Induct Navia: the car that drives itself

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Published: 20 January 2014

French company Induct Technology has pioneered the first commercially available driverless vehicle in the US called Navia.

Take a look at this short promotional video from Induct – with some cheeky English subtitles for your convenience.

This is simultaneously the most awesome and frightening thing we’ve heard in a while – the possibilities are seemingly infinite, while the disaster potential also seems immense. Rest assured Navia has been through rigorous testing and is compliant with all safety standards and regulations.

We know what you’re all thinking – what if the clever cars turn rogue and decides to revolt against its human masters? What’s the worst that can happen? You end up at Costa instead of Starbucks or the cinema instead of the library – we can deal with that.

Let’s get technical. The Navia uses a few different technologies for location and guidance – here’s a quick rundown of the kit used for this awesome mechanical marvel.

To instantly calculate position, route and distance travelled since last known position:

• Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) sensors – to show exact vehicle location

• An accelerometer – to calculate the vehicle’s speed

• Gyroscopes – to calculate rotation around all 3 axes

To sweep the area around for obstacles and hazards up to 200 yards ahead, the Navia has 4 laser-based LIDAR units (Light Detection And Ranging) combined with a system of two optical cameras, mounted in such a way as to mimic the stereo vision two human eyes have. This slight offset of the two cameras allows depth mapping and 3D perception, used to generate a sort-of digital map – accurate to 1cm – in its computer memory, which is then used to calculate an alternate route around the blockage or obstacle.

Take a look at the Navia’s SLAM MOT in action:

Induct Technologies is the first company to develop depth-perception technology like this – it’s known as ‘SLAM MOT’, which means Simultaneous Localization And Mapping & Multi Object Tracking. Navia performs all of these calculations and simulations on-the-fly as it transports passengers around, constantly updating and improving its view of the area around – leaving the passengers on board to worry about more important things. This gives drivers time to browse the web to their heart’s content and beyond.

There is a downside to this awesome vehicle, though. It’s not yet capable of mapping moving vehicles positions accurately – something which Induct are working on for the future of self-driving cars. But for now, it can carry 10 people from stop to stop around a university campus or airport car park at a speed of 12.5mph (with its eco-friendly electric motor). The batteries will admittedly run out before too long, but don’t worry – that’s when the clever Navia will stop accepting new passengers, drop its existing passengers at their desired location and take itself to a charge station to refill – now that’s what you call autonomous!

According to Induct founder Pierre Lefevre, the main motive of Navia is ‘last mile mobility’ at airports, campuses, shopping malls and other densely populated places where it’d be nice to hitch a ride – although we’ve got our sights set a little higher for this utopian wonder.

This is a guest post by Chris Ord, a regular writer for the Car Loan Warehouse.