I rode in a self-driving powered wheelchair that avoids obstacles and people, and can be summoned when you need it its like Teslas Autopilot for personal mobility

Date:
Sat, 05 Sep 2026 10:07:26 +0000

Description:
The Strutt ev1c adds autonomous smarts that are smartly implemented.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter I saw a lot of fun things at
IFA 2026 , but among the many halls full of tech, one experience has stuck with me the most. It was the Strutt ev1c personal mobility vehicle, which basically mashes up tech from robot vacuums and self-driving cars to create a wheelchair/mobility scooter that can take you from room-to-room in your home without you touching the controls.

Equipped with cameras and LiDAR to sense the world around it, the ev1c really has two key sets of interesting features that come from these sensors: being able to fully self-drive within a known and mapped environment; and being
able to offer automatic measures for safer use when you're out and under manual control.

Within the home, what it does at first is exactly what robovacs do: it takes
a map of the whole area using LiDAR. The system is able to distinguish temporary, moving objects (people and pets) from static objects (walls and tables) that's obviously important for mapping, but also means you can see what it 'sees' at all times on a little touchscreen on the armrest. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here: The LiDAR map on the ev1c the black parts are solid objects that don't move; the blue areas just below
where it says "ipad" and "Kitchen" represent me taking this photo and
Strutt's guide standing behind me, respectively. (Image credit: Future) Once the map is created, you can then choose different areas to set as
"Waypoints", basically giving you a menu of places you want it to self-drive you between. So you can use the touchscreen or the connected phone app to select a waypoint, and the chair just starts driving you, no controls necessary from there. You can also trigger waypoints using voice, so you can tell the app "Take me to my bed" and as long as you have a waypoint called
"my bed", it'll take you there. You may like The new Mercedes VLE proves electric vans can be genuinely luxurious I took a deep dive into the future
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This also means that if you're someone who doesn't need the vehicle all the time, though you may sometimes need it suddenly. You can use the app to have the ev1c bring itself to you, even if you'd left it on the other side of the house.

There's another feature that the team is testing right now for people who
only need the vehicle intermittently, which is a "Follow me" mode so you can start walking, and the ev1c will just trundle along behind you. If you need it, there it is, ready to go. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in
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I tried that out at Strutt's booth, and while it was buggy at this stage, it did work and would probably take some getting used to, because having something quietly following right behind you is pretty unnerving. The chair steers itself pretty slickly around the demo area (Image credit: Future) However, the self-driving side of the tech is ready to go, and when I tried that side out as well, I was truly impressed. The chair can be a little jerky when it's turning around in a small space, but that's really the only issue I could take from it, from my admittedly limited demo.

Starting at one end of the fake 'living space' in Strutt's booth, it steered me around a dining table, through a narrow gap towards a doorway, through the doorway, and then up to the couch. It finished with me facing the couch, for convenience, and it didn't touch a single thing along the way no brushing a dining chair or clipping wheels against the door. I went across a rug as well as a hard floor, and that made no difference. What to read next I replaced Ford's hands-free driving subscription with a $1,000 open-source gadget IFA 2026 'Best in Show' awards: our 25 favorite reveals at the Berlin tech expo The five electric cars that stole the show at Goodwood this year

I also tried it in its more manual modes, with the 'Co-Pilot' feature
switched on. This is the 'smart' system for when you're driving it yourself, and the key thing it adds is object avoidance. The simplest benefit is that the system won't let you crash into anything Strutt's team told me to drive towards them at full speed, so I did, and the vehicle just stopped as we got
a few inches away. It wasn't like slamming on the brakes it just ramped down and left me stationary. These are the general controls the big joystick is
at the bottom, and then you can trigger various smart options using the buttons above (Image credit: Future) Other handy features for when you're in manual control include a reversing camera (with a line of your steering trajectory) and a 'cruise control' mode so you can just set it to go in a straight line at a set speed, and you can relax your hand.

But there is also a 'Co-Pilot+' more advanced assistive mode, and the interesting feature the team showed me here was an alternative to the auto-stop, in which the system will look for space and actually steer around the blockage, rather than just braking when you get too close.

Perhaps more useful in the day-to-day use of the chair, is that this mode
will just finesse your driving, so if you're at risk of clipping the door in your home it'll automatically adjust the steering to make sure it doesn't happen it's like the steering assist in Mario Kart .

I tried the same demo of driving into someone, but this time the ev1c steered in an arc around them, then returned me to my original position on the path and carried on forward but my hand had just stayed on pushing the controls forward the whole time, I didn't contribute any motion to the steering. There's a big rear light, and below that is the battery unit, which is easily removable when needed (Image credit: Future) As for the vehicle's general specs, it's capable of going up to 8mph, with a range of around 20 miles on its battery, depending on the terrain. It can handle grass and gravel, as
well as inclines of up to 13 (23%) and two-inch curb heights, all powered by
a four-wheel drive system.

The ev1c breaks down into five pieces for packing into car, and Strutt told
me that it's looking into offering a backup battery bag, so you can hot-swap when away from home if you want support for longer distances.

It's officially priced at $7,499 / 5,995 / AU$9,999, though the actual price you pay might be affected by local schemes to make mobility vehicles more affordable.

It's a lot of money, though I assumed it was going to be even more expensive than that. I'm not someone who uses a personal mobility vehicle, so all my opinions here need to be taken in that context, but I was really impressed with how the chair works in practice, how it's been designed and built, and what it can do it even picked up one of our ' IFA 2026 Best in Show '
awards. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds.



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/vehicle-tech/self-driving-vehicles/i-rode-in-a-self- driving-powered-wheelchair-that-avoids-obstacles-and-people-and-can-be-summone d-when-you-need-it-its-like-teslas-autopilot-for-personal-mobility


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