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Paris, September 16, 2008
During European Mobility Week, INRIA and its partners in the European CityMobil and CyberCars-2 projects are inviting the public to participate in novel demonstrations of automated public transportation systems in downtown La Rochelle.
From September 18 to 28, 2008, INRIA (the French National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control), in collaboration with research centers such as the CRF (Fiat Research Center) and the city of La Rochelle, will unveil their vehicles of the future, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., at Place de Verdun and rue Gargoulleau. These vehicles can communicate with each other, avoid collisions, detect obstacles, run on electronic guidance systems without a driver, and more. Visitors will be able to test drive these new inventions which are the result of research in information technology and robotics.
Of particular interest in the program is the Fiat Research Center’s presentation of its self-service urban vehicles program using electric Fiat 500s and Pandas. At the same time, INRIA and its partners will be running their cybercars: pint-sized, electric, automated urban vehicles. They are safe and offer an on-request, door to door transport service for people or goods and will provide a supplement to urban mass transit systems.
These new products, just arriving on the market, are tested and evaluated by the European CityMobil project, financed by the European Commission, which aims to improve mobility in urban centers while protecting the environment, eliminating environmental and noise pollution and freeing up space. For the European Commission, these key questions can, over time, yield answers for sustainable transportation to complement or replace traditional public and private means of transportation.
Cities the world over are facing numerous challenges at the outset of this new century. Many are becoming so-called megacities; more than 100 urban centers will reach populations of over 10 million in the next fifty years.
It is conceivable that by 2050, more than 90% of automotive trips for people and goods in developed countries could be made without a driver. Since the current rate is nearly zero (although not inexistent), growth in this sector promises to be substantial over the next ten or twenty years. This is why the European Commission would like to support European-wide policies for urban transportation systems through the CityMobil project, bringing together public and private partners (entrepreneurs, consultants, cities, research institutes and universities) that all possess know-how in innovation in transportation systems and an interest in cooperating to meet common objectives.
The CityMobil project is designed to demonstrate the capabilities of these new concepts in mobility to government officials and the general public. Between now and 2011 demonstrations in real-life conditions will be held in a number of “pilot” European cities, including 3 major locations: Heathrow Airport (UK), Rome (Italy) and Castellón (Spain).
For nearly 20 years now, the research team led by Michel Parent has been working on cybercars. In 1991 INRIA approved this visionary project to develop fully automated urban vehicle designs by way of intermediate stages such as car-sharing, the movement of empty vehicles linked without physical coupling, and driver aids such as fully automated parking. Collaborative agreements were established in 1993 with Renault, EDF, Dassault Electronique, INRETS and Véolia Transport for work on the Praxitele project, the first step toward automated taxis. In the wings of the Praxitele process, the first cybercar prototypes were revealed in 1996. CyberCars-2, on display today in La Rochelle, is thus the most advanced version of this pioneering project.
“The cybercar concept came to me in 1990 when I was at MIT, while watching the movie ‘Total Recall’ with its automated Johnnycab taxi, driven by Arnold Schwarzenegger. Just before I went to MIT, I worked on the French military’s automated vehicles project DARDS, and it occurred to me that that sought-after type of transportation would be the perfect complement to mass transit systems that are the most efficient in terms of capacity…and that was just at the time global warming was beginning to be talked about.” - M. Parent, INRIA Research Director.
INRIA, which for 40 years has specialized in information and communication science and technologies (ICST), has made digital engineering, including on-board intelligent systems (in cars, planes, etc.), one of its strategic priorities for the years 2008-2012 in order to meet current and future socio-economic challenges.
The city of La Rochelle and the surrounding area took an interest in these systems, especially electric-powered urban vehicles, beginning in the late 1980’s. In 1998, Liselec, a system for sharing electric-powered vehicles and a precursor to AutoLib, was set up with fifty cars. Subsequently handed over to Comox, a subsidiary of Véolia Transport, Liselec is now looking for a new generation of vehicles and a new way of organizing the fleet, in particular automatic transport of empty vehicles. This demonstration will also help show how well these systems are accepted by the city’s residents.
Status: A public scientific and technological research
agency reporting to the ministries of Research and Industry.
Leadership: Michel Cosnard, CEO of INRIA; Jean-Pierre
Verjus, Deputy Managing Director.
Annual Budget (2008): 186 M€, more than 20%
of which is provided by outside sources, such as businesses, French
and European government agencies and communities.
Regional Research Centres: Paris - Rocquencourt,
Sophia Antipolis - Méditerranée, Grenoble - Rhône-Alpes,
Nancy - Grand Est, Rennes - Bretagne Atlantique, Bordeaux - Sud-Ouest,
Lille - Nord Europe, Saclay - Ile-de-France.
150 research project groups, 85% of them shared
with other major organizations, schools and universities.
2 800 researchers, 1,000 of them doctoral candidates
790 active research contracts
89 businesses created since 1984.
To learn more, please visit our Website: http://www.inria.fr/index.en.html
The Fiat Research Centre (CRF) was founded in 1976 by the Fiat Group. Today, CRF has 865 employees and is a renowned institution in the international research community. CRF develops effective, innovative solutions that take into consideration cost factors and lead to direct technology transfer while it continuously enhances the professional know-how of its personnel through training programs. CRF thus plays a central role in supporting Fiat’s technological development, that of its partners and of society in general, through a broad range of contributions that include the development of on-board systems, safer and environmentally friendly mobility systems, automated systems and innovative technologies, materials, energy sources and optics.
For more information: www.crf.it
Press contacts:Service de presse de l'INRIA / Agence Lowe Stratéus |
