Nio sets 2020 date for driverless EV

Electric vehicle company Nio says it will have autonomous electric vehicles (EV) in the US market by 2020.

It recently unveiled the Nio Eve concept EV.

“We’re excited about having autonomous electric cars for US consumers in 2020,” says NIO chief executive officer, Padmasree Warrior.

“In 2015, commuters in the US spent over eight billion hours in their cars commuting. Nio’s autonomous EVs will make your journey safe, productive and enjoyable,” she adds.

Nio Eve is being touted as a smart learning EV that can take in data from daily commuting to road trips, from school runs to nights out.

According to Nio, “it is a digital companion, a robot on wheels.”

At Eve’s heart lies Nomi, an artificial intelligence engine with an intuitive human interface, providing verbal and visual connections both within the vehicle and with the outside world.

Nomi uses the vehicle’s active glass to provide an augmented vision for occupants and for new kinds of entertainment.

Doing away with conventional A and B pillars of the car, the interior is accessed through a wide forward-sliding door.

In the primary seating area, a folding table creates work or play space, while another seat reclines and allows for relaxation or sleep.

Back in November 2016, the company unveiled its EV supercar, the NIO EP9, which achieved a new lap record at Nurburgring.

On February 23, the NIO EP9 drove autonomously without any interventions, recording a time of 2m 40.33s at a top speed of 160 miles (257km) per hour.