Bestmile Partners with Hanseatische Fahrzeug Manufaktur GmbH (HFM) to Demonstrate Autonomous Fleet Optimization in “Urban Jungle” at ITS World Congress

Integration of Bestmile’s Mobility Services Platform with HFM’s Motionboard enables HFM vehicles to be managed as fleets and deliver next-generation mobility services


LAUSANNE, Switzerland and COPENHAGEN, Denmark, Sept. 17, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bestmile, the leading mobility services platform used to plan, manage, and optimize autonomous and human-driven vehicle fleets, today announced its partnership with leading German autonomous vehicle technology provider HFM. Bestmile and HFM will demonstrate a combination of the companies’ technologies during a live demonstration amidst an “Urban Jungle” at ITS World Congress in Copenhagen from Sept. 18-21, 2018.

The ITS demonstration will showcase the integration of Bestmile’s vehicle agnostic Mobility Services Platform with HFM’s Motionboard, a completely customizable autonomous vehicle chassis, drive-by wire system, engine and sensors. The partnership enables HFM’s vehicles to be managed as intelligent fleets using the Bestmile platform.

“Bestmile is an ideal partner to make HFM’s Motionboard available to more fleets and more vehicle builders around the world,” said Wolfgang Bern, CEO of HFM. “Our vehicle platform technology and Bestmile’s proven autonomous vehicle management solution are a perfect fit.”

The ITS demonstration will show how the Bestmile-HFM fleet can be hailed by travelers, and how the vehicles navigate around fixed and moving obstacles in a simulated “urban jungle,” where obstacles in the form of lions, tigers and gorillas will represent the kind challenges autonomous vehicles will face and will test the vehicles’ ability to safely reach their destinations.
  
“The ITS demonstration and our partnership with HFM showcases our vehicle agnostic platform and our ability to enable shared, on-demand services,” said Raphael Gindrat, CEO and co-founder of Bestmile. “We are well-suited partners as pioneers in the mobility services industry—the HFM team has been developing autonomous shuttle solutions since 2014 and Bestmile has been managing autonomous fleets since 2015.”

Bestmile offers the only platform of its kind that combines vehicle-agnostic fleet management; multi-service fixed and on-demand services; real-time dispatching, vehicle-rider matching, and optimized routing; support for human-driven and autonomous fleets; and multi-modal integration. The platform gives mobility providers everything they need to configure, manage and optimize autonomous and human-driven vehicle fleets, including a complete set of operator and traveler software and mobile apps.

The demonstration vehicles are engineered by HFM and are equipped with LiDAR technology from Ibeo to complete the ecosystem that enables the safe and efficient operation of autonomous vehicle fleets. Furthermore, the Motionboard vehicles leverage Paravan’s drive-by-wire technology, proven through 500 million kilometers (more than 310 million miles) of use in vehicles for people with disabilities.

Attendees can visit Bestmile at booth C1-125. The demonstration showcase at ITS World Congress will be open Sept. 18-20 from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. CET, and Sept. 21 from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. CET. Event attendees interested in participating in the demonstration can book the demo directly through the ITS World Congress app, or email katharina.krimmer@ibeo-as.com to schedule a private demonstration.   

About Bestmile
Bestmile empowers mobility providers to deploy, manage and optimize autonomous and human-driven vehicle fleets, supporting fixed-route and on-demand services, regardless of the vehicle brand or type. Bestmile’s mobility platform allows operators to support multi-modal, multi-service offerings in a safe and efficient manner by integrating autonomous vehicles in the existing transportation ecosystem. Bestmile’s autonomous mobility service platform is being used daily in shared electric autonomous vehicles in pedestrian areas and public roads. Incorporated in 2014, Bestmile has global offices in San Francisco (USA) and Lausanne (Switzerland). For more information, visit www.bestmile.com.

Media Contacts
Alison Flood
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bestmile@10fold.com