Claiming to be a year ahead of its competitors, the Lyon startup Navya will deliver in the coming weeks its first autonomous vehicle, Arma …
France is not only taking the lead on electric vehicles … but also autonomous vehicles. The Lyon startup Navya presented a preview in Paris of the vehicle autonomously(without driver) named Arma.
“All the classic car manufacturers have woken up after Google unveiled its Google Car. They promise their first models in 2020. But, we will deliver ours in a few days, “comments Christophe Sapet, president of Navya.
More cautious drivers
The company accompanied by Robolution Capital, the investment fund of Bruno Bonnel, has designed a 100% autonomous vehicle without driver and power. And it is not a prototype. With a capacity of 15 people, Navya can roll up to 45 km / h with a basic autonomy of 6 to 8 hours. Loaded with the most advanced technologies to visualize their environment, triggering scenes analysis and measure the distances, Navya would be able “to ensure a higher level of perception 99.99%,” according to Christophe Sapet.
For this former co-founder of Atari Infograme, “our vehicles are probably much more careful drivers and we have a one-year advance in technology on our competitors.”
30 to 40% savings
The biggest problem now is that International law requires that autonomous cars such as Navya will not be able to take to the road for years and enter into the flow of traffic in our cities. Its use on predefined circuits, can still only be carried out only within the confines of closed sites: airports, industrial sites, amusement parks, hospitals, campuses … But this is great, Navya believes the EU needs more than 10,000 vehicles by 2025.
With a base price of 160,000 euros, for the Arma, but the manufacturer believes 30-40% of the savings on operating costs typically associated with this type of vehicle. A dozen orders have been recorded at Navya in 2015. And sales outlook for 2016 could exceed 80 vehicles.
