If you have been looking forward to living in a dystopian Judge Dredd like future, the team at Neuron EV has some exciting news! They recently released a transportation concept dubbed "HUB" which according to their press release is "the beginning of a holistic solution. HUB integrates renewable energy, telecommunications, and cloud computing for ease of mobility."
The company's press release envisions a future where a fleet of these vehicles serve a number of needs such as delivery and transportation, but in my opinion, they look more like the menacing paddy wagon of the future that would deliver a team of police to arrest you for a thought crime in Mega-City One,.
With cities like London, Los Angeles, and Paris all planning to restrict or completely eliminate personal vehicles within the city centers, and with major cities in China already banning many forms of personal transportation, urban planners and the private sector are looking at ways to solve the transportation needs of millions of city dwellers. Neuron envisions a future where urbanites don't own a personal vehicle, but instead reserve a HUB vehicle based on their needs, or simply request a group HUB for a shared ride to their destination, like a fully automated Uber. Based on the press release, HUB would operate within a 5-mile radius connecting riders to other HUB networks or public transportation systems.
The plan almost sounds like it is straight out of an Agenda 21 conspiracy theory with statements like "HUB is the vision of innovation in transportation to advance humanity and save our resources. Neuron EV aims to make a positive impact in society through continuous development of smart transportation." They even managed to work "blockchain" into the press release so they have ticked all the right venture capital raising buttons.
While I am poking fun at the death squad van looks of the HUB, this type of technology will be key in the future, perhaps not as mainstream transportation, but as a way to give mobility and access to people who cannot operate a traditional vehicle. But for many governments, the goal is to force the plebeian masses onto public or shared forms of transportation since private mobility has been deemed too dangerous or harmful to the environment. It will be interesting to see how these types of projects move forward and how legislation with regards to privacy, economic impact in the job market, safety, and legal liability will support or stifle these new technologies.
Beyond the few press releases that have been sent out, there is not much else known about the Orange County, California based company, with the exception that they are building a joint manufacturing plant in Shaanxi, China, however, they don't disclose who the factory is being built with. According to their site, they have a target date of 2022 to start manufacturing HUB vehicles in some form. This is an incredibly hard space to break into, with fresh news that Faraday Future is fighting to stave off collapse after burning through hundreds of millions of dollars, Neuron EV's target of having their factory up and in production by 2022 seems ambitious.
For me and many people who live outside of the major cities, HUB won't be coming to rural communities, which might be a good thing. In the future "autonomous drivers" might be the guys like me who are driving off the network in a classic roadster.
Source Neuron EV
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