Technology showcased in Nissan’s Pivo 2 concept – making its European debut at the Geneva motor show tomorrow – will be in production cars by 2010, designers said.
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The compact lithium-ion (Li-Ion) battery developed by the Automotive Energy Supply Corporation (AESC), a joint venture of Nissan and the NEC Corporation will be in production electric vehicles (EV) by 2010, according to Masahiko Tabe, Nissan Motor’s senior manager, advanced vehicle group.
Speaking to just-auto at a demonstration of the Pivo 2’s technology in Paris, Tabe said aspects of the ‘Robot Assistant’ (RA) linked to the navigation system would soon make production, as it enhanced present systems, but the variable-geometry suspension was some time off.
“We are just researching for the application,” he said. “Production is not decided yet.”
The variable geometry, known also as the Metamo system, swivels the wheels up to 90 degrees for ‘sideways’ parking and also moves each whole wheel/suspension/steering assembly in an arc, varying track width and wheelbase length under acceleration, deceleration and cornering for increased stability and ride comfort.
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By GlobalDataTabe said the RA, which uses camera ‘eyes’ and voice patterns to measure the driver’s mood and attempts to keep him and her in a happy and alert frame of mind for safer driving, would also make production around 2010 though he wouldn’t say if a little round swivelling head with a synthesised voice, a ‘smiling’ mouth made of orange LEDs and bug-eyed camera lenses would be the final form.
“It’s for the expansion of the navigation system,” Tabe said.
“But the most important thing is good relations between the driver and the vehicle so I think we need some of the [features] like robotic sensing [to increase the human driver’s trust in the robot].
“We are developing other safety systems like ESP and ABS but the driver primarily decides the action to take. A happy driver is a safe driver.”
A demonstration similar to the one staged in Paris for media is sure to wow the crowds as much in Geneva as in Tokyo (where they were six-deep around the Pivo 2 on press day).
The young lady driver (Nissan’s prime target for this three-seat, eco-friendly urban machine) approaches the car to be greeted by the dashtop robot swivelling his (or her?) head and smiling.
“Welcome,” it says as the front door opens, Heinkel bubble car-style, bringing robot, dashboard, the steering wheel and pedals with it.
“Door open, please mind the step.” By this time, even the most hardened, technology-jaded motoring hack should be sold on the cute android.
Driving along, Robot Assistant swivels back and forth, issuing turn-by-turn instructions and warning of traffic jams ahead, but regularly looks back at the driver, studying facial expressions and analysing voice patterns.
If it detects tiredness or anger, it consults the map and the car’s location and chirpily suggests a break: “There’s a coffee shop nearby, would you like to stop?”
And so it goes. At the end of the journey, the door opens and you are again reminded to mind the step. We were expecting “Have a nice day” but the urge to record that on the chip had apparently been resisted.
Other engineers present said that voice pattern mood measurement would be a challenge for any vehicle sold world-wide. Studies in Japan and the US had shown a wide variation in voices expressing similar emotions. But it was impressive to sit in front of a camera and make various faces while a computer calculated what mood we were in.
RA apart, the Pivo’s other party trick is easy parking, thanks to those swivelling wheels and a cabin that can rotate 360 degrees. Essentially, you line up parallel to your park space and then the wheels and the cabin swivel 90 degrees and in you go, facing towards the kerb, stepping safely out directly on to the footpath.
When leaving, you hop in kerbside again, and swivel the cab 180 degrees to face out, exit sideways, rotate the wheels back to forward-facing and waft off in near silence as four individual wheel hub motors take charge.
As for having a whiz around the indoor display centre ourselves, that was politely but firmly declined.
Nissan Europe PRs said they wished the company had built a “whole fleet” of Pivo 2s to send around dealerships to demonstrate the technology the company is working on for future models. Pivo 2 itself won’t make production but many of its clever features will be in the cars in those dealerships in just a few years.
Such concepts are also encouraging as they demonstrate that no matter what rules and constraints bureaucrats and environmentalists chuck at the ‘evil’ car industry, somewhere a group of clever boffins is considering the issues of the day and coming up with new solutions to overcome them.
In this case, an all-electric, driver-soothing, easy-park, minimal space-taking city car. Roll on production of something like it.
Graeme Roberts
