Mobility of the future
Ridepooling – introducing a new trend
21.07.2023
Digital ways of doing things, sustainability and efficiency are becoming ever more important. No wonder that a new form of mobility is making its way onto the roads: ridepooling. E-driving services like Mobility’s i&any make it possible to share rides, reduce traffic and protect the environment – efficiently and conveniently thanks to algorithms and apps.
We are used to organising everything in our lives with just a few clicks: Buy tickets, inform us, date and chat via the app. Intelligent algorithms suggest trips, products or films that suit us and our habits. What’s more, we’re increasingly reliant on technological innovations to protect the environment and the climate. This also applies to mobility.
Trend: Sharing through technology
New digital mobility concepts fit in with this zeitgeist: Ridepooling services, for example, differ from conventional transport systems through the use of real-time-based communication technology. It’s easy to use via an app and offers flexibility and individuality thanks to smart algorithms. Requests for rides are processed in real time, pooled, and an optimal route for all the passengers compiled within seconds – in contrast to the set departure times and routes of public transport.
Sharing journeys via service is nothing new: music and films are streamed, holiday accommodation, workspaces and clothes are shared. And cars themselves, of course. As Switzerland’s leading car sharing company, Mobility has long been committed to economic and ecological sharing. The population is well aware how the concept works by now. That’s an advantage when it comes to introducing further innovative concepts of that nature.
What is ridepooling, ridehailing, etc.?
Car sharing is established and refers to the shared use of a vehicle by several people at different times. Users drive themselves. Available to them are some 3’000 vehicles stationed at 1500-plus Mobility locations spread across Switzerland. Occupying a variety of categories – large, small, sporty, practical, electric – the vehicles cover a range of demands from Mobility’s customers. Perfect for people who don’t own a car but still want to drive themselves.
Who of Ridesharing speaks, first of all means the well-known carpooling option: A private individual offers to take others along their way – free of charge or for a fee. The driver’s route is non-negotiable. Here, too, there are platforms that mediate such journeys, usually commuting or long-distance journeys.
On-demand mobility is an umbrella term for offers that can be called up via a booking option. What’s special about this is that there are no fixed times or routes. If someone wants to go somewhere, the service will take them. Subcategories of on-demand mobility include ridepooling and ridehailing, two commercial concepts with technological infrastructures involving users being driven to their destination:
Ride-hailing (ride = journey, hail = summon) refers to driving with a taxi or a service such as Uber. The vehicle is occupied solely by the person or persons placing the order at the onset of the ride. The customer determines the start and set-down points and In other words, you can travel from A to B at your own pace. Mobility also has a ridehailing service in its programme: With the “Express Ride” from i&any, you can have your troops picked up and driven exclusively.
In the case of ridepooling. (ride = journey, pool = bundling) vehicles are used by several passengers at the same time. who share all or part of the route. Ridepooling is a commercial service employing professional drivers. April saw Mobility launch its convenient i&any ridepooling service, which offers inexpensive shared rides in Zurich at the weekend.
How it works
Users wishing to get from A to B by means of Mobility’s ridepooling and ridehailing service use the i&any app to book rides in electric vehicles. The service is initially available in Zurich between 6 pm and 4 am, Thursday to Saturday. The employed driver picks up passengers at virtual stops dotted throughout the city. By the way: You don’t need a Mobility subscription or membership. The routes and requests are optimised and coordinated by smart algorithms using artificial intelligence. This helps keep vehicle numbers and travel costs down. What’s more, the system aims to keep empty running and downtime to a minimum. Good for the environment, good for your wallet!
anyone preferring to travel straight to their destination, alone and without anyone else boarding the vehicle along the way, can do so using Express Ride.
All information is available at: www.iandany.ch
Click here for the i&any app in the Apple Store
Click here for the i&any app in the Google Play Store
Conclusion
New, individual and networked forms of mobility such as ridepooling are seen as major mega trends in local transport circles; they are considered an important intermediate step towards autonomous driving. Experts foresee data-driven ridepooling using self-driving vehicles as the perfect combination of private car and public transport, where people travel together with others and yet autonomously and individually. MOIA, a Volkswagen Group company with stations in Berlin and Hamburg, has set itself the goal of developing an autonomous, internationally scalable ridepooling system in Hamburg by around 2025.
But going by the increasing demands from passengers and their usage behaviour, services such as ridepooling are already in the zeitgeist. Studies show that people typically opt for such services of their own volition, as they would have alternatives (unlike in public transport). No wonder: Offers such as i&any, where you share journeys, are practical and protect the environment and your wallet. What’s more, destinations can be reached more directly than by bus or tram. This saves time and having to walk. Why not give these advantages a try soon?