The Volkswagen brand will offer car sharing services in future. The WE customer platform is to begin rolling out various vehicle-on-demand services, in particular car sharing, in Germany in 2019. These services are to be extended to major cities in Europe, North America and Asia as early as 2020. The... Read more →

A self-driving vehicle has to detect objects, track them over time, and predict where they will be in the future in order to plan a safe maneuver. These tasks are typically trained independently from one another, which could result in disasters should any one task fail. Researchers at the University... Read more →

Electrify America and the City of Sacramento announced new projects that will increase access to zero-emissions vehicles (ZEV) in the Sacramento region, expand ZEV technology use, and prepare the City for future electric vehicle adoption. The projects—which include two new car sharing services, new ZEV bus and shuttle routes and... Read more →

Both air travel and the use of ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft are on the rise in cities around the world. Global demand for air travel is expected to double by 2035, and new airport infrastructure investments and modernization upgrades—costing tens of billions of dollars—are anticipated. In a... Read more →

NASA has signed a second space act agreement with Uber Technologies, Inc. (earlier post), further to explore concepts and technologies related to urban air mobility (UAM) to ensure a safe and efficient system for future air transportation in populated areas. NASA defines UAM as a safe and efficient system for... Read more →

Ride-sharing company Uber and US Army Research, Development and Engineering Command, Army Research Laboratory, have entered a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) to advance technologies supporting Future Vertical Lift. As part of this agreement, Uber and RDECOM ARL also signed their first joint work statement jointly to fund and... Read more →

India-based Ola, one of the world’s largest ride-hailing companies, launched “Mission: Electric”, with a commitment to place 10,000 E-rickshaws and Electric auto-rickshaws in its service in the next 12 months. The company will develop “Mission: Electric” as a platform to bring one million electric vehicles on the road by 2021.... Read more →

The BMW Group and Daimler AG have signed an agreement to merge their mobility services business units. Subject to examination and approval by the responsible competition authorities, the BMW Group and Daimler AG plan to combine and strategically expand their existing on-demand mobility offering in the areas of CarSharing, Ride-Hailing,... Read more →

Magna, a mobility technology company and one of the world’s largest automotive suppliers, and Lyft announced a multi-year collaboration in which the companies will jointly fund, develop, and manufacture self-driving systems. In addition, Magna will invest $200 million in Lyft equity. The establishment of this partnership is subject to regulatory... Read more →

Didi Chuxing (DiDi), the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, announced a strategic partnership with BAIC Group to enhance the operation of new energy car-sharing program. With the support of the Beijing Municipal CCP Committee and the Municipal Government, BAIC Group and DiDi will expand in-depth business cooperation in EV fleet... Read more →

At the Geneva Motor Show, Renault introduced EZ-GO, an electric, autonomous, shared robo-vehicle concept—both a vehicle and a service—that allows people to hail a ride either from a fixed or mobile location. Renault believes vehicle-service integration combined with connection to city infrastructure—leveraging sensors, data analytics, connected services, multimodal systems and... Read more →

Maven is now offering its first all-electric fleet of cars for use in the gig economy; 20 Chevrolet Bolt EVs are available for freelance drivers in Austin, Texas to earn money on their own schedules. Maven is working with Austin Energy, the Austin Transportation Department, and Rocky Mountain Institute to... Read more →

The new Mercedes-Benz A-Class (earlier post) is already set up for private car sharing: Mercedes me allows the new compact car to be shared with friends and family members. Operation is simple and secure using the Mercedes me app Car Sharing. According to the German Car Sharing Association, more than... Read more →

Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, and SoftBank Corp. have established a partnership to provide platform services for the taxi industry. The partnership will utilize DiDi’s advanced AI technologies to build ride-hailing platforms to enhance efficiency for both taxi operators and drivers. DiDi and SoftBank aim to commence... Read more →

Five trends are transforming the automotive industry, according to PWC: electrification, autonomy, sharing, connecting and yearly updating, a combination the consultancy is now labeling “eascy”. In a report exploring the impact on the trends on the industry in 2030—“eascy – The five dimensions of automotive transformation”—PwC suggests that as a... Read more →

Didi Chuxing, the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, will make aggregated, anonymized data from its vehicle network available to facilitate transportation AI research worldwide. Every day, DiDi receives more than 25 million orders, collects more than 70TB of new route data, processes more than 4500TB of data, and obtains more... Read more →

Berlin’s local transport operator Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe (BVG) and ViaVan, a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz Vans and Via (earlier post), have entered a research and development collaboration to work on providing a supplementary local public transport service on-demand. A pilot project, which is scheduled to start in the Spring of 2018,... Read more →

Daimler’s moovel Group and the Stuttgarter Strassenbahnen AG (SSB) are launching a new mobility service in Stuttgart. Named “Flex Pilot”, the service allows customers to book flexibly and on demand. The new on-demand service will be tested on selected days from 14 December 2017. The service will then start with... Read more →

A fleet of 500 all-electric Renault ZOE superminis will be arriving in Madrid this month with the car-sharing service ZITY, the result of a cooperation between Renault and the urban services operator Ferrovial. (Earlier post.) This new car-sharing scheme covers a wide area of the Spanish capital. Madrid has the... Read more →

As part of Nissan Intelligent Mobility, Nissan will introduce a car-sharing service in Japan enabling users to experience the company’s advanced technologies in vehicle electrification and intelligence. The service, named e-share mobi, will begin 15 Jan 2018, and will initially feature the new, all-electric Nissan LEAF and the Nissan Note... Read more →

DiDi Chuxing has entered a joint venture to build its own charging networks for electric vehicles (EVs). DiDi is the world’s largest online transportation platform with more than 450 million users and 21 million drivers. As many as 25 million rides are completed on its network daily, twice as many... Read more →

NEVS AB and DiDi Chuxing, the world’s leading mobile transportation platform, have formed strategic partnership and finalized a number of steps towards an extensive cooperation. One of the common goals is to develop an electric vehicle, fully optimized for the mobility services that DiDi is offering, and also initiating a... Read more →

The findings in a new report from the International Transport Forum (ITF) on shared mobility services in Helsinki, Finland largely confirm that replacing private car traffic with new shared mobility services in urban areas reduces the number of cars needed, cuts CO2 emissions and frees large swathes of public land... Read more →

The PROSUME Energy Foundation has developed a blockchain-based platform to exchange electricity from renewable and fossil sources. It connects independent power producers, consumers, utility companies and energy communities in a locally shared market where each peer is free to interact in a multi-tenant ecosystem. The decentralized and self-regulated monitoring system,... Read more →

At a press conference in Shanghai, General Motors Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said that the company will introduce at least 10 new energy vehicles (NEVs) in China. These include the Cadillac CT6 Plug-In, the Buick Velite 5 extended-range electric vehicle and the Baojun E100 electric vehicle—all of which have... Read more →

Daimler Mobility Services is investing in the US carsharing company Turo Inc., as part of a $92-million financing round. With more than four million customers and more than 170,000 vehicles, Turo is the market leader in the peer-to-peer (P2P) carsharing sector in the US. The round was co-led by Daimler... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC), Toyota Financial Services Corporation (TFS), Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance (Aioi) and Grab, Inc. (Grab), the largest ride-hailing service company in Southeast Asia, are collaborating to provide ride-hailing services throughout Southeast Asia. The Connected Company, a TMC in-house company, developed the data-transmission TransLog driving recorder, a device... Read more →

Toyota and Servco Pacific Inc. (Servco) have partnered to test a new car-sharing technology in Honolulu. The suite of software and services is an important part of Toyota’s Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) which will offer various functions to enable a more convenient mobility experience. When the employee-only pilot testing program... Read more →

car2go N.A., North America’s largest flexible one-way carsharing service, saw a significant increase in use of its service during the first six months of 2017. Usage of car2go increased by 40% year-over-year in the first half of 2017 compared to the first half of 2016 across all 11 of the... Read more →

California legislators are exploring linking autonomy and electrification. At the end of May, Senate Bill 802, authored by State Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley), received bipartisan support and passed the Senate floor with a vote of 26-11. It now goes to the Assembly for consideration. SB 802 would direct the Office... Read more →

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti launched the BlueLA Electric Car Sharing Program alongside California State Senate Leader Kevin de León, Assemblymember Miguel Santiago, the California Air Resources Board, the Los Angeles Department of Transportation, and representatives from Blue Solutions—a division of the Bolloré Group—which has invested more than $10 million... Read more →

Autonomous vehicle software developer nuTonomy and Lyft have formed a strategic R&D partnership focused on understanding and optimizing the end-to-end experience of autonomous vehicle (AV) passengers. Under the partnership, nuTonomy and Lyft will align their respective technology platforms to gather valuable research and insights into all aspects of ensuring a... Read more →

A new report from a team at the University of California, Davis, and the New York-based nonprofit Institute for Transportation & Development Policy (ITDP) has concluded that shared mobility is a critical enabler for realizing the benefits of electrification and autonomous driving. The report examines three urban travel scenarios surrounding... Read more →

The US Department of Transportation (DOT) Federal Highway Administration will award (693JJ317NF0001) up to $60 million to projects to develop model deployment sites for large scale installation and operation of advanced transportation technologies to improve safety, efficiency, system performance, and infrastructure return on investment. DOT is requiring a minimum cost... Read more →

The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has opened a grant solicitation for applicants to implement the Car Sharing and Mobility Options Pilot Project for Fiscal Year 2016-17. The overarching goal of this project is to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and also achieve criteria pollutant emission reductions and other co-benefits... Read more →

The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company showcased several new and emerging technologies in its latest concept tires at the Geneva International Motor Show. In the evolving mobility ecosystem, defined by the transition to driverless vehicles and shared mobility in urban centers, Goodyear aims to revolutionize the interaction between tires, vehicles... Read more →

Grab, the leading ride-hailing platform in Southeast Asia, launched its “Grab 4 Indonesia” 2020 master plan, endorsed by Badan Koordinasi Penanaman Modal (BKPM), the Government of Indonesia’s Investment Coordinating Board. Under the plan, Grab will invest US$700 million in Indonesia over the next four years to support Indonesia’s goal of... Read more →

Advancements such as connectivity, big data, autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence are driving new economic models for automakers, and most see tremendous revenue potential and consumer value in leveraging driver and vehicle data to offer mobility services, according to the 2017 KPMG Global Automotive Executive Study. The KPMG research, which... Read more →

Volvo Cars will establish a new shared mobility business unit as part of a broad expansion of its car sharing and mobility services strategy. The new business unit will be based around Sunfleet, one of the world’s first car sharing companies that has been operated by Volvo since 1998. Based... Read more →

The Volkswagen Group officially launched its new mobility services company MOIA. Volkswagen Group CEO Matthias Müller previewed the formation of the new business unit during a presentation of the Group’s new strategic plan—TOGETHER - Strategy 2025—in Wolfsburg in June. (Earlier post.) “MOIA will help us gain a deeper understanding of... Read more →

RideCell, Inc., the developer of a Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS) platform for leading automakers and transit providers globally, unveiled today at AutoMobility LA the worldwide release of its white-label multiservice platform that allows car manufacturers to provide on-demand mobility when and where it’s needed. (A white-label product or service is produced by... Read more →

During a press conference at AutoMobility LA, ReachNow, BMW Group’s free-floating premium car sharing service, announced its expansion into its third city: Brooklyn, NY. The service also introduced four new mobility services: Ride, Reserve, Share, and Fleet Solutions for residential buildings. The expansion to Brooklyn marks the company’s first expansion... Read more →

A new car-sharing platform from Mercedes-Benz will go online at the start of December. App-based Croove pairs up private vehicle owners and hirers. The Croove scheme will be launched in Munich to begin with and is open to any brand of vehicle. The peer-to-peer car-sharing platform is another example of... Read more →

A test deployment of a new hub-and-shuttle urban mobility system will take place on the University of Michigan’s North Campus. Its creators say the proposed system could deliver riders to their destinations in as little as half the time of the existing bus system at a lower cost, eventually using... Read more →

Toyota Motor Corporation will establish a Mobility Services Platform (MSPF) to collaborate with various service providers, as well as telematics insurance. Given on the proliferation and popularity of mobility services, such as car-sharing, the MSPF will have various functions to support these mobility services, and to leverage the Toyota Smart... Read more →

GM has made a strategic investment in Yi Wei Xing (Beijing) Technology Co., Ltd. (Yi Wei Xing), a leading car-sharing technology solution provider in China, as another move in exploring personal mobility in China. Yi Wei Xing’s product, Feezu, is based on mobile technology. It merges hardware and software to... Read more →

Ford is acquiring Chariot, a San Francisco-based crowd-sourced shuttle service, and is collaborating with bike-sharing provider Motivate to launch Ford GoBike, expanding its transportation solutions in city centers. Ford also is establishing a new City Solutions team to work with cities around the world on their transportation needs. Ford’s acquisition... Read more →

Bosch is launching its new Coup eScooter sharing service in Berlin. Coup, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bosch, now provides Berlin residents with a new mobility option featuring a simple pricing model. Customers can now find, reserve, and use their nearest eScooter at any time. After reaching their destination, they... Read more →

car2go NA is currently the largest flexible one-way carsharing service in North America. Now, a study conducted by the University of California Berkeley’s Transportation Sustainability Research Center (TSRC) concludes that car2go’s carsharing model can complement existing mass transit options; reduces the overall number of vehicles on the road; and ultimately... Read more →

Elon Musk has, as promised, published his second “master plan,” composed with the help of all-nighters and the Gatsby soundtrack. Master Plan Part 1—public now for ten years—outlined (1) the creation of an expensive low-volume electric car (Roadster) to fund (2) a medium-volume electric car (Model S, X) at a... Read more →