Vay, a remote driving company, and ioki, a developer of public transportation technologies, have announced a new partnership to pair their teledriving and ridepooling capabilities to launch a remotely driven on-demand public transport service. Together, the companies expect their solution to address driver shortages in the public transport sector and reduce costs, while increasing the efficiency and availability of flexible public transport solutions.
Operating through a smartphone app, the service allows users to log in and request a vehicle. A remotely driven (teledriven) car, operated by a specially trained remote vehicle operator (teledriver) from Vay’s teledrive center, receives the request and navigates to the user’s destination. The ioki Platform’s algorithm calculates the route, facilitates ridepooling, and serves as the booking interface for users.
Shortly after booking a vehicle, the customers will be picked up and driven to their desired destination. Whether users ride in a regular vehicle, or a teledriven vehicle from Vay, is individually decided by ioki’s algorithm. The companies envision the service supplementing on-demand transport to avoid empty runs, lowering costs and increasing availability. Today, they are in contact with interested transport companies to test the link between their on-demand and teledriven technologies and are aiming to begin the first pilot projects in 2025.
