It’s Renault’s vision for a low-cost shared city Robo-Taxi and it’s called EZ-GO.

Renault does reckon to have autonomous robo-taxis in service by 2022, but they doubtless won’t look like this.

The look of EZ-GO, but sadly they wont be like this:

Sure you notice it, there is no fron door.  Instead the interior is one big U-shaped sofa. At the open end of the U is a big upward-hinging door, with a ramp onto the road. A brilliantly simple modified space. There is way to get up to six people sociably arranged around the vehicle, and to give wheelchairs and pushchairs simple roll-in roll-out access.

Because autonomous vehicles won’t crash (they said) and it’s limited to 30mph, the designers are happy to seat people sideways. Renault also points out that the end-on door means there’s no hinged door suddenly jutting out into the flow of vehicles or pedestrians.

Perfect for tourists

A huge glass area gives a panoramic city view. Renault reckons parties of six could book them for a sightseeing tour. Screens inside could show geofenced tourist-guide info.

Underneath is an electric platform with inductive charging, so the autonomous system can drive into position above a charging plate and juice up without anyone having to plug it in.

The EZ-GO would be an expensive vehicle to build – it’s fully electric, autonomous and the size of a long wheelbase S-Class at 5.2 metres. But it’d be in use for a far bigger proportion of the time than a normal car, and each user would only be paying for the few miles they’re in it, and those miles would possibly be shared with other people. So it should be a very cheap way of getting about.

It could also be parked up kerbside and ordered by app.

Robotic future …