Self-Drive Delivery Van Can Be 'Built in Four Hours' (bbc.com)

A self-drive electric delivery van, that could be on UK streets next year, has been unveiled at the Wired 2016 conference in London. From a report on BBC:The vehicle's stripped-back design and lightweight materials mean it can be assembled by one person in four hours, the firm behind it claims. The vehicles will be "autonomous-ready", for when self-drive legislation is in place, the firm said. The government wants to see self-drive cars on the roads by 2020. "We find trucks today totally unacceptable. Loud, polluting and unfriendly," said Denis Sverdlov, chief executive of Charge, the automotive technology firm behind the truck. "We are making trucks the way they should be - affordable, elegant, quiet, clean and safe."

Comments

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[green1]

I'm always a little skeptical of any of these articles that don't even include the picture of a prototype vehicle, only computer renderings. Anyone can talk like this and show a computer rendering. Getting from there to a working vehicle actually driving around and being mass produced is a rather large challenge.

We see so many press releases like this, wake me up when at least a prototype is driving around.

4 hours of assembly time? yeah....

[The-Ixian]

I used to assemble industrial sized) printers and I got pretty good at it after a couple of years. Even still, I could barely finish 8 in a day if I really (and I mean REALLY) hustled and all of the parts were in spec and ready to go.

4 hours seems kind of optimistic to me for a car. I would think that just the wiring alone would take at least that long.

Just ask his wife, Morgan Fairchild!

[Nova Express]

Go to the actual article and you see not a prototype, not a mockup, but concept art.

Could a single trained technician with the proper tools (hoist, lift, etc.) assemble a truck from modular, prefabricated parts in four hours? Maybe, but I wouldn't bet the farm on it. Especially when a typical kit car requires 80-100 hours to build yourself.

This is pie-in-the-sky fluff to pimp to investors.

Re:Assembled in four hours?

[slashrio]

Then maybe it's you? ;-)

Re: improves after the BREXIT?

[slashrio]

Of course it will. Everything will improve after the Brexit.

I don't think they've thought about it.

[Computershack]

"We find trucks today totally unacceptable. Loud, polluting and unfriendly," said Denis Sverdlov, chief executive of Charge, the automotive technology firm behind the truck. "We are making trucks the way they should be - affordable, elegant, quiet, clean and safe."

So his solution is to replace a truck with 28 of these vans which is what it would take to carry the same load as a single articulated lorry. I'm sure that is way better.