WeRide Robobus Offers VIP Trial Rides in Riyadh
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Sulaiman
- . October 28, 2023
- . Update: October 28, 2023 11:52 am
The icing on the cake at the seventh Future Investment Initiative (FII7) forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s capital city, was WeRide’s Robobus. It delighted the forum participants with demo runs of the highly touted L4 autonomous driving robobus.
WeRide provided a three-day VIP trial rides on its Robobus at the King Abdulaziz International Conference Center. The Robobus is the world’s first purpose-built self-driving minibus for massive production. It has the Red Dot Design Award and the 2023 Fortune China Best Design Award in its kitty.
WeRide is one of China’s leading autonomous tech companies. The Robobus was jointly developed with Yutong, a Zhengzhou commercial vehicle maker. Its purpose-built for autonomous driving, with no steering wheel, accelerator or brake pedals.
Robobus ‘Engineering the Wheels of Tomorrow‘
Tony Han, founder of WeRide, who participated in a panel discussion Engineering The Wheels Of Tomorrow, said the development of the autonomous driving industry requires cooperation in several aspects.
This is cooperation among players, both from upstream and downstream, along the industry chain; cooperation among different countries and regions; cooperation on the experience sharing of production, commercialization; and policies and regulations making.
The Robobus provides commuter transport for WeRide employees on Bio Island (also called Guanzhou Island), and service to the public as well. During the COVID-19 lockdowns, the Robobus was used to deliver food to residents of Guangzhou.
In 2022, the co-founder and CTO of WeRide Dr Yan Li described Riyadh as a city full of innovation, with its smart city ecology rapidly developing. “Autonomous driving is an important part of the smart city ecosystem. The launch of WeRide’s Robobus in Riyadh is a very exciting exploration.”
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WeRide’s Robobus Has No Blindspots
WeRide says the Robobus has a 360-degree sensing capability with no blind spots. It has a 200-meter range of obstacle detection. “With a top speed of 40km/hr, the Robobus can operate on open roads day and night under all kinds of weather condition.”
The Robobus uses a front-mounted production model without a steering wheel, brake, or driver’s cab, and has a fully redundant safety design. Furthermore, WeRide Robobus is the world’s first fully unmanned driving and large-scale mass produced autonomous driving minibus. It uses pure electric power and can be flexibly deployed in open or closed traffic scenarios, on urban open roads providing convenient transportation.
