StreetDrone Offers Cost-Effective ‘Mule’ for AV Developers

Two mobility-minded entrepreneurs make development of autonomous technology easier and more affordable for anyone.

Even for well-funded automakers, suppliers, start-up businesses and academic institutions, the cost of developing specific technologies needed to support autonomous-vehicle (AV) R&D can be daunting. United Kingdom start-up StreetDrone, however, has devised a potential cost shortcut to the self-driving development cycle.

The company has created what it regards as a competitively-priced “open-platform” version of the Renault Twizy electric vehicle (EV), fitted with “generic” autonomous-driving hardware, onto which can be grafted almost any specific CAV (connected autonomous vehicle) operating system and other electronic- or software-development technology. This obviates the need for “reverse engineering, hacking or voltage interceptors” of a conventional production vehicle.