Hyundai's autonomous pod concepts debut at CES 2022
Cars
Speaker 1: Hyundai the Korean automaker. That's also a robotics and mobility company can always be counted on to bring the weirdest forms of future transport CES. And this year is no exception. Today we meet the plug and drive and plug and lift modular mobility concepts.
Speaker 1: Now, most of Hyundai's new mobility concepts are built around the plug-in drive or P and D module, sort of an autonomous one wheel that you can steer 360 [00:00:30] degrees features integrated motors and brakes, and basically carry things around for you. In the presentation, we see one delivering an umbrella, stand to an elderly person who retrieves a cane, but things get interesting when multiple P and D modules are connected to carry larger loads, like a Roen kiosks that delivers your dry cleaning or packages. There's even a spot robo dog on board. In one example that can presumably carry those packages, the backyards, you know, those places P and D can't go like upstairs, but this is road show. And you're looking for [00:01:00] something that you can. The individualized mobility cabin is that sort of the single seat pod is intended to help people of limited mobility like the elderly or differently abled get around.
Speaker 1: Now being based on the autonomous P DS, the mobility pod should also be capable of autonomous operations, but I spy a little controlled joystick in their that could potentially give passengers control. Now we see these mobility pods docking with the buildings elevator system, rolling around town, alongside [00:01:30] pedestrians and being loaded into larger mother shuttles that allow multiple pods to be moved for longer distances at higher speeds, sort of like a bus, but smaller. And your co passengers can't breathe on you in the concept up. Each mother shuttle appears to hold eight pods and features L E D displays it either in possibly with route information and what looks like an array of solar panels on the roof. Probably not enough to charge a thing but enough to keep the batteries topped off. Now, the mother shuttles are also, you guessed autonomous. There's no driver compartment [00:02:00] and they roll on four P and D modules. So these to be larger than the ones on the individual mobility pods
Speaker 1: Take the mother shuttle platform and plop a rolling ER on top. And you have the hospital mobility concept, a hospital or trauma center on wheels that can be deployed to the site of large emergencies like earthquakes or fires here it's deployed alongside Hyundai's SA one urban air mobility taxi, which debuted at CES 2020 here it's repurposed as [00:02:30] an aerial emergency response vehicle. Now for really big emergencies, multiple hospital mobility pods can be connected to form a larger hospital pavilion once on site, and that'll allow them to serve a larger number of patients. Now, those P and D modules also form the backbone of the L seven concept, another electric micro mobility platform with individual steering airless wheels that can pull off neat tricks like zero radius tank turns. L seven is all about scalability with a Lego like modular platform [00:03:00] that can be configured to accommodate a single passenger or reconfigured to deliver packages or equipment.
Speaker 1: Now finally, let's step away from the P and D ecosystem for a while, and have a look at the drive and lift module or DNL now like P and D DNL integrates the drive steering and breaking systems into a module. But DNL also includes an extra access for articulation that allows it to lift each wheel independently. This allows for knee tricks like leaning into corners to stabilize loads during high speed turns [00:03:30] or keeping a load perfectly level over uneven terrain steps or speed bumps Hyundai says that it's looking at man and unmanned applications for D you know, personally, I'd love to see an electric sports car that can carve and lean into corners like a motorbike, but the first application they've built is mob ed or mob B D. I'm not sure which one. It is a 60 by 67 centimeter wide little guide bot built around a two kilowat hour battery with a screen on an arm that can serve with a tour guide or a telepresence spot. Nice to meet [00:04:00] you, ed. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Like most of the tech world Hyundai is getting real weird in the metaverse and it's bringing its robotic flare along for the ride. You can find more info about that over on the main scene at channel, but before you go, make sure you're subscribed here on the road show where we'll be bringing you all of the latest automotive and mobility news coming out of CES 2020 to and be on.
