RoboBus Update Offers Onboard Space for Exercise, Work

Chinese company PIX Moving has officially released a new 2.0 version of the RoboBus it believes can revolutionize urban transport.

Over the past year, the Guiyang-based firm’s electric self-driving pod has been produced in small numbers and deployed in several locations across the world, including Spain, India, the United States and Japan.

But now PIX Moving is hoping to ramp up the rollout with the latest iteration, which promotes the idea of autonomous transport as a “Moving Space,” with bespoke interiors that allow all sorts of activities behind its sliding doors.

The drive-by-wire RoboBus is a 12-foot-long mobile pod based on a skateboard chassis that can accommodate six passengers.

The top speed is 19 mph, while the driving range is claimed to be up to 81 miles and four-wheel steering endows it with excellent maneuverability and a tight turning circle.

It’s been designed to be bi-directional, with symmetrical circular headlights at the front and rear, and is capable of full Level 4 autonomy – as defined by the Society of Automotive Engineers – in specific locations.

That functionality is delivered by lidar, millimeter-wave radar, ultrasonic radar and cameras, in tandem with high-precision maps, and the company’s PIX Rover autonomous driving system.

This is all backed up by comprehensive safety systems, including three layers of redundancy for chassis control alone.

It’s perhaps the interior, however, that is most intriguing. In standard configuration, it offers reading lights, seatbelts, interactive and display screens, music and ambient lighting for occupants.

But the RoboBus offers plenty of potential for personalization, as evidenced by the company’s remarkable promotional video for the vehicle, which shows it being used for yoga in the park, as a mobile changing room and even as an office as it drives along city streets.

This ability for ambitious customization could widen its potential customer base, and PIX Moving also hopes to entice fleet buyers with a cloud-based operational management system.

This will offer real-time data processing, live video monitoring, emergency takeovers, over-the-air updates, user monitoring and log recording.

Alongside the autonomous version, the RoboBus is also available as an open source remote control vehicle.

This version removes the sensors, computing platforms, algorithms and dispatch systems, and is aimed at software development companies, research institutions and universities.

Among those who are working with the RoboBus in this guise is Miami start-up JéGO Technologies.

Next on the agenda for PIX Moving is an unmanned retail version of RoboBus with gullwing doors designed to sell the likes of coffee or yogurt on the move.