New VW spinoff to focus on ride-hailing and self-driving cars
Volkswagen AG is moving into ride-sharing and self-driving cars with a new spinoff company.
Called Moia, the new company will be based in Berlin and will focus on “new mobility solutions” that the car giant hopes will generate “a significant share” of its overall revenues by 2025. The new company will develop and market its own mobility services either independently or in partnership with cities and existing transport systems, with existing VW divisions will continue to develop their own systems.
Its first product is planned to be an electric commuter shuttle that can be hailed via a smartphone app. It appears\, similar to UberPool but likely with multiple buses that will be on call to accept rides when they are booked. Those buses are said to use original designs for small, multi-passenger shuttles that are intended to operate with electric drive trains for maximum efficiency with minimum impact, TechCrunch reports.
“Moia will help us gain a deeper understanding of new forms of mobility and how to make them even more attractive in future, to offer a much broader scope than at present and to tailor these services to suit very wide-ranging needs,” VW Chief Executive Officer Matthias Müller said in a statement. “Even though not everyone will still own a car in future, MOIA can help make everyone a customer of our company in some way or another.”
VW’s move into the mobility solutions market follows in the footsteps of American rivals the Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. Ford has a partnership with Google Inc. and GM has both its own individual efforts and a partnership with Lyft Inc.
That VW has set up an individual group company to focus on the space while allowing its other units to continue their own efforts is a different approach. But with a focus on areas such as hailed electric commuter buses as a standalone offering, it may make sense.
The first pilot projects in pooled commuter buses are scheduled to begin in 2017.
Image courtesy of VW
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