vehicle With No Brakes, Steering Wheel or Pedals By GM & Honda
Have you ever thought for a minute that you could ride in a car that has no steering wheel, brake or accelerator pedals, windshield wipers or rearview mirror? Is such a machine even a car anymore? Well, General Motors in collaboration with Honda have gone out of the normal in their latest reveal of the Origin, a self-driving vehicle.
Stepping out of the normal, the automakers have designed the all-electric ‘cruise origin’ to be a ride-sharing vehicle. With doors that do not use locks but keypads, individuals will have to enter a code on a pad outside the vehicle after which doors slide open, rather than swinging.
By looking at the vehicle, it has no back or front like your typical one. The automakers, however, do not intend to have it in the market for individual ownership but as a ride-sharing vehicle that users can hail from their pick up points and command their drop off using their smartphones. Up to six riders will be able to hail origin from an app just like Uber and Lyft and it will provide a code to gain entry. Lacking manual control, the vehicle’s weight and seatbelt sensors will detect when riders are buckled in for set off. Inside the car, the passenger is provided with buttons to start or end the trip.
Origin can ride through both streets and highways and its design intentionally lacks some car parts to create space for more passengers as the company aims to help reduce emissions and congestion. Cruise, a subsidiary of GM and one that Honda has put weight behind financially, will develop the self-driving software, sensors and overall product as GM and Honda take on design engineerings such as customer touchpoints and styling.
When it will hit the streets is not clear but the creators are confident that the vehicle will beat its competition by working around the vision “zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion”.
