Autonomous transportation startup May Mobility and transportation software firm Via are planning to deploy thousands more autonomous vehicles globally in the next three years, the companies announced in February.
May Mobility and Via have partnered since 2021, They currently offer on-demand, dynamically routed, and shared autonomous vehicle services in three cities. To date, May Mobility and Via have together served around 50,000 autonomous vehicle rides.
Powered by Via’s AI-based booking and routing algorithms, on-demand rides are available to anyone through a Via-powered app, which matches riders headed in the same direction into one vehicle to create efficient, flexible shared trips. The combination of Via’s software with May Mobility’s autonomous vehicles transports riders to and from popular hubs such as corporate, hospital and university campuses or stores, restaurants and churches.
Under a new agreement, over the next three years, May Mobility and Via will continue these partnership, working together to incorporate thousands more autonomous vehicles into the public transit systems of cities around the globe.
“May Mobility and Via share a deep belief in technology’s ability to provide equitable transit solutions,” Manik Dhar, chief commercial officer for May Mobility said in a statement. “Our partnership means that we can leverage each other’s strengths to address a larger customer base globally. The communities we serve benefit from our combined depth of autonomy technology experience and fleet deployment solutions.”
This new agreement will enable faster, more streamlined launch operations for future sites worldwide. In addition, the new agreement gives May Mobility access to Via’s Remix software, the first transit planning software for on-demand and other flexible mobility services. With Remix, May Mobility will further optimize its autonomous vehicle routes and advance sustainability and equity goals by using proprietary data from over 200 Via deployments and 100 million shared Via rides.
“May Mobility and Via share a belief that autonomous vehicles are most impactful when they are accessible and shared and complement existing public transit infrastructure,” Dillon Twombly, Chief Revenue Officer at Via, said in a statement. “We support all riders and respect the diversity of their needs. The next stage of our partnership with May Mobility will enable us to continue to introduce autonomous vehicles as an equitable, efficient and sustainable transportation solution for communities around the globe.”
