Skift Take
A successful rollout of Accor’s self-driving lorries depends upon if– a very big if– city governments can agree to re-toggle their infrastructures. That’s a big ask for something pitched as a location to sip champagne and get a workout in the middle of city traffic.
Cameron Sperance
Europe’s largest hotel company prepares to take the visitor experience on the roadway in the next decade.
Paris-based Accor this week partnered with French automaker Citroën and marketing company JCDecaux on the Urban Collëctif, an self-driving urban movement initiative. Accor’s portion of the partnership would incorporate two so-called autonomous vehicle offerings for its upscale Sofitel and fitness-geared Pullman brand names. The Sofitel En Voyage would permit visitors to carry around a city with luxurious amenities associated with the brand while the Pullman Power Fitness Pod would serve as a gym-on-the-go for tourists wanting to get an exercise in between meetings.
At a time when getting self-governing lorries securely integrated onto city streets is currently a difficulty, Accor leaders maintain these 2 preliminary offerings are the leading principles among 60 talked about during the preparation stage. It likewise assists improve the company’s sustainability mission.” We always want to be the various player in the group. We like development. We like design. We like diversification of our portfolio,” Patrick Mendes, group chief industrial officer at Accor, stated in an interview with Skift. “We are and we wish to be proactive on this.”
The Accor platform, still in its idea stage, is essentially a two-part autonomous car. The numerous Accor pods would fit on top of a Citroën Skate, an electric vehicle imitating a skateboard that can be equipped with a variety of bodies to host different usages. Accor leaders see the idea as an extension of the company’s push to much better connect its hotels with the surrounding cities in which they operate.
The Sofitel En Trip pod is supposed to be outfitted with a nod to French furniture and haute couture and the basic ambiance of the high-end hotel brand. The Sofitel pod would host as numerous as 3 travelers plus their luggage and feature a bar, state of mind lighting, and a touchscreen tablet to converse with the hotel concierge. The pod would do everything from pick up guests at a train station to whisk them off to dinner or the theater.
The Pullman Power Physical fitness Pod appears more to do with business tourists who truly have no time at all to break off to the gym. Marketing products for the partnership show a user on the Pullman pod working out on a rowing maker as it makes its way down a city street. The pod would be equipped with a bike along with rowing device– both of which would charge the Citroën Skate’s batteries when in use– for use by a single visitor.
The concept is the pod opens a new world of performance– including for the Skate– while one is being in a couple of hours of overloaded city traffic. One has to wonder how bad the other 58 concepts were if a gym-on-wheels for a single user is one of the two leading styles out of 60 for a program partly aimed at minimizing city traffic.
The Sofitel one appears more useful from a sheer movement viewpoint, however the Accor group keeps there is a market for the Pullman physical fitness angle. And again– this is all in the concept phase. Citroën leaders state it might be a minimum of another 5 to 7 years before these are zipping down the streets of Paris or any other international city due to all the facilities and regulatory structure involved.
“I was the first questioning [it], however, truthfully, I’ve tried it. It’s fun. You do your workout … you show up, [and] you go take a shower at the hotel,” Mendes stated when asked about how much demand there could be for the Pullman pod. “The short response is that you have limitless possibilities to enhance the [guest] experience.”
Preventing Bumps in the Road
Accor’s very first challenge is ensuring this initiative moves from the principle phase to truth.
The move might sound a little similar to United Airlines, which has made its own push into electric-powered airplane along with supersonic planes earlier this year. Those 2 offers, especially the electric-powered one, gathered criticism for being more of a public relations play than something rooted in authentic capacity.
The electric aircraft behind the potential 200-plane order is based around an untested technology the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has yet to authorize. United still expects the plane to get in service by the end of the decade.
The Accor team doesn’t expect any uncertainties when it pertains to its own electrical vehicle push. Testing is already well underway for self-governing cars all over the world at numerous companies.
While Citroën CEO Vincent Cobbe kept in mind in a discussion it would take a minimum of five to seven years for transportation authorities as well as operators and producers collaborating to roll out the network, the Accor group is bullish on the venture’s outlook.
“The innovation exists, so everything exists,” stated Damien Perrot, international senior vice president of style at Accor. “You actually feel the effect and how it could really enhance the city.”
The Financials
The Accor collaboration with Citroën for now appears to be in name only. Perrot and Mendes decreased to elaborate on whether any financial investments were made between the two business or if a company order had been put.
“We are not at that stage,” Perrot stated. “What we would like very first is to work together in order to make sure this will work.”
That preparation phase will identify which cities would even permit the pods to navigate along streets and offer the company a concept of fleet size. The partnership pitches the skate and pod technology as something that can improve traffic flow by 35 percent, however that hinges on cities making it possible for the pods to travel on devoted lanes.
It is unclear the number of cities around the globe want to turn over public infrastructure to a personal entity, however Accor’s team thinks it can play a crucial role in enhancing city traffic as well as sustainability efforts.
“It’s actually premature to talk about the application of this in the city,” Perrot stated. “But the energy exists, demand is there, and the requirement exists.”