When Robocop finally arrives, his car will be designed, built and ready to go.
The Los Angeles Autoshow brought out a whole new area of creativity for automaker design teams, with the challenge to create the ultimate 2025 law enforcement patrol vehicle and teams from the likes of GM, Subaru, BMW and Honda set to work speculating how police vehicles would evolve in the future in an increasingly crowded, traffic-heavy and highly automated world.
BMW's cop car of the future. Image: BMW Group |
The competition rules meant the vehicle would need to meet future needs for advanced technology; speed and agility on future freeway systems; a creative solution and comply with regional emission standards and environmental sensibility (including maintenance and recyclability).
With Los Angeles the chosen city, the BMW Group DesignworksUSA team designed produced an ePatrol Vision which combined modular structure and drone technology.
For pursuit in heavy traffic, the patrol officer, sitting in the main part of the vehicle with another passenger, can deploy either a flying drone sitting above, or one of the single wheel unmanned vehicles attached to the rear of the unit. These could chase a suspect or pass data to the main vehicle which would continue to patrol when all the drones are deployed. EPatrol is also designed to send a magnetic impulse to another vehicle to disable it.
With no windows, to offer greater protection, the Beemer Patrol looks powerful and aerodynamic from the outside. A large double-sided monitor communicates information such as accidents or route information to other drivers externally, as well as tracking the drones and uploading data. The interior design requires no tooling because of its 3-D carbon fibre structure.
Other teams' designs also drew on the principle of fewer officers working more productively to reduce costs. Honda Advanced Design’s CHP Drone Squad is an optionally manned system with highway patrols working in a similar way to military intelligence.