I-Cristal from Lohr
Developed in association with Transdev, Lohr’s i-Cristal marks the future of an autonomous electric mobility medium.
Developed in association with Transdev, Lohr's I-Cristal marks the future of an autonomous electric mobility medium.
The principal company of Lohr India Automotive Pvt. Ltd., which specialises in the manufacture of truck-trailers, has developed an autonomous electric vehicle in association with Transdev. Called the i-Cristal, the autonomous electric vehicle marks the combination of Lohr’s knowledge as a France-based industrial group and Transdev as an operator and global integrator of daily mobilities. Designed and developed to provide a glimpse of tomorrow’s shared mobility, the autonomous electric vehicle has a maximum capacity of
16 passenger. Comfortable, accessible and intelligent enough to offer optimised ease of access, interior layout and passenger interfaces, the i-Cristal is a shuttle that could provide a new alternative to the existing last mile mobility mediums. With Transdev’s on-board intelligence technology embedded in the i-Cristal, the outcome is a vehicle that could seamlessly blend into urban traffic with the highest safety standards.
Capable of locking a maximum speed of 50 kmph, the i-Cristal is fitted with a fast-charging system that allows for a half-charge in 30 minutes and full-charge in 90 minutes. Combining the knowhow of Lohr and Transdev in the conception and operation of public transport vehicles, which are fully in line with regulatory and registration constraints, the autonomous electric vechile has also seen the involvement of Torc Robotics, a leading autonomous technology provider. The i-Cristal is thus claimed to integrate Torc’s L4 Asimov self-driving software into its embedded intelligence
system. By licensing the Asimov self-driving software stack and sensor suite architecture, Torc Robotics is keen to see the i-Cristal play the role of providing complementary mobility to existing public transportation networks around the world. Stating that he believes shared mobility will be one of the cornerstone applications that lead the way to mass adoption of self-driving consumer vehicles, Michael Fleming, Torc CEO, averred, “The priority is to ensure the safety and comfort of passengers. The priority is also to provide a high-quality service.”
With the seeding of i-Cristal decided for Paris Saclay, and in Rouen, the autonomous electric vehicle is set to operate on public roads and offer a shared-ride mobility service throughout the business park. Possessing
SAE Level 4 of automation, the i-Cristal could be fullyautonomous in select areas. It is capable of operating without a steering wheel or pedals. Apart from Torc Robotics, Transdev, is also known to have partnered with Ericsson Telecom to deploy high-speed private network LTE data communications with the capability to demonstrate secure mobility operations with AVs. Interestingly, Ericsson’s private LTE network as the two entities – Transdev and Ericsson work on tandem, is said to have played a key role in connecting different parts of Transdev’s autonomous transport system The different parts of the autonomous transport system include autonomous vehicles, connected infrastructure such as sensors and Lidar, and the operating control centre for supervision. The private LTE (4G+) network infrastructure is said to operate in three different 3GPP frequency bands (in the 2600 MHz range) and offer LTE network data speeds of 80 Mbit/s in downlink and 29 Mbit/s in uplink.