Interview
Clio electric cars will soon be freely available, by subscription! Ideal for
short trips around town. This novel concept of individual public transport has
already been tested in Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, where the first full-scale
demonstration will be carried out by the end of 1996, and at the Pavillon
Dauphine, where the congress of mayors of France was held in November 95. Six
partners are involved: CGEA (compagnie générale des eaux), Dassault Automatismes et Télécommunications, EDF
(électricité de France), Renault, INRETS (institut national de
recherche sur les transports et leur sécurité) and INRIA.
INédit: In what way is Praxitèle original when compared with all the other projects for cars of the future?
Évelyne Bénéjam: Its not simply a car, but a whole system of individual public transport which aims to make public transportation more attractive, by targeting the market whose needs are different. Ideally, with Praxitèle, you can go where you want, when you want. A minimal but completely func-tional version, called démonstrateur is now ready: information counter, battery recharge station, car, monitoring system, and control centre.
INédit: How can one create a veritable synergy between six such different partners?
Évelyne Bénéjam: To start, the idea of a system like Praxitèle came from CGEA. First we did a socio-economic survey, and when we presented the results, other organizations became interested. Renault always entertained similar ideas, and so was a natural partner. As was EDF, which helped to finance the first study. INRIA and INRETS, had at that time a very ambitious project called Dédale, which they re-worked in order to integrate it into the Praxitèle Program. Finally, Dassault Automatismes et Télécommunications became interested in joining the team to work on the electronic systems. It's true we each have different methods and jargon, but the strong motivation of the project coordinators swept away all obstacles.
INédit: What is the specific contribution of INRIA?
Évelyne Bénéjam: We have always been interested in working with research groups. Praxitèle is the kind of project that needs to be evaluated all along the way. Only a research institute has the methodology necessary to do this properly. Thus, INRETS was asked to develop evaluation methods and to assure their follow-up. They also see to such problems as modelling the market demand or the intelligent video-surveillance system. INRIA, on the other hand, has developed algorithms to model the optimal man-agement for the operational exploitation of all the cars in real time. inria is also working on automated systems for "cluster driving", for example, where a single driver leads several cars in order to distribute them to the various pick-up stations.