By Nick Carey
LONDON (Reuters) - German remote-driving startup Vay said on Thursday it has received 34 million euros ($37 million) in funding from the European Investment Bank to roll out its remote-driven vehicle technology across Europe and expand its development team.
CEO Thomas von der Ohe told Reuters that the low-interest, long-term, preferential loan from the EIB will help Berlin-based Vay launch its commercial services either in Hamburg, where it has already been conducting testing, or in Belgium where it has formed a partnership with car-share provider Poppy.
Earlier this year Vay launched its first commercial service in Las Vegas where a "teledriver", or remote driver, delivers electric short-term rental cars to customers then collects them after the rental.
The teledrivers sit at a teledrive station with a steering wheel, pedals and other vehicle controls. The actual car's surroundings are reproduced via camera sensors and transmitted to the screens of the teledrive station.
Vay has so far raised about $110 million from investors including Sweden's Kinnevik Coatue and France's Eurazeo (EPA:EURA).
The company has 20 cars in service in Las Vegas providing a service that costs consumers half as much as an Uber (NYSE:UBER) per ride, von der Ohe said. Vay is currently expanding its Las Vegas fleet to 100 cars.
The startup plans to gradually introduce self-driving features to its fleet as it learns from the cameras included on its vehicles that are much cheaper than the lidar and radar technology used by most autonomous vehicle developers.
But von der Ohe said that while truly self-driving cars are many years away, there is huge potential for remote-driving technology in the meantime.
"We believe remote driving is the next frontier technology that can really revolutionize all aspects of transportation without any autonomy," von der Ohe said.
He added that while car-sharing services are Vay's core business, the company is working on remote-driving technology for trucks and has a partnership with Stellantis (NYSE:STLA) unit Peugeot (OTC:PUGOY) to use the technology for delivery vans.
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