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BlaBlaCar changes gear by offering drivers car leases

BlaBlaCar changes gear by offering drivers car leases

BlaBlaCar, whose amateur (mainly private) drivers share costs with passengers on long-distance journeys, will offer them cheaper car leases through French bank Societe Generale in the latest threat to traditional transport models, write Reuters and USNews. The Paris-based start-up will first offer the new packages for Opel models through the bank’s leasing business to more active BlaBlaCar drivers in France, before deploying the program more widely, Chief Executive Nicolas Brusson said.

BlaBlaCar, whose phone app has some 40 million users in 22 countries, is among the so-called mobility services whose growth is disrupting carmakers and transport companies alike. Besides ride-sharing, they include mainly local ride-hailing services such as Uber and car-sharing firms such as Avis-owned ZipCar, which offer access to self-drive vehicle fleets for as little as an hour at a time.

“The goal is to expand that geographically,” Brusson said. “We can pioneer a new approach to car ownership based on usage.” In response to the threat, vehicle manufacturers and transport operators have struck deals with providers of mobility services over the past decade or developed their own.

Daimler launched car-sharing through its Car2Go subsidiary in 2008. Among many more recent deals, Opel parent General Motors invested $500 million in ride-hailing firm Lyft and PSA Group has backed several startups. Even France’s state-owned SNCF railway has partnered with Zipcar.

BlaBlaCar allows car owners to cover their expenses but not make a profit – which shields it from regulatory costs and tax, further improving its appeal to passengers. Thanks to its potential scale, the Societe Generale ALD Automotive partnership adds the competitive clout of corporate leasing to BlaBlaCar’s already frugal peer-to-peer model. The start-up’s 9 million drivers buy an estimated 1.3 million new cars each year.

Read more:

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-04-05/blablacar-unveils-opel-leasing-deal-in-boost-for-ride-sharing

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-sharing-blablacar-idUSKBN177103

  • BlaBlaCar now offers Opel cars through ALD Societe Generale.
Canadian Innisfil latest town to adopt Uber to combat ‘expensive’ public transit system

Canadian Innisfil latest town to adopt Uber to combat ‘expensive’ public transit system

The town of Innisfil, Ontario, has a transit problem but instead of going the traditional route, they’re partnering up with Uber. Although the ride-share service has proven controversial in major cities across North America – including Toronto – Innisfil’s council approved the deal with the tech company in March. Pinellas County in Florida (US) was one of the earliest adopters of this approach. Several smaller communities followed.

Mayor Gord Wauchope said the decision came after a transit feasibility study was completed in 2015. The study recommended the town start with a one bus route that would have cost nearly $300,000. But the route would only service a small portion of the town. In 2016, the town’s planning department suggested going a different way – Uber. “To run a transit system in a town at this present time is too expensive. You’d have a lot of taxpayers paying taxes on a transit system they wouldn’t even be able to use,” Wauchope explained.

“This was a great way to have everyone in the town participate in using the Uber system … Hopefully it will be a great benefit for the town of Innisfil and its residents.” Part of the appeal is the lower cost of running Uber versus a traditional transit system. “We all know transit systems lose money. This way we’re going to lose some money but it’s not going to be in the hundreds of thousands, it’s going to be $100,000 maybe $125,000,” Wauchope said.

Residents will pay a base fee to travel around the town and the city will foot the bill for the rest of the fare. Uber will offer discounted trips to certain destinations in the town. “We were thrilled when the Town of Innisfil approached us last year as they were interested in running a dynamic ridesharing-based transit service to test the feasibility of such a service in the Town,” Uber said in a statement.

“Since then, we have worked closely with Town staff to develop a public transit partnership that will provide affordable and cost effective transit to their residents.” Wauchope said taxis will still operate in Innisfil and offer services not available through Uber, such as accessibility transportation. The project will officially launch May 1.

Read more: http://www.citynews.ca/2017/04/04/town-innisfil-partners-uber-solve-transit-problems/

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/innisfil-ont-chooses-uber-over-buses-in-canadian-first-1.3355348?autoPlay=true

  • Uber now offering (cheaper) solutions for public transport.
Renault-Nissan Alliance joins ITF Corporate Partnership Board

Renault-Nissan Alliance joins ITF Corporate Partnership Board

The Renault-Nissan Alliance has joined the Corporate Partnership Board of the International Transport Forum (ITF) to work with the organisation on projects and issues regarding transport policy, shared mobility, electric vehicles, future automotive technology and decarbonising transport.

The Alliance sold a record 9.96 million cars in nearly 200 markets in 2016, making it one of the top automotive groups worldwide. With cumulative sales of more than 440 000 all-electric cars and vans since 2010, the Alliance is the world leader in zero-emission vehicles. The Alliance employs more than 450 000 people and has 122 manufacturing plants globally.

The ITF is an intergovernmental organisation with 57 member countries that facilitates global dialogue for better transport. It acts as a think tank for member governments and organises an annual summit of transport ministers. The CPB is the ITF’s platform for engaging with the private sector and to enrich global transport policy discussion with a business perspective.

José Viegas, Secretary-General of the ITF, said: “We are very proud to have the Renault-Nissan Alliance, a strong market leader in clean mobility and innovative technologies, join the CPB. The alliance, which has a strong vision of the vehicle of the future, is expected to contribute significantly to our work on decarbonising transport, electro-mobility and autonomous driving.”

“The Corporate Partnership Board is an important and influential forum for our industry to maintain a constructive dialogue with governments around the world,” said Arnaud Deboeuf, Alliance Senior Vice President of Renault-Nissan and the Alliance CEO Office. “The Renault-Nissan Alliance, along with Mitsubishi Motors, can bring a unique business perspective as a leader in zero-emission vehicles and as one of the top global automotive group. The Alliance is also developing autonomous drive and connectivity, key technologies for the future of mobility”.

The members of the ITF Corporate Partnership Board include Abertis, AB InBev, AeroMexico, Brisa, ExxonMobil, Ford, Google, Here, Incheon International Airport, Inrix, Kapsch TrafficCom, Michelin, NXP, PTV Group, RATP, The Renault-Nissan Alliance, SAS, Siemens, SNCF, Total, Toyota, Transdev, Uber, Venice Port Authority, Volvo Cars and Volvo Group.

More information about the ITF’s Corporate Partnership Board, including recent work on autonomous driving, car sharing, big data and logistics performance is available at http://www.itf-oecd.org/CPB

  • Renault-Nissan joins International Transport Forum’s Corporate Partnership Board.
The Rural Summit 2017, informative, innovative and connective!

The Rural Summit 2017, informative, innovative and connective!

On March 22 and 23 the Brabant Kempen House (The Netherlands – near Eindhoven) organized the first conference for rural areas in Europe,

The Rural Summit 2017. The conference was a follow-up to the nomination of the Brabantse Kempen as one of the 21 smartest rural regions of the world in 2016. The conference drew a picture of the challenges that rural regions face in terms of economic growth, sustainability, aging and the new opportunities created by the (extended) use of digital applications.

More than 200 participants from 12 countries shared their ideas and experiences on the question if the difference between urban and rural is fading because of the possibilities created by internet and broadband. International speakers presented their examples of digitally connected regions which lead to stronger economic and more vital rural regions with a more robust connection to urban areas.

The conference was attended by delegates and directors from different European regions. To ensure more attention and policies for rural regions in Europe, the Commissioner of King Wim van de Donk encouraged everyone to commit themselves to enhancing connections between European rural regions.

Companies and organizations from the Brabant Kempen region participated in ‘best practices’ during thematic sessions. The Brabant Kempen House looks back on an inspiring, informative and connecting convention. The conference was made possible by, chairwoman and Mayor Anja Thijs-Rademakers of the municipality Eersel, in cooperation with the Kempen municipalities, the Province of Brabant, the Metropolitan Region Eindhoven, Brainport Development, industry and education partners and the Intelligent Community Forum.

The Brabant Kempen House is going to build the European network of smart rural regions further and seeks to work on concrete projects with partners that contribute to a sustainable vital Kempen in the Brainport region, but also those of other European rural areas.

  • The First Rural Summit was held in the Brabantse Kempen.
Arthur D. Little predicts how future mobility solutions will affect automotive OEM’s

Arthur D. Little predicts how future mobility solutions will affect automotive OEM’s

Arthur D. Little (ADL) recently released a new study, “The Future of Automotive Mobility.” Based on a global survey of 6,500 participants, including customers, industry players and regulators, the report examines how the megatrends of electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving are likely to impact on the global automotive ecosystem and future OEM sales.

The report notes that the future of mobility will no longer depend primarily on the preferences of customers, but will increasingly be driven by regulation as cities seek to resolve traffic-generated problems such as congestion and poor air quality. Electric mobility, car sharing and autonomous driving solutions all have an important role to play in meeting these challenges – however, the effect on traditional OEM’s production volume may not be as severe as some experts have predicted.

For example, a key component of autonomous driving will be “mobility-on-demand” solutions, in which customers use “robot taxis.” Based on real mobility data from almost 100 mega-cities, ADL simulated the effect of robot taxis upon mobility behavior and car sales. The findings revealed that even with total market coverage, their effect was not as bad as the predicted worst case scenario.

Klaus Schmitz, Partner in ADL’s Automotive Division, explains: “In a moderate scenario, in which 11 metropolitan regions implement the new form of urban mobility by 2030, global vehicle sales will rise to 121 million vehicles a year, a 39% increase compared to today. In a progressive scenario of 52 pioneer cities, sales will amount to 119 million vehicles, a 34% increase.”

The report details how new roles are being created in the automotive-supplier pyramid, with the shift to the electric drive train and the increasing importance of software being additional factors to consider. However, a major challenge for manufacturers is the loss of direct access to the mobility customer.

Wolf-Dieter Hoppe, author of the study and Associate Director at ADL, warns: “Millions of individual customers will be replaced by a few very large, multinational fleet operators. These could take over the dominant role of OEMs in the ecosystem, as they would have direct customer access as well as considerable volume power. In particular, this would be a problem for today’s premium manufacturers.”

http://www.adlittle.com/downloads/tx_adlreports/ADL_Future_of_Automotive_mobility_short.pdf

  • ADL: “A key component of autonomous driving will be “mobility-on-demand” solutions, in which customers use ‘robot taxis.’”
Daimler and Bosch: fully autonomous cars within 5 years

Daimler and Bosch: fully autonomous cars within 5 years

Look out, startups. The big guns are taking on autonomous driving with serious intent. Daimler, one of the largest vehicle manufacturers in the world, announced that it is partnering with Bosch, one of the largest automotive tech and hardware suppliers in the world, to bring fully autonomous vehicles to urban roads “by the start of the next decade.”

It’s already 2017, so the start of the next decade is not quite three years away. But with the resources available to the Daimler-Bosch partnership, they plan on co-developing vehicles capable of SAE Level 4 fully automated driving and SAE Level 5 driverless operation. The focus of the partnership will be on the software and algorithms required to make those advanced driving systems safe and predictable.

According to press releases from both companies, the goal is to create shared cars that can operate autonomously within designated areas of a city. The user can call the car via app, ride without a driver, and be dropped off, leaving the driverless car to pick up another customer. The companies hope to both ease traffic and improve accessibility for those who can’t drive or don’t have a driver’s license.

Of course, other ride hailing companies are already headed down this driverless road, most notably Uber. But Uber and Daimler formed a partnership in early 2017 to develop self-driving cars. And Mercedes-Benz, which is under the Daimler umbrella, has been showcasing fully autonomous concept cars at auto shows in recent years.

But in an interesting side note, the head of the Mercedes-Benz Cars R&D validation and testing, Jochen Haab, said in a recent interview that a ‘driverless taxi’-type situation was “at least a decade away.” Haab was in Australia overseeing an autonomous driving pilot project–one that may move a bit more quickly now.

Read more: https://techcrunch.com/2017/04/04/daimler-and-bosch-fully-autonomous-cars-within-5-years/

  • Will Daimler and Bosch leave the Silicon Valley start-ups behind?
Bus booking made as simple as flight booking

Bus booking made as simple as flight booking

Hotel room? Check. Flight? Check. Taxi to the airport? Check. What about getting from the airport to your hotel in the city centre? An airport transfer bus could be the best option. Chances are, if you’re an inbound or infrequent traveller, you will wonder where to search and book this last leg. Imagine if that was taken care of through your travel retailer, removing all the uncertainty and stress, just as you would book a flight.

This scenario can now become a reality. With market liberalisation and growing competition, the bus is showing itself more and more to be a promising travel alternative. Now, it’s time to grow at full speed. In a bid to make this travel option much more attractive, accessible and convenient, Amadeus is today announcing new partnership with Distribusion Technologies.

Distribusion brings over 300 airport bus transfer & intercity bus operators in 2.500 destinations to Amadeus’ travel seller network. A single gateway to all this content means travel sellers can easily broaden their offer, attract new types of customers and drive revenues, all while forgetting about costly one-to-one setup and commercial relationships. With content, search, booking, payment, ticketing and settlement capabilities covered, travel agencies can focus on adapting this new offer to travellers, and in turn, bus companies will be more visible to new customers in new channels, ultimately driving sales growth. Initially, Amadeus travel sellers in central, eastern and southern Europe will be able to access Distribusion bus content with more across the world expected to join soon.

“Travelling by bus is an attractive choice for many, but could be for many more. Bus operators now have a complete package to unlock growth and make a significant footprint in the global travel industry. Our two partnerships with Betterez and Distribusion could not come at a better moment, when new entrants and market dynamics are pushing towards improving the overall offer and experience” said Antoine de Kerviler, Head of Rail & Ground Travel at Amadeus. “Imagine booking a convenient airport bus transfer on top of your flight and a weekend getaway by rail – all on the same itinerary through your travel retailer – this is door-to-door travel at its best.”

Julian Hauck, Founder & CEO of Distribusion said “Travel sellers are paying more attention to bus travel to continue enriching their offer to travellers, and have been longing to add this kind of content in a simple, standardised and effective way for some time. The combination of our market leading bus content with Amadeus’ travel seller network will open the door to new travellers. We’re really looking forward to this new phase with Amadeus.”

  • Bus booking made as simple as flight booking: Distribusion joins Amadeus.
CB Insights: Five companies working on driverless shuttles and buses

CB Insights: Five companies working on driverless shuttles and buses

As an alternative to building fully autonomous passenger cars, a number of private companies are working to field self-driving electric shuttles and buses, CB Insights – an excellent source for investor news – reports.

Momentum in auto tech is at an all-time high, with investors funding private startups in the field at a record pace. Of course, much of the buzz has revolved around autonomous driving software, with startups like Zoox seeing $200M funding rounds, tech corporates looking to capitalize, and major automakers working feverishly to catch up.

Validating the reliability of fully autonomous vehicles will be no small feat, with RAND estimating that tens or hundreds of billions of test miles might have to be driven to properly gauge their safety. While many players are meeting this challenge head-on, a number of other startups are also developing autonomous tech for more focused applications.

Using the CB Insights company comparison tool, we compared five such private companies that are working to field different types of autonomous shuttles or buses.

These companies are working on a number of different concepts, but they are all running at least one program to develop a bus or shuttle with self-driving capability (and all but SB are building around electric powertrains).

Most are being designed to operate on predefined routes or geofenced locations, such as corporate or university campuses, or last mile travel between transport hubs and final destinations. These fenced environments should present a more surmountable hill than the challenge of open-world driving, reducing the number of extreme edge cases that they would have to account for.

Two of these companies hail from France, including Navya and EasyMile. Navya has developed a 15-person bus called Arma, which has already been deployed to a number of geofenced sites in France. The company counts key strategic backers from auto supplier Valeo to French transport giant Keolis. Navya has pushed abroad as well, partnering with Las Vegas to launch a free pilot of its bus during CES 2017, also launching its first US office in March 2017 (located in Chicago).

EasyMile, a joint venture between France’s Ligier and Robosoft, has also fielded its EZ10 bus, designed to travel along “virtual lines” that it can repeat continually. The company’s California tests may be the first self-driving trials in the state without a steering wheel or human operator.

SB Drive is Japanese conglomerate SoftBank’s self-driving bus project, a joint venture established with Advanced Smart Mobility. SoftBank remains the majority owner, but Yahoo Japan recently joined the initiative with a $4.4M minority stake, planning to link SB Drive with its Yahoo Maps service and data. (SoftBank’s expanding mobility portfolio also includes significant investments in Asian transportation network companies).

Auro Robotics is a California-based company offering its electric campus shuttles through a mobility-as-a-service model. Its subscription pricing includes insurance and liability coverage for the vehicles, as well as maintenance.

Finally, Local Motors is an Airbus Ventures-backed outfit working on a bus named Olli (among other projects). Much like its peers, Olli is an electric shuttle designed to move students around campuses or plug gaps in urban transit networks. However, Local Motors is manufacturing the bodies for Olli vehicles using their unique 3D-printing process. Its bus is also the first vehicular application of IBM’s Watson cognitive learning platform.

(Another former shuttle company, the YC-backed Varden labs, is now developing self-driving trucks as Embark.)

Read more (including the CB Insights comparison including market data):

https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/driverless-shuttle-companies/?utm_source=CB+Insights+Newsletter&utm_campaign=40961032ad-MonNL_4_3_2017&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_9dc0513989-40961032ad-87434469

  • CB Insights: Five companies working on driverless shuttles and buses
Uber’s unsurprisingly undiverse workforce

Uber’s unsurprisingly undiverse workforce

Uber’s long-awaited first-ever diversity report is out, reports Vocativ, and its pretty much on par with what we’ve come to expect with Silicon Valley: predominantly white and male.

The report is released as sexual harassment allegations swirl and details of a frat bro-y corporate culture come to light. The figures released recently do not include drivers, whom Uber controversially maintains are essentially independent contractors termed “partners.” This population unquestionably represents the vast majority of the company’s workforce.

Among the Uber employees included within the report, women account for only 15 percent of all those in tech positions. As noted by the New York Times, this is a low figure even among other major tech companies like Google and Apple, which have women in 19 and 23 percent of tech roles, respectively. While the overall percentage of women working at Uber is higher than the other companies at a total of 36 percent, only 22 percent of leadership roles are held by these women. That’s a lower percentage than can be seen at Facebook, Apple, Google, or Twitter.

The way gender affects employees’ experience at Uber has been under major scrutiny since Susan Fowler, a software engineer for the company, published her account of a sexist workplace culture steeped in sexual harassment last month. Since then, several employees have joined her in speaking out. And just when it seemed like the most egregious reports of inappropriate behavior had been shared, news that Uber CEO Travis Kalanick — currently seeking help to “grow up” following an outburst at a driver — and a senior vice president took employees to an escort-karaoke bar in South Korea broke after that.

“This report is a first step in showing that diversity and inclusion is a priority at Uber,” Kalanick told Bloomberg in a statement. “I know that we have been too slow in publishing our numbers — and that the best way to demonstrate our commitment to change is through transparency.” Though the company acknowledges its shortcomings in this regard and states it will spend $3 million over three years to change them, it does not set clear goals.

Read more: http://www.vocativ.com/415822/ubers-unsurprisingly-undiverse-workforce/

  • Uber’s unsurprisingly undiverse workforce – of course ‘partners’ (drivers) not included.
LiDAR: Not just for autonomous vehicles

LiDAR: Not just for autonomous vehicles

The first time I ever heard of LiDAR, writes Calum McClelland, Director of BD @ Leverege in Medium, was in regard to autonomous vehicles, used as a way of identifying (and therefore avoiding) objects. Curious how it worked, I began investigating LiDAR and discovered that there are many, many applications beyond just autonomous vehicles. LiDAR is extremely useful in fields like archeology, physics, and astronomy, among others.

Since I work in the Internet of Things at Leverege, LiDAR applications in IoT are particularly interesting to me, so below I’ll share some cool use cases for LiDAR in smart agriculture, smart retail, and smart cities.

But First: How Does LiDAR Work? If you’re anything like me, you love knowing how and why things work the way they do. So I’ll share a quick explanation of LiDAR before we check out some applications.

The term “LiDAR” originated in the early 1960s as a combination of the words “light” and “radar”. Some people treat LiDAR as an acronym, either for “Light Detection And Ranging” or for “Light Imaging, Detection, And Ranging”, but such acronyms were created retroactively. Just as sonar uses sound waves and radar uses radio waves to create a map of the environment, LiDAR uses light.

LiDAR works by rapidly firing lasers (up to 150,000 times per second in some systems) at a target and then measuring the time for the light to bounce off that target and travel back to the source. Since the speed of light is constant, you can figure out the distance to the object:

Distance = (Speed of Light x Time of Flight) / 2

This will give you millions of points, called a “point cloud” in aggregate, which creates a digital mapping of the environment.

For LiDAR systems that are moving (e.g. on an airplane or on a car), you also need a position (GPS) and navigation system. Although light is literally the fastest thing there is, it isn’t instantaneous. So if you’re moving, not only do you need the time of flight for the light, but you also need the exact location of where the laser was fired and the exact location of where the returning laser is received. This lets you build an accurate point cloud like the picture above.

Applications of LiDAR: Although LiDAR has become extremely useful for autonomous cars of late, it’s had important applications for decades now. Before we jump into the IoT applications, here are two non-IoT applications that I found particularly cool. Archaeology: Planes flying with LiDAR systems can capture high-resolution models of archeological sites that can reveal micro-topography otherwise hidden by vegetation.

In 2012 LiDAR was used to find the legendary city of La Ciudad Blanca in the Honduran jungle. Despite the heavy foliage, LiDAR was able to show extensive man-made structures which ground searches had failed to find for hundreds of years. Vegetation can be filtered and “lifted” off of the underlying surface, which revealed a complex of mounds and ancient building foundations in Honduras.

Physics and Astronomy: During the Apollo program, retroreflectors were placed on the Moon. As the name implies, these retroreflectors are used to reflect back lasers that are shot from observatories on Earth. The data generated by these LiDAR systems in observatories across the world can be compared to find the exact position of the Moon measured with millimeter precision. Using these exact measurements, we’ve been able to conduct tests of general relativity.

LiDAR is also extremely useful for mapping the surfaces of celestial bodies. For lunar and martian landers, it’s critical to have accurate topographical maps so that flat landing sites can be chosen. In 2001, the Mars Global Surveyor produced a spectacularly precise global topographic survey of the red planet which has been crucial in subsequent missions to Mars.

Read more: https://iot-for-all.com/lidar-not-just-for-autonomous-vehicles-42e518a0e6eb

  • ‘LIDAR: Not just for autonomous vehicles’, writes Calum McClelland (Leverege).