The Cycab: star of the science festival

It almost looks like a smart, automated driving, the small electrical car presented by the Inria of Sophia Antipolis, will allow a new traffic solution in big centers.

Presented by the Inria, the Cycab, the car of the future was one of the stars of the science festival which ended on Sunday evening. This innovative car was showed on Saturday afternoon in Inria premises.To create the car, studies were lead thanks to the project Icare in order to manufacture a car with a clever transport system for the town traffic. A first solution was born, it was Praxitèle, tested in Saint-Quentin near Paris; the project was dedicated to put in circulation electrical cars in self-service. These clean vehicles were managed by a sophisticated computerized system. The Praxitèle system should have been tested din Sophia Antipolis this year. Renault which with EDF supplies in electrical cars did not join the project because of the motorway to take to go from Sophia to Nice airport.The Cycab may face some difficulties in its implementation. Manufactured by the firm Robotsoft in 8 copies only to be showed, the Cycab does not correspond to any homologated vehicle. Its maximum speed is 30 km/h and only has 2 hours of autonomy. It is piloted thanks to a central joystick and can carry 2 adult people and 2 children.The Inria works on the project of automation of the vehicle. The Cycab would be entirely automated with cameras, sensors, computer in board, software which should allow to avoid accidents. It could be a solution to drive in wider and wider airports, downtowns, commercial complexes…