Currently, many companies are forced to lay off their employees due to the coronavirus outbreak. In case of some services, however, the demand has increased. Biila Solutions Oy, headquartered in Finland, has had a growth exceeding 500% during the last 4 weeks. The demand for the company’s service called Biila Go has gone up drastically.

Biila Go helps customers to effortlessly have their car serviced with no need for live visits in the repair shop. The service consists of picking up the customer’s car from a requested address, driving the car to the service station and returning the car after maintenance.

This kind of service enables repair shops to create new ways to build their business when their premises are not filled with customers queuing for service in the morning, and thus the capacity of the repair shops can be used more effectively. The importance of location also decreases when cars are picked up and returned to customers’ homes or workplaces.

Online car shopping without setting foot on dealer’s lot

Biila Go can also be used when buying a car. A customer can buy a car online and have the car delivered

to them by Biila Go. If the deal includes a used car, the car dealer may instruct Biila Go´s driver to inspect the car in order to complete the deal. If the car passes the inspection, the driver will drive the car to dealers’ premises. This way, there is no need for people meeting live, since the whole process is managed online beforehand.

Biila Go handles more than 400 rides per day. Today, the company has over 6,000 registered drivers across Finland and there is a need for more. “The path to become a Biila Go driver is completely digital. Within 1-2 days after registration, one can start earning money by driving,” says Aapeli Kallunki, CEO of Biila Solutions Oy.

The company aims at international expansion

“Biila Solutions Oy began to digitalize automotive services in Finland in 2017. Since then, our domestic annual growth rate is about 45 percent, and this year is no exception,” Mr. Kallunki says.

“Entering the international market is our main goal during 2020´s. We launched our operations in Sweden in October 2019, and we are striving to gain a stable position there. Next we can move towards our big goal, Germany”.

Read more on Biila’s website (in Finnish). https://biila.io/

A fleet of three self-driving vehicles, an on-demand mobile app and a Remote Control Centre (RCC) for autonomous vehicles begins operating in an upcoming first-of-a-kind pilot that will start in Helsinki on Tuesday, April 14 2020.

One of the aims of the project is to gain experience from the complex traffic and real-world situations the pilot area offers and to test the whole self-driving value chain for the first time. A successful pilot will take the company one step closer to bringing autonomous driving technology to the mainstream. The three different driverless vehicles, all equipped with Sensible 4’s autonomous driving software and technology, will be operating on the busy streets of Pasila in Helsinki.

The new business district of Pasila, close to the centre of Helsinki offers a complex testing environment for self-driving vehicles. The heavily trafficked district provides unique opportunities to test self-driving in an area with lots of complex traffic situations such as pedestrians, bicycles, trams and one of the city’s main train stations. Usually, self-driving pilots are held in restricted safe-zone – areas that offer few issues for the vehicles as possible.

“Self-driving fleet operations on public roads in urban areas are really demanding for any autonomous technology. We will learn a lot during these 50 days of the Helsinki-pilot, and this, of course, is for the benefit of our customers“, says Jari Saarinen, Chief Technology Officer, Sensible 4.

Each car in the fleet has a different role in the project. The award-winning autonomous shuttle bus GACHA – designed by MUJI – will pick up passengers from the bus stops on the predefined route. At times, GACHA will stay dormant, and users can hail the shuttle with an application on their phones. Now, due to the current Corona outbreak, the pilot will start without passengers for safety reasons. As soon as restrictions are eased, self-driving enthusiasts will be able to try the driverless shuttle and order it with their phone.

Besides GACHA, Chinese car maker-giant Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd. has sent one of their vans to participate in the pilot. The CM7 minibus has been retrofitted with Sensible 4 autonomous driving software and will showcase its smooth and flexible driving capabilities as part of the project.

The Finnish tech-startup has been cooperating with Swedish T-Engineering owned by Dongfeng Motor Co. Ltd. The FABULOS pilot will offer valuable information and insight to all participating companies and will further help them with their self-driving capabilities.

Sensible 4’s software comes as individual modules or as a full-stack version and is able to transform any vehicle into a self-driving one — capable of operating 365 days a year (something very few driverless cars is currently able to do).

Besides the CM7 and GACHA, a third vehicle by Sensible 4 is taking part in the operations. The Renault Twizy will collect data aimed to improve the overall experience of the software and learn from the complex traffic situations.

The Remote Control Centre or RCC is another essential part of the new pilot. There will be multiple video feeds sent from the autonomous vehicles to the remote control centre.

As Sensible 4’s technology aims for Level 4 autonomy on a predefined route, a human operator may be needed to guide the vehicle past the rare occasions of a vehicle not being able to drive autonomously. An example of such an event is a police officer overseeing the traffic instead of regular traffic lights, or a wrongly parked car on the route.

The pilot, which is part of the EU funded FABULOS-project, aims to research the feasibilities of autonomous driving in a public transportation network.

“We are looking forward to seeing the solution of Sensible 4 in real-life on the streets of Helsinki. The FABULOS project was initiated because we believe autonomous shared mobility can make a big contribution to a more efficient and sustainable urban mobility system. It is exciting to see if the technology is ready for wide take-up“, says Renske Martijnse-Hartikka FABULOS Project Coordinator from Forum Virium Helsinki.

During the project, passengers can order a ride with an on-demand self-driving shuttle application created by Spanish firm Shotl.

About Sensible 4

Sensible 4 is a Finnish self-driving technology company developing full-stack software for autonomous vehicles. Their unique technology combines information from multiple sensors (sensor fusion), allowing their self-driving cars to operate even in the most challenging of weather conditions. Sensible 4 recently raised $7 Million from Japanese tech investors in their Series A round. Their technology was awarded Best Startup at the prestigious Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Cars in October 2019, and their autonomous shuttle bus GACHA has collected multiple design awards.

More information

Sensible 4
Tuomas Sauliala
Technical Marketing Manager
tuomas.sauliala@sensible4.fi
+358 44 506 9891

Forum Virium Helsinki / Coordinator of the FABULOS project
Ulla Tikkanen
Technical Project Manager
ulla.tikkanen@forumvirium.fi
+358 41 526 1617
fabulos.eu

 

Read the original news article on Sensible4’s website. Photo: Sensible4.

BBC live podcast series “People fixing the world” features various smart mobility solutions in a special reportage on public transport.

LuxTurrim5G ecosystem is presented through examples by Sensible 4 and Teleste in the episode “The big transport swap“. The episode also features MaaS Global and its Whim application. Read more on LuxTurrim5G’s website and listen the episode on BBC’s website.

MaaS Global is a pioneer of the transport sector transformation underway in Finland and around the world.

The company’s mobile app Whim, launched in November 2017, has already been used for more than 10 million trips in Finland, Belgium, England and Austria.

Conveniently combining public and private transport options, the Whim app can be used to plan a route, buy tickets for the train, tram and bus, to order a taxi and rent a city bike, electric scooter or a car. Whim offers single ticket purchases and a subscription plan that covers all forms of transport, providing the user with a comprehensive and flexible alternative to owning a car – while also reducing traffic emissions.

Founded in Helsinki in 2015, MaaS Global has attracted substantial international media coverage and received many awards in Finland and abroad. In February 2019, MaaS Global received the Future Unicorn Award for companies with the potential to become the future European Tech giants and to reach a turnover of more than one billion euros. The Whim app has also received recognition for good user experience and design. The company’s CEO Sampo Hietanen is one of the best-known Mobility as a Service (MaaS) influencers in the world.

MaaS attracts international investors

– The MaaS concept had already been discussed in the Finnish transport sector for a long time. In 2014 Sampo Hietanen, the director of Intelligent Transportation Society of Finland at that time, decided to gather different actors to create a business plan and turn the talk into action. Altogether 24 different organizations from both public and private sectors, including the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority HSL, telecom operators, the Finnish Taxi Association and Uber got involved, says Jonna Pöllänen, Head of Early Markets at MaaS Global.

The company born from the initiative was originally called MaaS Finland. The name was changed at the end of 2016 to align with the goal of being a global player. The ambitious startup sparked international interest right from the first funding rounds. In addition to the Finnish company Veho, its investors included French company Transdev, Karsan and Swiftcom from Turkey, and the Japanese giants DENSO, Toyota Financial Services and Aioi Nissay Dowa.

International expansion

MaaS Global is the first company to start building a new mobility ecosystem globally, working with a range of different service providers. Alongside Helsinki, Whim is currently available in Birmingham, Antwerp and Vienna. In 2020, Whim will also be piloted in Tokyo and Singapore.

– The City of Antwerp, for example, is very much involved in supporting the development of MaaS and promoting the birth of a genuine MaaS market. The latest location where Whim was launched is Vienna which currently has five transport services live, whereas Helsinki already has about ten. The market is still in its early stages in Vienna, but the growth curve is going up. The package of transport services enables serving the consumer as well as possible, says Pöllänen.

More resources to drive growth and user experience

On top of entering new markets, MaaS Global seeks to grow in its existing markets, add new services to the Whim app, and to provide a better a user experience for the end user.

– We are also planning to test the Whim roaming model, which combines different countries and cities. The idea is to bring the transport services of the new market to the consumer’s fingertips, ideally in their own currency and without any need for additional registrations or forms of payment. What matters most is that the consumers and users genuinely enjoy the service and see the added value it brings, says Pöllänen.

The investors have strong faith in MaaS Global’s ability to conquer the world. Completed in November 2019, the company’s fourth funding round was worth EUR 29.5 million, bringing the total investment to EUR 53.7 million. BP Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, Mitsubishi Corporation and NordicNinja joined in as new investors.

The global MaaS industry is expected to reach USD 500 billion in revenue by 2030, playing a major role in reducing private car use and cutting emissions in cities. MaaS has already been mentioned as part of the European Commission’s Green Deal program which aims to reduce transport emissions by 90% by 2050.

Interested in developing or using smart mobility solutions in global business operations? Read more about the Smart Mobility Finland program’s innovation funding and internationalization services.

Photo: MaaS Global

Read the original article on Business Finland’s web page.

Virta Ltd. (Liikennevirta Oy) has been ranked as the fastest-growing electric vehicle charging platform in Europe by the Financial Times on their 2020 FT 1000 list. The FT 1000 ranks Europe’s fastest-growing companies annually – Virta’s overall ranking on the list is 179.

The Global EV charging operator Virta – founded in 2013 in Finland, has become the innovation leader of intelligent electric vehicle charging technologies and one of the top players of the industry in Europe. The European electric vehicle market is growing rapidly and Virta is growing five times faster than the general market average.

“The pace of transition from oil to electricity is now accelerating exponentially with digital energy platforms like Virta driving the new energy economy. The growth is currently coming mainly from Europe, in future also from other continents.”, says Jussi Palola, CEO of Virta.

“The FT1000 ranking is a great recognition for the company, communicating that our team is doing the right things. Moreover, it is promoting the cleaner and carbon-free future of mobility and energy.”, Palola continues.

Today, over 300 charging network owners with over 50 different brands from 28 countries are operating their charging services on the Virta platform. Virta has offices in Finland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Sweden.

Virta’s digital energy services allow optimisation of the energy flow of charging stations, avoiding energy peaks and reducing the cost for the end-user. This helps to take the environmental benefits of electric vehicles to the next level by providing flexibility in the energy system.

Two-thirds of today’s global combustion CO2 emissions are produced in the sectors of transportation and energy. Electric vehicles reduce oil-based emissions on a significant scale and play a key role in responding to the global concern of climate change.

Electric vehicles are essential in the energy transformation: the electrification of transportation has a direct impact on the decarbonisation of electricity production. Renewable energy production increases the need for balancing power in the energy systems and electric vehicles are the most essential new source of flexibility.

Read the original news article on Virta’s website.

Series A round investors NordicNinja VC and ITOCHU to support Sensible 4 as they scale to Europe and Asia

Finnish autonomous driving technology pioneer Sensible 4 has raised $7 million in their series A funding round that will see the company market expansion to Europe and Asia. Sensible 4’s first investment round was led by NordicNinja VC, over €100 million Nordic deep tech fund backed by Japanese tech companies and ITOCHU, one of the largest Japanese trading companies.

The Finnish technology startup specializes in autonomous driving software for demanding and harsh weather conditions. Challenging weather and limited sensor visibility have long been a problem for driverless vehicles. The company’s solution — which is first in allowing for self-driving in snow, fog and heavy rain — has attracted growing attention from major automotive players since the startups’ inception in 2017.

“We are very proud to have such strong investors joining Sensible 4 as shareholders. We are still one of the only companies in this field that can drive autonomously in all weather conditions. With the investment, we will be able to develop the technology to a level that allows us to integrate this to commercial use,” says Harri Santamala, co-founder and CEO of Sensible 4.

In 2019, Sensible 4 released the autonomous shuttle bus GACHA in cooperation with Japanese retail company MUJI, which has sparked significant interest in Japan. The company is already one of the most well-known Nordic startups in the country. GACHA has won the “GOOD DESIGN GOLD AWARD” – the number one recognition for design in Japan as well as the prestigious Beazley Designs of the year award in the Transport category at the Design Museum in London. Sensible 4 also won Best startup at the Dubai World Challenge for Self-Driving Transport and collected $1 million in prize money.

The first phase of the investment round before commercial production is now completed. The total round is expected to double and to be completed by the summer. The funding will be used to further develop the software and part will be used to build more GACHA busses, which aims to enter the Japanese and Chinese market at the end of the year.

“The global autonomous driving solutions still struggle to work in particular conditions like heavy snow, fog or typhoons. Sensible 4’s approach based on their long-term research for autonomous driving is totally different from other existing approaches. Their unique technology enables any kind of autonomous vehicle to drive anywhere and anytime. We are so excited to make this dream reality together with the “dream team” of autonomous driving vehicles,” says Tomosaku Sohara, Managing Partners at NordicNinja VC.

“We are very pleased to partner with Sensible 4 which provides with a unique LiDAR-based software built with state-of-the-art sensor fusion technology. Which makes self-driving cars operate safely in all weather conditions. Amidst the rapid advance of the progress and spread of 5G network worldwide, we believe Sensible 4’s self-driving technology will for sure contribute to developing mobility of the future with global auto manufacturers. In addition, we are very happy with the alliance with Sensible 4 and NordicNinja VC since it will also strengthen the close relationship between Itochu and Finland,” says Shunsuke Noda, Chief Digital & Information Officer at Itochu.

Sensible 4’s growth is a result of industry collaboration with top automotive companies as well as funding from European and Finnish governmental grants and loans. “Our Finnish engineering hearts are overwhelmed with the positive feedback we’ve received for our technology from Asia, especially after our cooperation announcements with MUJI and Softbank’s SB Drive. With the investment we will be able to react and build on this interest with a much faster pace,” says Santamala.

Read the original news article on Sensible4’s website.