Beyond safety and improved accessibility, driverless technologies promise a blank canvas for vehicle designers to redefine the mobility experience. UISEE Technologies, a Beijing-based company formed in 2016, is approaching mobility from a fresh perspective that is often difficult for incumbents. In the above interview, filmed at International CES2017, UISEE co-founder, Xin Zhou, explains how the UISEE name represents their mission:
- “(U)tilization of time: turn driving hours (10s of billions every day) into productivity;
- (I)ndiscrimination: everyone, including elderly, disabled people and kids, can ride a car;
- (S)afety: reduce 90% accidents, and save a million lives every year;
- (E)fficiency: provide zero-latency mobility services, forget about traffic jams, and release parking lots for other purposes;
- (E)nvironment friendliness: farewell to air pollutions (e.g. smog)”
Effectively, their goal is what Lauren Isaac and Robin Chase have described as the “heaven” scenario that could be realized using autonomous technology. Or, as Alain Kornhauser has put it, “Share the road, share a ride.” That is, their objective is to provide mobility as a service, as opposed to selling vehicles.
They are integrating the entire technology stack required for driverless including, as they put it, the “eyes” (sensors), the “brains” (the Artificial Intelligence decision-making) and the cerebellum (the actuators to control steering, etc.). According to their website, they plan 60 units for 2017, which as Zhou suggests will be for pilots in China.
Their first units, which feature bench seating, electric doors and no steering wheel, are limited to 25 MPH. The slow speed for this electric vehicle is not an issue in extremely dense urban areas where high-traffic conditions limit speed or in contained areas, such as retirement communities or campuses.
Limiting the maximum speed simplifies safety requirements, allowing UISEE to focus on the user experience. As an example of user experience, the built-in screen is a chauffeur of sorts and is complementary to their mobile app. The electric doors are a hint of a potentially more accessible future for those in wheel chairs (e.g. not to difficult to imagine an unfolding ramp for wheel chairs).
The most radical difference with UISEE’s bottoms-up approach to mobility is the freedom they have to design the interior space to meet the needs of people, whether the people in the vehicle are families or business people having a meeting. He points out that this high-tech, mobile wonder will allow people to have face-to-face communications on their journey.
The design freedom that UISEE touts may lead to vehicles that serve many purposes, as envisioned three years ago by a Viodi View author who wishes to remain anonymous.
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