Electric pods not evil. Who knew?
Rinspeed reckons it’s close to putting modular autonomous EVs into production
When it’s not restoring classic cars or hot-rodding speed boats, versatile Swiss engineering operation Rinspeed is busy inventing the future of urban transport. The latest version is MetroSnap, and founder Frank Rinderknecht says: ‘The crucial step towards series production has now been taken.’
The aim is to cut down tra c congestion through the deployment of multi-functional self-driving electric vehicles that are relatively a ordable to produce because of their modular nature.
Underneath is a skateboard-style composite platform, housing batteries and an e-motor, plus autonomous technology developed by TTTech Auto and lidar sensors from Hamburg-based Ibeo. On top, various pods can be slotted in – an idea Rinspeed claims it got from the field of aviation, although it also looks a lot like the pods that could slot into Thunderbird 2 in the Gerry Anderson puppet series. Depending on what the platform has to carry, the Snap system is capable of a top speed of 52mph and around 80 miles between charges. MetroSnap – which has evolved from Rinspeed’s earlier Snap and MicroSnap concepts – can be used as a short-distance taxi, complete with seats from a Boeing 737.
Or with a di erent pod slotted in it could be a pop-up shop or post o ce, perhaps visiting remote villages.
Or it could be a mobile parcel service visiting your workplace, like those Amazon parcel lockers at supermarkets, but more convenient; key in a PIN, open the door and grab your package, or deposit one for collection.
Rinspeed highlights the benefits of removing the human element: the pod could work around the clock, for instance. And being electric, a MetroSnap service should be considerably less polluting than a smoky van idling outside your house while the driver tries to find someone who’ll take in a parcel for number 11.
Rinspeed is not so keen to focus on the downsides: delivery drivers losing their jobs, the loss of human contact, and the ever more rampant rise of consumerism. ‘People desire ever more convenience and simplicity in their lives, and we want to make that possible,’ adds Rinderknecht.
Rinspeed is eyeing imminent production of the modular Snap series. It’s also filing for patent protection of its version of the skateboard platform.