Through a joint development partnership, Oxbotica and Applied EV will develop a fully autonomous and multi-purpose EV that has the capability to operate in a range of environments, making it suitable for multiple commercial operations.
Oxbotica will integrate the company’s AV software into Applied EV’s programmable and configurable EV platform, enabling a driverless commercial vehicle that will first be targeted at the industrial logistics and goods delivery sectors. The pair will then expand into other industries as the number of vehicles is scaled up.
“Working in collaboration with Applied EV to provide the market with an autonomy solution comprising both hardware and software with the highest safety standards is a singular and unifying goal,” commented Paul Newman, founder and CTO, Oxbotica. “We have an ambitious deployment goal over the coming years, driven by an extraordinary market appetite for a world-class product.”
Applied EV’s Blanc Robot is said to be a modular and fully flexible platform, capable of operating as a fully autonomous vehicle that can be configured to meet the ever-changing requirements of both the logistics and industrial sectors.
In both off-road and on-road configurations, the vehicle platform comes with an all-wheel-drive system. Batteries are matched to the duty and charge cycles and the Blanc Robot can achieve a total efficiency of 10 miles/kWh.
“Oxbotica and AEV both see an opportunity in the market to come together with a unique offering of strong commercial outcomes as early as 12 months,” added Julian Broadbent, founder and CEO, Applied EV.
“The real value of automated vehicles is to operate without the presence of a driver with high levels of safety. There are not many instances where you will find full autonomous vehicles in the market doing a real job, with real economics. Removing the driver and passengers reduces the risk and creates new levels of value and service.”
