SEAT Displays the Leon Cristobal at the Smart City Expo, the Safest Car in its History

SEAT is exhibiting four major developments in mobility of the future in smart cities at the seventh edition of the Smart City Expo World Congress. All the initiatives are framed in the guidelines of the Barcelona city council's Urban Mobility Plan, which seeks mobility that is safe, efficient, sustainable and equitable.

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SEAT President Luca de Meo pointed out that "SEAT's commitment to improving urban mobility with solutions that are innovative, easy and smart is in the spotlight at this new edition of the Smart City Expo". In addition, de Meo emphasised that "our commitment is to continue strengthening our ties with Barcelona as a benchmark Smart City, and for this reason, we are presenting initiatives which are aligned with the four pillars promoted by the city in its mobility plan".

With an emphasis on safe mobility, the company is presenting the SEAT Leon Cristobal, the safest car in the history of the brand. This 'guardian angel' concept car is equipped with six advanced safety assistants whose functions can contribute to reducing distractions, drowsiness or speeding or alcohol consumption, factors which are currently the cause of 80% of all traffic accidents. The Leon Cristobal is equipped with:

Drive-lock: includes a built-in breathalyser and blocks the car if a positive reading is given.
Drive-coach: a voice assistant that enables the safety warnings to be completely personalised.
Guardian angel mode: activates all 15 of the active and passive safety systems of the vehicle.
Display-mirror: rear-view mirror that eliminates blind spots by using a rear camera.
Black box: it records data and images while driving and sends them to a selected Smartphone in the event of an accident.
Mentor: an app that enables parents to control the vehicle's speed and monitor its location when their children are driving it.

The SEAT Leon Cristobal, named after the patron saint of drivers, could reduce road accidents by 40% if more than half of the vehicles on the road were equipped with its functions.

Furthermore, and with a view to coming up with solutions for efficient mobility in the city, SEAT Metropolis:Lab Barcelona announces 'About it', an app which aims to become the new mobility assistant in Barcelona. Among other functions, the app displays the location of electric vehicle recharging points, Bicing bike-sharing stations or black spots with the highest concentration of traffic accidents in Barcelona.

With reference to sustainability, part of the 10-strong fleet of eMii prototypes, which will soon be made available to the employees of Metropolis:Lab Barcelona and Pier 01 in a car-sharing project, will also be highlighted. This service enables the brand's electric technology to be verified, and the cars are equipped with the Digital Access solution for users to gain access to the cars with their Smartphone. Visitors will have the opportunity to test drive this zero-emissions prototype in the outside parking area.

New developments in equitable initiatives for smart cities will have their forum at the congress by way of the Virtual Mobility Lab project by CARNET, the only centre of urban mobility research focussing on Barcelona created by SEAT, Volkswagen Group Research and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia. This simulation tool analyses and evaluates the impact of mobility projects prior to implementing any pilot test.

In one of its initial tests, the Virtual Mobility Lab verified that by using 500 On Demand Shuttles, 2,000 private vehicles could be taken off the streets of Barcelona, with the resulting improvement of traffic and pollution levels.

Autonomous Driving Challenge, the grand finale 

In addition to the presentation of the different solutions geared towards improving future urban mobility, CARNET is promoting a challenge aimed at students with technical training in robotics. The organisation is looking for the best young talent and the goal is for the participants to develop wholly autonomous driving functions.

Over a six-month period, 50 students from 9 Spanish universities were tasked with developing software that enables self-driving scale model vehicles to successfully navigate through a closed circuit.

For the occasion, CARNET has created a driving environment inspired by the city of Barcelona, where the finale will take place. The vehicles will be competing to overcome all the obstacles, proving that they can successfully drive on their own in an urban setting.

This development can be applied and scaled to real autonomous driving algorithms and provides students with the ability to participate in the creation of this future mobility concept.

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