The Hyundai Ioniq 5 celebrates its premiere in a Robotaxi variant at the Munich IAA next week. The autonomous electric car will be used by the ride-hailing service Lyft in the USA from 2023. The driverless vehicle was developed by Motional, a start-up of the Hyundai Motor Group and the Delphi spin-off Aptiv.
The Robotaxi should be able to drive at autonomy level 4, i.e. it should manage completely without a human driver on board within its defined area of application. This is made possible by 30 sensors for 360-degree monitoring, including lidar, radar and camera systems. A roof box with an attached laser scanner is particularly noticeable. If the technology reaches its performance limits, the robotaxis can be remotely controlled from a control center. Hyundai cites construction sites or floods as exemplary situations.
Passengers communicate with the car
The interior of the prototype is largely based on the production model – there is also a steering wheel on board. The most important difference: instead of the front passenger seat, a large storage console is mounted. There are also interfaces that passengers can use to communicate with the vehicle – for example, to instruct a stopover.
Hyundai does not mention anything about adapting the drive system for use in a taxi. The non-autonomous Ioniq 5 has recently been on the market and is one of only a few e-mobiles to have an 800-volt battery system. This enables full charging in just under 20 minutes, which is particularly interesting for the most continuous use of robots possible. The range of the production model is around 485 kilometers. (SPX)