Verizon Business has signed a deal with Germany-based automotive technology startup Vay Technology to supply 5G to its rental fleet of remotely operated electric vehicles (EVs) in Las Vegas. The enterprise division of the US carrier is also providing custom IoT data plans, it said, to manage “massive amounts” of data from the vehicles’ sensors and cameras.
The car hire service, available in Las Vegas since January, allows users to order an electric car on an app, and have it delivered to them by a ‘teledriver’, operating the vehicle remotely over a 5G connection. On receipt of the vehicle, the user drives the car themselves, as they would a regular vehicle; on completion of the trip, ended in the app, the car is remote-driven to the next customer.
According to a press note, Verizon’s IoT airtime deal with Vay covers use cases for: “near real-time connectivity to provide mobility solutions for tele-driven cars; transmitting telematics or diagnostic information from vehicles to Vay and/or Vay customers; and transmitting over-the-air updates to software and firmware in Vay vehicles”.
Vay Technology, founded in 2018, claims to be the first – and so far the only – company to drive a vehicle on public roads in Europe without a person on board. It launched its first commercial mobility service in Las Vegas, in January, having tested with a remote pilot in and around Berlin through 2023.
It has a deal to launch in Belgium with driverless vehicle operator Ush and car-share provider company Poppy. It plans to expand with branded and white-label deals throughout the US, it said. It has raised $95m in Series B funding from investors including Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, La Famiglia, and Creandum. The company employs 150 staff in Berlin, Hamburg, and Las Vegas.
TJ Fox, senior vice president of industrial IoT and automotive at Verizon Business, said: “Vay’s… operational model shows the importance of mobile connectivity for the future of transportation. From Vay’s app-based user interface to its high-tech teledriving command centers, to the vehicle fleet itself, connectivity touches all corners of the business.”
Thomas von der Ohe, co-founder and chief executive at Vay, said: “Verizon’s technology has been critical for Vay’s entry into the US market from Europe… Its coverage, performance and network reliability are essential for handling the data load inherent to teleoperating our fleet to the highest standards of safety and capability.”