Renault To Help Improve Navigation
The joint strategic venture capital arm of Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, Alliance Ventures, invested $17 million in the latest round of funding for Transit, a multimodal transportation app company in Montreal, Canada. This is Alliance Ventures’ latest technology investment which launched earlier this year to support start-ups, early-stage development and entrepreneurs of next-generation systems for the automotive industry.
Transit’s mobile app collects and maps real-time transportation data from more than 175 metropolitan areas around the world. According to a Transit spokesperson, they aim to accelerate the start-up’s mission of helping people navigate cities and reach their destinations without using a car. In addition to Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi, three other investors also contributed to the funding, InMotion Ventures, Accel and Real Ventures.
François Dossa, Alliance Global Vice President said, “We are pleased to make a strategic investment in Transit, the leading urban mobility navigation start-up in North America. This investment, which will advance Transit’s efforts to make mobility seamless and accessible in cities, fits with the Alliance 2022 strategy to become a leader in robo-vehicle ride-hailing mobility services and a provider of vehicles for public transit use and car-sharing.”
Transit has developed the best platform for getting people from point A to point B without using their own vehicle. They started with solving a simple problem which is making it easier to check departure times for buses and trains. Since then, they have added several new features and expanded to more than 175 cities, helping millions of daily commuters successfully complete countless trips.
The mobile app enables multi-modal transportation through the integration of public transit, ride-hailing, bike- and scooter-sharing. Combining real-time data from transit agencies with user crowdsourcing, Transit can offer commuters accurate and up-to-date information. The ‘GO’ function on the app allows users to get real-time notifications for their ride. Transit can track the vehicle’s live location, notify the user of changes to the departure or arrival times and also when they should go to their stop and when to disembark.
Transit aims to address an even bigger problem of how to make car ownership in cities obsolete. While bus schedules were a great place to start, it wasn’t enough. Even though better transit information has proven to increase ridership, it still doesn’t improve transit service on the ground. This is why Transit has entered into several new partnerships with companies in charge of transit services. Some of the world’s leading agencies have already endorsed this app from Boston, Silicon Valley to Montreal and Baltimore along with many others across the globe.
In the words of Transit CEO Sam Vermette, “New modes of mobility are entering the market at record speeds. It took decades for car-sharing to catch on. Now, e-bikes and scooters are being rolled out in weeks. This is an exciting time, as Transit helps people navigate their new mobility options. We look forward to working closely with Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi as Transit grows.”
Investing In Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In other automotive tech news, Hyundai Cradle, Hyundai Motor Co.’s corporate venture business, has invested in allegro.ai. The Israeli company specialises in deep learning-based computer vision and they believe that partnering with Hyundai will allow them to speed up the deployment of AI technology in many business areas. At the same time, it will help improve the quality of Hyundai’s products even further.
According to Ruby Chen, head of investment at Hyundai Cradle Tel Aviv, “Deep learning computer vision is one of the core technologies that can be applied to autonomous driving to navigate roads and make quick decisions in real time.”
It is only a matter of time before we see an influx of autonomous vehicles on a global scale from car makers across the board. The mere fact that Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and Hyundai have already invested heavily in AI and other automotive technologies is an indication that a big shift in the future of motoring is imminent.
