Renault's autonomous electric prototype, called Next Two, is its vision for self-driven cars. It brings some innovative yet feasible ideas to the table, which could very well be the stepping stones to cars of the future.
Exterior
While the car is futuristic in concept, the Next Two is essentially a Renault Zoe on the outside.
Interior
It gets three display screens, two of them for imparting drive-related and navigation information, and one touch and movement responsive screen for everything else, including surfing the internet and video conferencing.
Mechanicals
Although Renault says that the Next Two will be fully electric, no specifications were released, so we can only assume it's a standard Zoe underneath.
Anything else?
The car is not fully autonomous. Yes, it can take the responsibility of ferrying its occupants around, but only under two conditions, namely in traffic with speeds up to 18mph, and parking. The autonomous drive functions with the help of a sensor at the front, camera at the rear and an ultrasonic field created around the car.
The roadmap for autonomous cars in France will be laid out this year and with Carlos Ghosn (Renault's CEO) chosen as the leader by French government, expect more such concepts. The great thing about Renault Next Two is that it doesn't fully take away the responsibility and fun of driving. Parking mode and driving in crawling traffic should be autonomous anyway because, unless you are Russ Swift, it's highly doubtful that you consider parallel parking to be an enjoyable chore.