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What will traffic in mega-cities look like tomorrow? Citroen has some ideas and shows solutions that are typical of the creative French brand.
It gets crowded on our streets. Mega full. The World Bank predicts that by 2050 two thirds of the population will live in cities. And they all want to be mobile. Chaos is the order of the day. Only with intelligent, networked autonomous mobility it seems that the traffic infarction in the large metropolises can still be averted.
With some collaborations, futuristic ideas
Citröen has a pretty clear picture of what urban mobility might look like in ten, twenty years. Under the name “The Urban Collëctif”, the French car manufacturer has teamed up with two large partners that are not necessarily expected in connection with mobility. The hotel giant Accor and JCDecaux, world market leaders in outdoor advertising and specialists in all kinds of services, are also on board, which is sailing towards the future.
From the inventor of the goddess DS, the duck or an avant-garde American, one almost reflexively expects particularly creative answers to questions that move our future. And Citröen delivers them. They are as colorful as life, a bit quirky and - yes - from today's perspective they still sound like visions of the distant planet Orion.
Small platform for autonomous mobility
The basis of the project is a highly flexible science fiction skateboard on which various pods (superstructures) can dock within ten seconds via four raised cylinders. The compact high-tech baguette contains all the technology: battery, electric motors, sensors, all of the technology. It is 2,60 meters long, 1,60 meters wide and only 51 centimeters flat. The technology is modular and scalable, so skateboards in many other dimensions are conceivable.
The fully drivable prototype that Citröen is showing us in a Paris exhibition hall is called “Autonomous Mobility Vision” and was designed as a so-called open source model. Means: Nothing is impossible, there are no limits to creativity. Companies, dealers, municipalities, cities or logistics providers can put their own hats on the technical basis. Citröen Head of Design Pierre Leclerq confirms the universal approach of the concept: "We put over 65 ideas for a wide variety of pods on paper in just two days." He shows us sketches of hairdressing pods and workshop trolleys, rolling yoga studios, food trucks, parcel services, ambulances and, and, and ... ..
Lots of cars, no drivers
The French vision is aimed at the optimal use of the traffic area in the city. According to Citröen, the concept sandwich could improve inner-city traffic flow by at least 35 percent. Used as needed, a whole armada of driverless and networked vehicles will later buzz around the clock in special lanes through the city. Controlled by an intelligent fleet management. And purely electric, of course. Charging is largely inductive, downtimes of a maximum of four hours are planned, the maximum speed is currently 25 km / h. In the city of Paris you are not allowed to drive faster than 30 km / h anyway.
The skateboards have level 5 autonomous technology, so they do not need a driver on the (skate) board. Radar and lidar sensors are hidden behind the Citröen logos. Only the lighting of the logos is different so that passers-by can see where the front (white) and the rear (red) is.
Designs are based on the partners
For the project, Goodyear developed special 360-degree wheels with spherical tires that turn and turn like the wheels on a computer mouse. Each one is equipped with electric motors, which enables maneuvering in the smallest of spaces in any direction.
What the colorful world out there could look like is shown by three ideas that Pierre Leclerq's design team has already implemented together with Accor and JCDecaux. Accor is starting with two capsules. The “Sofitel En Voyage” is a kind of rolling living room, a 3,16 meter long, luxuriously furnished cocoon with a comfortable seating area, which is intended to bring guests from the airport to the hotel in a cozy atmosphere with a glass of champagne in hand. Or in the evening to the opera. The outer skin consists of over 1000 wooden tiles, cut to the millimeter by the computer.
The second Accor hut is the Pullman Power Fitness Pod (3,26 m), a spacey gym for the commute to work. The excuse, “I couldn't do any sport, I was stuck in a traffic jam” no longer applies. Sweat should flow in the Pullman pod during the commuting time. Either with a bicycle ergometer or a rowing machine. Traffic jam athletes can find out everything about their performance or the route on a holographic screen. The batteries are also fed with the energy generated by the training.
A small apartment on 4 wheels
The third pod in the “Urban Collëctif” is the city provider from JCDecaux, which looks a bit reminiscent of carriages from the century before last. Reduced in design, it should convey an idea of what bus travel could look like in 2035. Up to five people can travel under a green roof in the City Provider, which is just three meters short. There are two small rooms, an open area with a canopy and a closed, fully glazed compartment. Interactive screens provide passengers with information on tourist attractions or the latest news.
Everything is pretty crazy and still feels like a tens of years away. But at the latest on the drive back to the airport you start pondering. Mile-long sheet metal avalanches, bumper to bumper, send a clear message: It cannot go on like this.