The Volkswagen Group will provide electric vehicles for a new self-driving ride-hailing service in Israel. Volkswagen, Mobileye and Champion Motors are planning to establish a joint venture, which will see the entity operate as New Mobility in Israel.
Volkswagen will provide the EVs and bring in its knowledge and expertise on design and deployment of user-centered mobility services. Mobileye will provide its level 4 AV Kit – a turnkey, driverless solution comprised of hardware, driving policy, safety software and map data. Champion Motors will run the fleet operations and control center. T
The three parties will use New Mobility in Israel to serve as a global beta site for testing and introducing the Mobility-as-a-Service model using autonomous electric vehicles. The project will start in early 2019 and scale to commercialization by 2022.
New Mobility in Israel will roll out in phases, and grow quickly from several dozen to hundreds of self-driving electric vehicles.
“We firmly believe that self-driving electric vehicles will offer Israel and cities around the world safe, clean and emission-free mobility, which is accessible and convenient. We are looking forward to this partnership with our local partners Mobileye and Champion Motors from Israel,” says Dr Herbert Diess, CEO of the Volkswagen Group.
“We are delighted to embark on a joint venture with a world-leading automotive OEM, aimed at delivering a transformational mobility service,” adds Prof. Amnon Shashua, Mobileye CEO and senior vice president at Intel. “Our service aims to intelligently and dynamically adapt to the urban mobility needs of the 21st century, catering to the mobility-mileage demands within the city, while minimizing the direct/indirect incurred societal costs – air/noise pollution, congestion and safety.”
“Champion Motors is investing in auto tech and smart mobility in order to continue providing the Israeli customers with the best and most advanced products and services in this area,” says Prof. Itzhak Swary, chairman of the board of directors at Champion Motors. “We are proud to partner with Volkswagen and strengthen our collaboration through this pioneering project, which positions Israel at the spearhead of innovation.”
