Citroën wants to redefine the concept of urban mobility, and it does so by activating The Urban Collectif, a partnership with Accor e JCDecaux. From the partnership a rather interesting concept was born, which the French company (is it still French? I don't understand anything anymore) called: 'Skate'. Why? Because that's essentially what it's about. A big four-wheeled skate.
Of course, it's not intended as a skateboard as much as a ridesharing platform. But he looks a lot like him. A sort of muscular and bulky evolution of the hoverboard from Back to the Future.
Skate, the vision of versatile transport
'Skate' is part of the Citroën autonomous mobility vision, which plans to deploy a fleet of these vehicles in the near future. The double chevron company is confident that the implementation of these will reduce congestion in the city. How does Skate work? Acting as the "base" for a series of interchangeable capsules that change in relation to the needs of commuters.
One of the most interesting and versatile features of Skate is given by the special fully spherical tires placed at the four corners of the vehicle-platform. They have no air inside them, they move 360 ° and take four times longer to wear out (also because they have an area four times larger than a traditional wheel).
Frontier solution, there's no doubt. Will we ever see it on the road? Second Hans Vrijsen, CEO of Goodyear's research and development department (creator of the prototype called “Eagle 360”) will certainly happen.
Modular experiences
At Citroën, we look at medium and long-term trends to anticipate consumer expectations and needs. We believe that this new Skate concept can redefine the framework of urban mobility: shared, electric and autonomous.
Vincent Cobee, CEO of Citroën Global.
As mentioned, the capsules change depending on the user. A "mobile room" concept that is also very dear to Renault, which has explored the system with its EO concept. Unlike Renault, however, the capsules (some like to call them “pods”) take just 10 seconds to swap. A capsule-suite for luxury travel? A capsule with a gym on wheels?
