Software company Ioki is to provide a technical interface that enables on-demand booking for autonomous shuttles as part of a €22 million European Union project.
Ioki says software enables deep integration into the existing public transport system and Mobility as a Service (MaaS) apps.
The Avenue (autonomous vehicles to evolve to a new urban experience) project will initially test shuttles in Geneva (Switzerland) this winter.
Avenue – an EU-funded project under Horizon 2020 – is seeking to demonstrate the suitability and efficiency of the use of small and medium AVs for different transport models that are under development in Europe.
Prof. Dimitri Konstantas, Avenue project coordinator at the University of Geneva, says: “With Ioki, we gain an experienced partner and come a big step closer to our goal of making Europe a global thought and technology leader in the use of connected and autonomous mobility.”
Dr. Michael Barillère-Scholz, managing director at Ioki, says: “With the findings from the Avenue project, we are setting the course for autonomous and connected mobility in Europe.”
Aside from Geneva, the shuttles will also provide insights for autonomous operation on the streets of Lyon (France), Copenhagen (Denmark) and Luxembourg.
Avenue also includes input from Navya, Keolis, Siemens and Holo.