Arcimotis a manufacturer of three-wheel electric fan utility vehicles (FUV). sect A combination of low-level autonomy and tele-assisted technology to develop EVs that can be delivered to customer hotels. The partnership is part of an upcoming pilot with GoCar Tours in Las Vegas that will allow tourists to go sightseeing in his Faction-powered FUV.
Here’s how it works: Arcimoto’s FUV will be equipped with Faction’s suite of cameras and radar sensors, as well as Level 2+ advanced driver assistance systems that handle tasks such as lane assist and collision avoidance. The vehicle will also feature a tablet with his GoCar GPS-guided tour of the Las Vegas Strip (GoCar hopes to eventually expand this tour to include Red Rock Canyon and the Hoover Dam). increase). Vehicles drive from his GoCar depot in the Arts District to various hotels along the Strip, his five-mile straight road with a 30-mph speed limit. The tourist then collects his FUV and drives along the tour route at his own pace before dropping himself and the vehicle back at the hotel.
There’s a reason I quote the phrase “drive yourself”. Faction’s system knows that it can drive itself from A to B on a pre-determined route, and will automatically stop if it encounters an unusual or incomplete task, such as an object in the way or an unprotected left turn. . However, it relies on the remote operator for judgment calls. A teleoperator remotely adjusts the trajectory tracked by the vehicle to circumvent objects, enter parking lots, or command execution.
Arcimoto’s partnership with Faction and GoCar will initially include about 20 vehicles from mid-2023, but the two companies plan to add another 290 vehicles in Vegas and other cities GoCar operates, including San Francisco, San Diego and Barcelona. We would like to provide 1 vehicle.
Faction, a company that sees Level 5 autonomy as a research project that will take at least a decade from actual commercialization, believes that remote operations are a necessary ingredient for scaling autonomous fleets today. The startup has built its business around a focus on doing “the right size tech stack in the right size vehicle.” So the faction has reached a basic level of autonomy, relying not on fitting, but on various cameras, including infrared and radar. We provide vehicles with expensive riders and modern computing systems.
“Right now, current vehicle systems are under $35,000,” Faction CEO and founder Ain McKendrick told TechCrunch. “We use the Arcimoto vehicle platform, which costs about $17,000, and put in about $12,000 to $13,000 worth of technology. We don’t want something that runs on , we want to go two generations back in a scalable automotive grade package.”
McKendrick says the benefit of being a “second wave autonomous company” is that Faction isn’t trying to solve every edge case right now. In partnership with Arcimoto and GoCar, Faction is looking to solve the problem of replacing humans delivering vehicles to customers’ hotels.
“Our goal is to be profitable immediately at a price of $2 per mile, not a promise of cost savings in 10 years,” McKendrick said.
Arcimoto FUV on the Las Vegas Strip. Image credit: Arcimot
Aside from the gimmicky aspect of having a tour car drive itself to a customer’s hotel, GoCar is here for potential cost savings for the business.
“We have been thinking about a self-service model where people can get on and off the rides on their own. We used to have multiple locations, but where is the economics of having these multiple locations? It’s hard because you don’t know, GoCar founder Nathan Withrington told TechCrunch: “One place may have 10 cars available and another place has a waiting list of 30 people. Moving the car around town is a nightmare.”
Where GoCar stores a vehicle becomes less important if customers can hail it. The company gives you visibility just by having your car on the road, and cleaning and prepping your car is easier when they’re all accounted for.
GoCar is already working with Arcimoto to offer FUVs to tourists. Withrington said the FUV is the first type of EV the company has put in a vehicle that can actually handle the required range, can cross bridges, and is highway-legal. Moreover, tourists love to drive them.
For Arcimoto, this partnership is an opportunity to build on their current partnership with Faction while expanding the vehicle’s reach as a tourist service. The two started working together last year. make D1McKendrick said the FUV-based semi-autonomous delivery vehicle has been in trials in the Bay Area since July.
