Yes, it is. And it's not called Zoe anymore. This is Callie.
Callie?
Yup, named for California, the location of the Renault Open Innovation Lab - Silicon Valley, a 'secret' Franco-American skunkworks that's been developing autonomous cars.
It looks like it's going a bit faster than most robot cars.
Yup. Renault claims that the Lab, working from research carried out by the renowned Stanford University Dynamic Design Lab, and Professor Chris Gerdes, former Chief Innovation Officer for the U.S. Department of Transportation, has made a major step forward in autonomous car development. Callie, it says, can mimic the driving style and behaviour of some of the world's most highly-trained test drivers. It can react faster, and builds up more speed through a difficult course of obstacles as it learns, something that autonomous cars have previously had trouble with.
"At Groupe Renault, we are focused on being an innovation leader in products, technology and design," said Simon Hougard, Director of Renault Open Innovation Lab - Silicon Valley. "Our innovation efforts aim to develop advanced autonomous driving technologies that consumers can trust will create a safer, more comfortable journey."
What's all this in aid of?
Autonomous car sales, pure and simple. Renault, which has been relatively quiet on the robot cars front so far, reckons that it wants to put as many as 15 cars, across the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi group brands, on sale by 2022 with advanced robotic and autonomous capabilities. The French car maker wants to be the first brand to offer 'mind-off' autonomous driving.
So Schwarzenegger should have had a French accent when he said "I'll be back..."?
It would seem so, yes. Enough flippancy, see it all in action in the video below.
