The Furbot project proposes to develop a new concept for urban freight transport. The novelty of the concept is twofold. A new architecture of light-duty, full-electrical vehicle is proposed. A great effort is devoted to energy management: new power train layout integrated in the chassis; new battery and energy management system; regenerative braking… But if attention is given to energy management for one vehicle, the Furbot concept consists in having a fleet of several vehicles offering a new sustainable and very adaptable (evolvable) urban freight transport system. In this article, we focus on the intelligent on-board unit. It has mainly two functions. First, it offers assistance to the driver: emergency braking, obstacle avoidance, parking assistance, itinerary assistance or adaptive speed control. Second, it proposes automation abilities for the loading/unloading of the payload. Regarding the multi-sensorial perception system, an intelligent human-machine interface is also conceived in order to let the driver choose between the driving modes (fully manual, assisted, automated loading), in order to provide him general information (map, mission, fleet state...) and warn him about safety issues, power caution and vehicle diagnosis.