French Minister Emmanuel Macron trials Groupe Renault’s autonomous vehicle demonstrator

Paris – Emmanuel Macron, France’s Minister for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, was given an opportunity to do a trial of autonomous driving in the Renault Espace Autonomous Driving Demonstrator near Paris this morning.

As part of the New Face of Industry in France programme’s anniversary celebrations (Nouvelle France Industrielle), all of project leaders met today at the Ministry for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs in the Bercy district of Paris. Renault, which heads the New Face of Industry in France’s Autonomous Vehicle plan was therefore present at the event.

“Renault is continuing to work very closely with the legislators, manufacturers and academics in order to promote the introduction of autonomous vehicles in France and internationally,” said Gaspar Gascon, SVP, Head of Powertrain Engineering, Renault.

The Renault Espace Autonomous Driving Demonstrator made its second official appearance this morning along a stretch of the A4 motorway to the east of the French capital. On board was France’s Minister for the Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs, Emmanuel Macron.

This vehicle has already run for several hundred hours in ordinary traffic across Europe and was first presented at a meeting of European ministers in April in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

While the Espace Automous Driving Demonstrator shows what’s possible in the future, driving  Aids like AEBS (Automatic Emergency Braking) with Pedestrian Detection are already fitted to Groupe Renault vehicles. Renault intends to present several models equipped with a Single Lane Control system for motorway use by 2018. Beyond 2020, the goal is to fit Eyes-off / Hands-off technology to  production vehicles at an affordable price.

Not only does autonomous drive technology seek to make roads safer and motoring more enjoyable, but it will also allow drivers to better optimise how they use their travelling time.