Raphael Thys
Robo-taxi, meet robo-janitor.
General Motors has designed a new way to keep its upcoming fleet of autonomous ride-hailing vehicles clean.
The electric Cruise Origin has been engineered to be a fully driverless vehicle, with subway-style seating and doors for passengers.
It is planned to be produced in Michigan and deployed by GM's Cruise service in the near future.
The Cruise Origin driverless taxi could be equipped with a self-cleaning floor system.
Since there won't be an employee on board to tidy things during a shift, GM has filed a patent application on a type of floor that can get rid of most messes on its own.
The submission, first discovered by GM Authority, depicts what is basically a powered treadmill that takes the place of a fixed floor.
The self-cleaning floor has ribs and crevasses to catch debris and rotates it into a collection tray when passengers aren't onboard. (GM)
Sensors and cameras mounted in the vehicle detect when cleaning is needed, makes sure no passengers are on board, then rotates the floor surface, which can be equipped with ribs and crevasses to catch debris and liquids.
The litter is then dumped into a collection tray that can be cleaned out later when the vehicle returns to its base for service or charging. Heating elements would be used to melt snow and ice.
"Manual cleaning procedures require access to cleaning equipment not commonly present in a vehicle, are time-consuming and require access to a waste receptacle to discard the waste," the filing explains.
The Origin prototype did not feature the self-cleaning technology. (Carlos Avila Gonzalez/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
"For taxi and ride-sharing vehicles, operating time may be lost because vehicle cleaning cannot be performed while the vehicle is in-transit to pick up a next fare."
GM hopes to deploy the Origin in the Cruise network as soon as 2023. (GM)
Cruise currently operates a fleet of self-driving Chevrolet Bolt subcompact SUVs in San Francisco, but is aiming to deploy the Origin in 2023.
A prototype of the Origin that was unveiled in 2020 was not equipped with the feature, and GM has not confirmed that the production version will have it.