Canoo — The ‘Subscription Only’​ Car

Why go out and buy a car on finance or cash or lease when you can get a Subscription-only car instead?

Canoo will be offering a subscription model for electric vehicles marketed to young people who don’t want to own cars. It is a different way to supply cars. It’s easy. Everything is included. It’s a worry-free experience. It’s a subscription service, but there will be a membership in which people will have to join.

Los Angeles based company Canoo has unveiled its first electric vehicle (EV), which boasts an unconventional design with a much roomier interior than most existing automobile designs. The developers claim that transportation is becoming increasingly electric, shared, and autonomous, and believe it’s time to rethink what a car should look like. As a result, all unused space inside the vehicle has been utilised. By eliminating compartmentalisation, the Canoo is like an urban loft on wheels — having the interior space of a large SUV, with room for up to seven people, but housed within the exterior footprint of a compact car. Underneath the plastic body panels is a steel framework that was designed for ease of construction in addition to crash safety. Mounted on this structure is what the manufacturer calls a “skateboard” floor which houses the motors, brakes, suspension, and battery pack.

This proprietary architecture houses the batteries and electric drive train. All future vehicles of the company will share the same skateboard construction so that different cabins, or “top hats”, can be married to create different vehicles. The Canoo lacks a mechanical steering column, the driving yoke being entirely steer-by-wire, which allows the developers a great deal of freedom in determining the overall interior layout.

Canoo was founded in December 2017 by an experienced group of auto industry veterans from companies like BMW, Icon Aircraft, and Uber. Their idea was to build a safe and affordable EV that could be sold in a way that embraced convenience and a growing sharing economy. The company plans to offer a no-hassle and commitment-free EV subscription for a “monthly, affordable price” and with no fixed end date. The subscription may include services such as registration, maintenance, insurance management, and power charging — all done from an App.

There will be online assistance. For repair and maintenance, the company will pick up the car and replace it or fix the car at work.

Insurance and electric charging will also be included in the subscription. Canoo is also looking at including cleaning through a high steam no-water spillage process as part of the subscription.

The company plans to make the user experience easier by connecting the cars to an open platform connected to the drivers’ phone, to allow climate control, entertainment and navigation. Basic functions will be accessible without a phone.

User Benefits

Canoo is challenging the traditional ways of building, offering and using vehicles resulting in multiple benefits to the customer:

Freeing Customer From Ownership

Canoo believes that there is a better solution than traditional car ownership. Currently, consumers are forced to go to a dealership and spend time at the DMV (Department of Motor Vehicles) to register their vehicle. Additionally, they must deal with ongoing hassles like insurance, maintenance and repairs. And finally, the vehicle’s value drops immediately as the owner drives off a dealer’s lot.

Instead, Canoo will free its customers from the burden of ownership by offering a hassle- and commitment-free EV subscription for one monthly, affordable price and with no set end date. The subscription may include services such as registration, maintenance, insurance management and charging — all from a single app. Canoo brings the convenience and affordability of the well-known month-to-month subscription model to the car industry, providing consumers with the convenience and value they deserve.

Freeing Customers From Traditional Design

There is no need for EVs to look like traditional cars, yet today they still do. Instead, Canoo maximises the unique benefits of EV technology by providing vehicles that have both a very large interior and very small overall footprint, perfect for city use. The minimalist design gives subscribers everything they need and nothing they don’t. Canoo offers customers a more spacious and intuitive vehicle.

An Urban Loft On Wheels

The canoo is the result of a completely re-engineered vehicle design, eliminating wasted space throughout the vehicle and providing exceptional utility to the user. By capitalising on EV architecture, the canoo eliminates compartmentalisation and comes across as an urban loft on wheels. With the interior space of a large SUV and the exterior footprint of a compact car, the canoo holds enough space for seven people. All seating is designed to feel more like furniture than traditional car seats. For example: The rear seats are more like a sofa to lounge on than a cramped and segmented backseat, and the front takes inspiration from mid-century modern chairs.

“Cars always have been designed to convey a certain image and emotion; however, we chose to completely rethink car design and focus on what future users will actually need. Thus, we came up with this loft-inspired vehicle,” says Richard Kim, in Charge of Design at Canoo. “When you subscribe, you think differently about a car — now the value is defined by the user benefit. We implemented the Bauhaus philosophy, which is centered around minimalism and functionality, and started with the reduction to the absolute minimal need. Next, we applied that approach to the seamless connectivity with the personal devices customers care most about — their phones.”

Bring Your Own Screen Approach

Canoo has chosen a minimalist approach for the user interface to provide Canoo subscribers with an experience comparable to a connected home. The user brings their own device, which is naturally personalised, intuitive and secure. Therefore, the non-driving features such as navigation, music or heating can be controlled via phone or tablet to be consistent with the user’s daily connected life

AUTONOMOUS READY FOR THE ELECTRIC RIDESHARING FUTURE

Users want a vehicle that keeps them safe. Canoo aims to build a better driver assistant. Canoo is one of the first companies to integrate two commonly used technologies — advanced driver- assistance systems (ADAS) and Driver Monitoring — to enable the car to better protect the driver from roadside distractions.

The vehicle utilises seven cameras, five radars, and 12 ultrasonic sensors:

• The cameras provide surround-view images to the perception system, using deep learning algorithms to perceive the world around the vehicle.
• The radars provide 360 degrees of sensor data for speed and distance measurement of objects.
• The ultrasonic sensors provide short range distance measurements for parking manouvers
• The suite of sensors is class-competitive to other Level 2+ systems. Moreover, Canoo’s central domain controller allows the vehicle to be future facing. Our driver assistance features will only improve as the technology evolves. The combination of steer-by-wire (see below) and ADAS provide the foundation on which unique autonomous vehicles can take full advantage of the possibilities of space with Canoo’s skateboard.

STEER-BY-WIRE

The canoo will be the first true steer-by-wire vehicle on the market without a hardware connection between the steering wheel and wheels. This means the canoo steers by electric signals only. The system is fully redundant meeting the highest safety standards and comes with immediate and long-term benefits. Steer-by-wire offers weight savings and paves the way for autonomous driving. We have complete freedom to locate the steering wheel to suit any cabin design and driver position. It also leads to a more responsive and smoother driving experience. Since steer-by-wire eliminates the need for a mechanical connection, there is more freedom to arrange the interior space of the vehicle to provide customers with exciting new vehicle options.

Protecting Customers

With all this data, comes security concerns. However, says Kindler, Canoo is working hard to overcome privacy concerns.

“Data [location] is the user’s data. The aggregate data can be useful for customised services, with privacy control options,” says Kindler, “We are using a blockchain-based decentralised system. It provides great security benefits that allow you to be in control. You own your data.”

Canoo vehicles will be secured by keeping completely separate systems for propulsion, over-the-air updates and a secure IoT architecture.

Just like Airbnb there will be a rating system to make sure that cars are used in accordance with guidelines. If the users abuse the cars they may be excluded from the system. “I like to think of Canoo like a phone contract. Once people are in, they’re more loyal and don’t leave. Every few years you might change the vehicle but keep the plan.”

Hyundai partnered with Canoo to build more affordable EVs

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