Volkswagen, Intel Corp. and its subsidiary Mobileye have reportedly announced that they plan to deploy an autonomous taxi service in Israel – the nation’s first – beginning early next year. Reports cite, the two firms are forming a Joint Venture (JV) with Champion Motors, an Israeli car importer, under which VW would be facilitating electric vehicles and Mobileye would provide the autonomous driving technology to be incorporated in the supplied cars.
According to a press release by Volkswagen Group, Champion Motors would be handling the fleet operations as well as the control center. Operating under the name New Mobility in Israel, the group’s proposal received the formal acceptance of the government of Israel during a private event that was held at the 2018 Smart Mobility Summit.
The service, reportedly called Mobility-as-a-Service (Maas), is estimated to be commercialized by the year 2022. Moreover, the government of Israel would also be supporting the group’s endeavor by sharing the infrastructure required as well as the traffic data necessary for the project’s smooth operation.
Senior Vice President at Intel and CEO of Mobileye, Professor Amnon Shashua stated that the company is thrilled to embark on this venture alongside a world-leading automotive OEM Volkswagen to deliver a transformational mobility service. Shashua further added that the service aims to dynamically and intelligently adapt to 21st century’s urban mobility needs quenching demands of mobility-mileage within an urban environment while also minimizing the indirectly and directly incurred societal costs like noise, air pollution, safety and congestion as well.
The CEO of Volkswagen Group, Dr. Herbert Diess stated that the company firmly believes that autonomous electric vehicles would offer Israel and eventually different cities across the world a convenient, accessible mobility that is clean, safe and emission-free.
According to reports, the financial information related to the matter as well as the initial location for the deployment of the service have not been revealed yet.