In a future that is already drawn in several jpg files, cars roll off the road, start moving, and climb an inaccessible mountain of rubble after an earthquake.
Or they climb three or four rungs of a ladder to help a person who moves in a wheelchair.
Or they just go to the moon.
It is the objective, for example, of a vehicle that does not mislead with its name - Audi Lunar Quattro - and that is already prepared to go into space in 2021. A sign that car manufacturers are looking far beyond the asphalt.
That is the idea behind the Hyundai Elevate prototype, the first car with movable legs, a mix between
electric
super-terrain
and robot that the Korean brand calls Ultimate Mobility Vehicle (UMV, maximum mobility vehicle for its acronym in English) and that will now move from the computer to real life.
It seems that there is a desire to fulfill the announcement, as the New Horizons Studio division has just been established for this purpose.
It will be led by Hyundai group vice president John Suh, former director of the Hyundai Cradle robotics center and effusive in the forecast: "Our goal is to create the
world's
first
transformer
."
His literal words were “transformer-class vehicle”, that is, a transforming class vehicle, but the essence of the information is that: Hyundai advances the creation of a car that can become something else and circulate in unexpected places, mainly in situations of emergency.
The Audi Lunar Quattro.
Providing a vehicle with autonomous legs is not an eccentricity: the aim is for it to be helpful in rescue work in catastrophic or difficult-to-access areas.
The proposal is somewhat similar to others (it happens with the Toyota e-Palette, for example), since the Elevate consists of a modular platform on which different capsules can be placed depending on the specific need, be it a mobile UVI or a more conventional cabin.
But the difference is hidden by the robotic legs, with their own propulsion motors and the ability to move in any direction.
The brand proposes a simile: its UMV can move — it will, whenever — like a mammal and a reptile, because it takes steps of up to five feet, climbs walls of the same height and blocks its legs when necessary.
And it will spread out, if the expression is allowed: it can extend its robotic arms until it achieves a track width under its belly that exceeds four and a half meters, always with the cabin stable and level.
Hyundai's vehicle will also respond like a traditional car, as it will be prepared to fold its limbs, rest its wheels on the asphalt and cruise at cruising speed on the highway.
Beyond the land
Other brands are embarking on space projects.
In collaboration with NASA, General Motors, Nissan and Michelin have developed the Small Pressurized Lunar Rover, a vehicle with 12 electric motors of 8 HP each and the capacity to make exploration trips of up to 1,000 kilometers, at a maximum speed of 30 km / h.
In its pressurized cabin there is room for two astronauts.
And Toyota is collaborating with the Japan Space Exploration Agency to build the Toyota Lunar Cruiser, a 20-foot-long manned vehicle that will be ready, presumably, in 2029. It will use hydrogen as fuel and is expected to march to the moon with a range of about 10,000 kilometers.
The Toyota Lunar Cruiser, a six-meter-long manned vehicle that will be ready, presumably, in 2029.
The Audi Lunar Quattro, meanwhile, is now ready to take off from the hand of the German company Planetary Transportation Systems.
There is a mission planned for 2021: two units of the small lunar rover weighing just 30 kilos will fly to the terrestrial satellite equipped with cameras to take images in 3D and 360º.
They will all be one-way trips, as is also, for the moment, the Hyundai Elevate.
