Benteler EV Systems, Beep and Mobileye have announced a partnership to develop and deploy electric autonomous movers across North America.
To develop a safe and efficient autonomous shuttle, Benteler will produce an autonomous mover that will be coupled with Mobileye’s self-driving system and be supported by Beep’s deployment and operations systems.
The companies hope to launch the shuttle in the United States in 2024 to provide an alternate mobility product. The autonomous movers will be designed for first- and last-mile shuttle journeys in urban areas.
Hinrich Woebcken, advisory board member for Beep, said:Multipassenger micro-transit needs are ever-increasing in our cities and towns globally and must be addressed in order to reduce road congestion, protect the environment and provide safe, reliable mobility for all to access. Bringing to market an affordable, automotive-grade, electric, autonomous mover is a solution that will transform mobility as we know it today.
Benteler EV Systems specialises in full system technology for electric vehicles. It will develop and produce the autonomous mover and integrate all individual subsystems into the final vehicle.
Marco Kollmeier, managing director of Benteler EV Systems GmbH, said:Autonomous movers are the solution for future public transportation, solving the mobility challenges of increasing urbanisation and emissions. These movers need to be robust for 24/7 public or commercial use, at optimised costs and with excellent riding comfort. Consequently, we decided to go for this strategic collaboration with our partners Mobileye and Beep, to build autonomous movers delivering exactly against these market demands.
Meanwhile, Mobileye develops autonomous driving products, providing computer vision systems for autonomous fleets in Israel, Germany, Japan, China, France, and the US. Mobileye’s self-driving system, Mobileye Drive™, will be integrated into the autonomous movers.
Finally, Beep will provide expertise on testing autonomous electric shuttles in public road projects, such as the RoboRide autonomous medical shuttle in Peoria. Beep has worked closely with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and will apply their experience to help design the new platform with an emphasis on safety.
Joe Moye, CEO of Beep, said:Beep’s well-established U.S. footprint for our autonomous mobility operations model, which incorporates machine learning, contextual route intelligence and Beep’s existing centralized command center platform, combine with Benteler’s and Mobileye’s manufacturing expertise to make this the first alignment of all capabilities needed to successfully scale the deployment of this important transformation in passenger mobility.
