24 The French Open is one of the largest tennis tournaments in the world, held every year at Stade Roland Garros in Paris. The 2024 event ran from May 26 to June 9, with not only a plethora of head-to-heads between elite athletes but, most unusually, a driverless minibus shuttle service for taking VIPs and media to and from the stadium. That shuttle was the Robobus, an autonomous passenger transport vehicle, which to date has tested and operated in about 30 cities around the world, including Singapore, Abu Dhabi, Beijing, Guangzhou, and now Paris. WeRide, an international autonomous driving company with a presence in 30 cities across seven countries, has targeted the SAE’s Level 4 (L4) of driving autonomy in its engineering of the Robobus. This level of intelligence and safety places full responsibility for all driving and navigation on the autonomous system with no need for an onboard driver. Founded in 2017, with a view towards improving urban living through autonomous systems, WeRide’s original focus was a product called Robotaxi (an autonomous cab). Robotaxi has commercial operations in five cities worldwide and it is still in ongoing development today to achieve safe end-to-end passenger delivery up to speeds of 120 kph. Its founders, CEO Dr. Tony Han and CTO Dr. Yan Li, gradually encapsulated much of the cab’s technologies into a flexible platform of full-stack application software, infrastructural software and modular hardware, termed ‘WeRide One’. With WeRide One intended for adaptability onto other vehicle types, the pair and their team slowly sought other, more immediately viable products they could develop – particularly ones moving at lower speeds and on more fixed routes to speed up the rate of commercialisation. As Zhenya Liu, product technology lead at WeRide recounts to us: “In June 2020, Yutong [Zhengzhou Yutong Bus Co., Ltd] contacted us to propose joint development of a self-driving product. Rory Jackson learns about this SAE L4 autonomous passenger vehicle, which is shuttling passengers through multiple cities around the world From Paris to Beijing A battery-electric bus, it weighs 4300 kg, achieves typical cruising ranges of 120 km and it can be fully recharged in one hour October/November 2024 | Uncrewed Systems Technology
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjI2Mzk4