Arcimoto Inc., makers of rightsized, outrageously fun, ultra-efficient electric vehicles for moving people and stuff, unveiled the Faction D1, a next-generation driverless delivery vehicle based on the Arcimoto Platform at the new Arcimoto RAMP manufacturing facility in Eugene, Oregon. Equipped with Faction’s DriveLink and TeleAssist technologies, the completely driverless D1 combines autonomy with remote human teleoperation. The driverless vehicle system retains the Deliverator’s capabilities of a 75 mph top speed and just over 100 miles of range while transporting up to 500 pounds of cargo.
“Scalable driverless vehicle systems require engineering from the chassis up, and by leveraging the revolutionary Arcimoto Platform, we’re able to develop our driverless system much faster than using legacy vehicle designs,” said Faction CEO, Ain McKendrick. “The end result will be a rightsized, ultra-efficient driverless delivery vehicle that reduces pollution and drives down costs for local and last-mile delivery fleets.”
Faction and Arcimoto have a shared belief that right-sizing driverless electric vehicles will provide a significant boost in efficiency, reduce carbon emissions, and offer significant cost savings over existing transportation solutions, especially during the average urban trip of five miles or less.
Arcimoto Founder and CEO Mark Frohnmayer said, “We’ve been thrilled to work with the Faction team to support driverless development on the Arcimoto platform. With a common mission of deploying ultra-efficient electric vehicles at scale, the commercial launch of the driverless D1 will be a game-changer for last-mile logistics.”
The D1 features advanced sensors and safety systems, has a configurable cargo compartment that can be adapted for specialized payloads in addition to general fleet-on-demand use. With an anticipated commercial service cost of less than $2 per mile for driverless deliveries, the D1 will be extremely cost-competitive for various delivery use cases. Faction expects to begin pilot customer trials in 2022. Interested fleet customers can contact Faction about access to pre-production vehicles and services now, and make reservations for production models expected to be released in 2023.