A new car rental service has been launched in the UK which aims to deliver vehicles directly to customers without a driver. Instead of relying on autonomous driving technology, To retrieve – a service launched by British startup Imperium Drive – remotely controls its fleet of electric cars from the comfort of the company’s headquarters, providing a driverless car experience with the added security of technically still a human driver at the wheel.
At the moment, however, vehicles are delivered with a “safety driver” behind the wheel who can take over control of the car if necessary. Fetch hopes to go full distance after 18 months of proven success.
Fetch claims the self-driving system has traveled more than 1,000 miles without a collision
“It’s driverless but not yet autonomous,” said Koosha Kaveh, CEO of Imperium Drive, in comments published by The BBC. “There’s still a human involved, but they’re in a control center, controlling the vehicle in the same way as a drone.” Imperium Drive has made its Fetch system available to the public after 18 months of testing in Milton Keynes, UK, where the company claims it has successfully driven more than 1,000 miles without a single collision.
Customers can order a rental car through the Fetch app, which is now available to download from the App Store and Google Play. The vehicle is then driven remotely to the customer’s location, from where they take the wheel and drive the car, just like a regular rental car. Once the rental period is over, an operator can remotely take control of the vehicle and drive it to the next customer or return it to base for charging.
The drivers who operate the rented cars remotely have a 360-degree view of the roads using a combination of cameras built into the vehicle and computer vision algorithms that can detect anything in the vicinity. The setup resembles that of gamers who specialize in racing simulators, with a cockpit-style gaming chair, four monitor screens and driving peripherals such as a steering wheel.
Fetch currently has just four cars in its fleet, operating within a four-mile radius of Milton Keynes town centre. Other regional hubs are expected to follow, with information from Kaveh Top gear that the service will soon be extended to nearby locations such as Luton (home to one of the UK’s busiest airports) and Northampton.
The game-like aspect of an operator controlling the vehicle remotely has already preoccupied some experts. “While this scheme has been tested with great success over an 18-month period, we are concerned that the experience of remote control of a vehicle distances the driver from the potential road safety implications in a video game-like manner,” he said. Simon Williams, a road manager. security spokesperson for the RAC, in a statement published by The mechanic. “While the driver has a reasonable view in front of them and around them from a distance by not being present in the vehicle, whether they like it or not they are somewhat disconnected from the reality of actually being behind the wheel.”
Imperium Drive claims that Fetch is the world’s first self-driving car rental service, although it should be noted that self-driving robotaxi services have been tested in cities around the world. A few weeks ago, Uber also announced a partnership with Waymo that will bring autonomous robotaxis to Phoenix, Arizona later this year.
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