Mobileye, an Intel company, has announced its first autonomous on-demand service in the city of Paris, in collaboration with RATP Group, the world’s third-largest public transportation operator. Mobileye has obtained an AV testing permit to allow the company to drive its autonomous robotaxis on the city’s streets.
Passengers who are part of the pilot will be among the first consumers to ride in a Mobileye AV, and the first to hail a robotaxi using the Moovit app that will be at the centre of Mobileye’s MoovitAV consumer ridesharing service.
Mobileye’s AV on-demand service will provide employees from the famous department store, Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, the ability to request or schedule a ride to work using the Moovit app four days a week.
Each Mobileye AV test vehicle is able to transport two passengers at a time, plus a Mobileye safety driver and an RATP co-pilot.
The company is expected to launch commercial robotaxi services under the MoovitAV brand in Munich and Tel Aviv in 2022, after obtaining regulatory approval.
Johann Jungwirth, vice president of mobility-as-a-service at Mobileye, says: “Autonomously driving the roads of Paris is yet another milestone on the way to realizing our vision of self-driving inclusive mobility. We are happy to have not only gained the testing permit, but also strong partners in Paris.”
Côme Berbain, director of Innovation for RATP Group, adds: “As a leading operator of autonomous mobility, we are very happy to offer to our client Galeries Lafayette a new mobility service by associating our know-how with Mobileye. This is an opportunity for the RATP Group to test a new use case, an autonomous car service for companies, but also to test the vehicle’s autonomous technology for possible integration on other transport modes such as a bus or minibus.”
Alexandre Liot, managing director of Galeries Lafayette Haussmann, comments: “Today it is essential to think about improving and transforming mobility, to prepare the future of city centers and allow Paris to continue its attractiveness. Therefore, as the French leader of department stores, we are proud to join forces with Mobileye and the RATP Group to participate in this innovative project which reflects on the transport of tomorrow.”
Mobileye recently unveiled its production robotaxi and scaled its autonomous vehicle testing across multiple cities around the world, including the U.S., Europe and Asia.
