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The Pliyt Concept: A Robotaxi with Compartmentalized Seating

By Rain Noe - January 16

in Cars

The subway car is the great equalizer, where the masses travel shoulder-to-shoulder. On the opposite end of the spectrum you have the private car, where you are sealed within your own private cocoon. A California-based startup called Pliyt—for Personal Luxury In Your Travel—has a vision for making the latter more efficient.

Pliyt's concept is a four-passenger robotaxi, where all the seats are sealed off from each other. "Your Pod. Your Privacy. Your Space," the firm writes. "Complete in-ride anonymity even in shared trips." It's an Uber X without having to see (or smell) what the other passengers look like. And these AI-rendered passengers freaking love it.

Here's the crazy thing: The company doesn't have any autonomous driving technology, nor any experience building cars (as you might be able to tell by the vehicle's exterior styling). Instead they want to partner with existing autonomous-driving technology providers, then somehow gain the funding to purpose-build the entire vehicle from the ground up.

In other words, it seems to me that all they've got…is the idea. The question that GM and Toyota must surely be asking themselves is, "Can't we just take one of our minivan platforms, and redesign the interior with sealed-off pods? What do we need these guys for?"

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Ryan Cee

3 months ago

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I would go further and ask what is the purpose of even giving vaporware companies like this any visibility at all? If all someone has is a bunch of very obviously AI gen'd "renders" why even waste time talking about them?

Side note: it's kinda wild to think about how the barrier for entry of these blatant scams doesn't even involve going to the effort of mockups anymore; you can just ask ChatGPT to plop out some vaguely cool looking pics for gullible VC types and call it a day.

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- Nick Avenetti
  
  Ryan Cee
  
  3 months ago
  
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  I saw them at CES this year. They had a full-size concept that you could sit in.
  
  I agree, tho, the AI-generated marketing material is off-putting.
  
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Jason Pokines

3 months ago

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Plight /plīt/ noun;
A dangerous, difficult, or otherwise unfortunate situation.

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