The concept presented in 2000 by the Turin company had on board one of the first automatic driving systems ever seen
When the running prototype was presented at the Paris Motor Show in 2000 Nea della Lancia offered high technology. It had been designed at the Fiat Research Center in Turin and built by the I.DeA Institute of Moncalieri, a company founded by Franco Mantegazza in 1978 and awarded the Compasso d’Oro Award in 2004, but then went bankrupt in 2019. Among the cars it had designed include Fiat Tipo, Tempra and Palio, Lancia Dedra, Delta and K, Alfa Romeo 155, Nissan Terrano II, Ford Maverick, Daihatsu Move, Daewoo Nubira, Tata Indica, Indigo and Nano, Daewoo Nubira, Kia Rio.
Profusion of technology
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There was a lot of technology aboard the Nea and it wasn’t an exercise in style at all. Gone were all the buttons and elements that could distract the driver. You talked to the car and got what you wanted with the former voice assistant never created before. He dived into the future. The doors opened with the push of a finger on the pillar, the seat rotated to accommodate the driver. To start the engine, a 110 HP turbodiesel Jtd with automated transmission and disc brakes with “brake by wire” control, i.e. without a hydraulic circuit, it was enough to touch a monitor. What most intrigued was one of the first systems automatic driving, able to act on the controls to slow down or avoid obstacles. Many of the controls for operating the model, such as using the telephone or setting up the navigation computer, were commanded by voice. When you arrived at your destination, four-wheel steering coupled with a side-mounted radar made parking maneuvers easier.
Security and entertainment
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It was enough to glance inside the prototype to discover the presence of the DVD, an Internet connection, an anti-collision system, a telephone and a CD burner. The crystals of the prototype were electrochromic, ie they changed their transparency when the intensity of the external light was different from that of the light inside the prototype. La Nea had a vocabulary of 5000 Italian terms from which to choose keywords that allowed her to interact with the driver. The mechanical scheme of the prototype was unprecedented for a Lancia: the all-wheel drive with automatic engagement. The drive torque arrived at the rear through a viscous coupling, which transmitted it only when poor grip conditions made it necessary.
Autonomous driving
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La Nea was able to accelerate and brake autonomouslyif the driver was distracted and did not notice an obstacle. It should be remembered that thanks to the Vienna Convention on road traffic, a test was carried out on Italian roads on 1 June 1998 with an anthracite gray Lancia Thema with PR 473702 registration plate, a car that covered around 2000 km, in particular on the Mille Miglia track , driving itself 94% of the time. It sported two cameras in the corners of the windshield. The test, baptized Argo project, had been studied in detail by some researchers from the University of Parma and coordinated by Alberto Broggi, from the Engineering Department. A test that aroused the curiosity of a photographer from Der Spiegel and TG1 Rai. The Argo project was later renamed Eva (Embedded Vehicle Autonomy) and the two cameras became ten mounted on a Ford Lincoln. The “Smart Road” decree put an end by law in Italy to those tests which were then resumed in California (this is why an American car was opted for).
The Pu+Ra HPe
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Today the Nea gives way to the Pu+Ra HPe model, a manifesto of design and sustainability, as highlighted by the CEO Luca Napolitano. “It is our vision of the brand for the next ten years in the era of electric mobility with a range of around 700 km, recharge times around 10 minutes. Starting with the new Ypsilon which will have Chamaleon and Tape technologies, offering the user the possibility to adjust the interior environment at the touch of a button or by the sound of your voice”.
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