Arcimoto and Faction presented Faction D1, a driverless electric vehicle designed for deliveries. With the rise of ecommerce services, logistics are an increasingly important aspect. Lately, several companies have been proposing interesting projects related to driverless electric vehicles designed specifically for last-mile delivery activities. This project, however, is a bit different from those seen so far. In fact, the use of the term “without driver“is not related to true autonomous driving functionality.
Faction D1 exploits, in fact, the Faction’s DriveLink and TeleAssist technologies. In other words, this vehicle comes controlled by a remote operator. The basis is that of Arcimoto’s Deliverator model, a three-wheeled electric vehicle designed for deliveries. In this case, however, there will be much more space on board since the driver is not provided. The specifications speak of a maximum speed of 75 miles per hour (about 120 km / h) and a range of 100 miles (about 160 km). The load capacity reaches up to 227 kg.
Obviously, this vehicle is expressly designed to be able to operate in an urban environment to reduce pollution and the costs of the delivery fleets.
Faction and Arcimoto are convinced that driverless electric vehicles of this size will provide a significant increase in efficiency, reduce emissions and offer significant cost savings over existing transportation solutions, especially during average urban commutes of five miles or less.
Faction D1 is equipped with advanced sensors and safety systems and has a configurable load compartment that can be adapted as needed. The first customer tests are expected to begin in 2022. Deliveries of production models are expected to start in 2023.
