France’s NAVYA, a leader in the development of autonomous mobility systems, has signed an agreement with the Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to support the implementation of autonomous vehicles in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The projects relate to the deployment of self-driving electric and shared shuttles for the transportation of people, together with the deployment of electric tow tractors for the transportation of goods at airports and industrial sites.
The agreement aims at implementing pilot projects, validating use-cases, defining regulation, and building up local competencies in order to prepare and speed up the large-scale deployment of fleets of level 4 autonomous vehicles over the whole of the Arabian Peninsula.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed at the French Ministry of Transport in Paris.
Sophie Desormière, CEO of NAVYA, says: “We look forward to the start of a fruitful collaboration with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to speed up the deployment of new fleets for people and goods and to contribute to the building of an autonomous and shared future. Ecological and connected transportation will not only advance mobility, but also benefit the whole community. The agreement will bring us closer to achieving our vision of the mobility of the future on a large scale.”
Dr. Mansour Alturki, Deputy Minister of Planning & Information, adds: “Signing the MoU represent another testimony for the depth of the Saudi-French collaboration in the Transport and logistics sector. The Ministry of Transport and Logistic Services has a commitment to enable the adoption of new mobility and technologies across all modes, as part the Sector National Strategy to be a futuristic sector and a model of seamless mobility. Such a collaboration with NAVYA, will allow for leading companies to support Saudi in ensuring the right and timely regulatory frame works are in place to allow for wide-scale adoption in the future and early piloting of autonomous and connected transportation across the Kingdom. Which will be essential to drive investments in the Saudi Transport and Logistics sector in new technologies, and improve the quality of the mobility in Saudi cities.”
With 280 employees in France (Paris and Lyon), in the US (Michigan) and in Singapore, NAVYA aims at becoming the leading player in Level 4 autonomous mobility systems for passenger and goods transport.
Since 2015, NAVYA has been the first to market and put into service autonomous mobility solutions. The Autonom® Shuttle, main development axis, is dedicated to passenger transport. Since its launch, more than 200 units have been sold in 25 countries as of 31 December 2021.
