The partnership allows riders to experience driverless delivery of vehicles while expanding access across cities
SAN FRANCISCO & LAS VEGAS – Faction Technology, Inc. and GoCar Tours, Inc. today announced a partnership to develop driverless deployment of GoCar EV Sport vehicles, based on the FUV platform from Arcimoto, Inc. The announcement was made at the Arival 360 conference in Las Vegas.
The collaboration facilitates driverless delivery of GoCar Tour vehicles from GoCar’s depots to select pickup counters at partner locations, where customers can then drive them on tours and adventures in cities where GoCar operates.
“Leveraging Faction’s driverless technology to deploy vehicles allows GoCar to turn every hotel and tour partner in a city into a GoCar customer counter,” said Alasdair Clements, Co-Founder of GoCar. “By bringing vehicles to where our customers are, we can expand our reach, making it easier for riders to enjoy a GoCar Tour experience.”
Faction’s technology architecture is designed with driverless systems in mind, which allows it to incorporate new technology radically faster than legacy vehicle platforms. It partners with innovative companies to develop sophisticated teleoperation abilities, precise vehicle positioning, hazard recognition, and vehicle design to accommodate the 90 percent of urban trips that consist of one passenger traveling a few miles.
Equipped with Faction’s DriveLink® and TeleAssist™ technologies, the driverless GoCar EVs combine autonomy with remote human teleoperation. The driverless vehicle platform retains the GoCar EV Sport capabilities with up to 100 miles of city range, and includes patented GoCar Network technology and GoCar mobile tour guide.
“Enabling driverless electric vehicles for GoCar is an exciting application on multiple levels,” said Faction CEO, Ain McKendrick. “Not only are we able to expand GoCar’s existing rental business, but the form factor of a light electric vehicle is a great alternative to an oversized vehicle for quick tours and trips around cities.”
GoCar Tours takes customers to spectacular places few visitors get to see, and it can go where the tour buses can’t. Using the latest GPS guided-tour technology for self-guided driving tours, GoCar creates a unique experience. The technology takes users to all the best sites, recommends restaurants, cracks jokes, and tells the stories that bring a destination to life.
Jesse Fittipaldi, Interim CEO at Arcimoto said, “We have always envisioned our platform as the best, most efficient small form factor vehicle for moving goods and people. Customers will experience the new possible that our technologies solve, the intersection of convenience, fun and efficiency. A perfect story for Las Vegas.”
Pilot trials are expected to start in 2023 with Faction’s driverless technology powering deployment of GoCar vehicles from fleet depot locations to designated rental counters. Eventually GoCar customers will be able to summon a rental to a variety of locations on-demand.
