Vay’s Teledriving Technology: A Revolutionary Approach to Driverless Mobility
Vay, a Berlin-based deep technology company, has pioneered a unique approach to driverless mobility through its innovative teledriving technology. Unlike fully autonomous vehicles that rely on complex AI systems, Vay has developed a human-centered remote driving solution that bridges the gap between conventional driving and full autonomy. This revolutionary technology enables professional drivers to remotely operate vehicles from centralized locations, delivering a driverless experience to customers while maintaining human judgment and control. This report explores the distinctive aspects of Vay’s teledriving technology, its implementation, advantages, and potential impact on the future of urban mobility.
The Human-Centered Approach to Driverless Mobility
At the core of Vay’s innovation is its human-centered approach to driverless technology. Unlike companies such as Tesla, Waymo, and other autonomous vehicle developers that focus on replacing human drivers with artificial intelligence, Vay keeps humans in the loop through remote operation. “Our core safety principle is that the human driver can make the decision,” explained Thomas von der Ohe, Vay’s CEO and co-founder, highlighting the fundamental difference in Vay’s approach2. This teledriving concept represents a middle ground between conventional driving and full autonomy, addressing the current limitations of autonomous driving technology.
Vay’s approach acknowledges the significant gap between current AI capabilities and full autonomy, which experts suggest may take another five to ten years to bridge. The teledriving solution effectively addresses this gap today, allowing for immediate deployment of driverless vehicles without waiting for fully autonomous technology to mature3. This pragmatic strategy enables Vay to offer driverless services now rather than in some distant future.
The teledriving system employs professionally trained remote drivers, called “teledrivers,” who operate from specialized control stations. These teledrivers sit at stations equipped with a steering wheel, pedals, and other vehicle controls developed to meet automotive industry standards4. Multiple screens provide the teledriver with a comprehensive view of the vehicle’s surroundings, effectively recreating the visual experience of being inside the car. Road traffic sounds are captured by microphones and transmitted to the teledriver’s headphones, ensuring awareness of auditory cues such as emergency vehicle sirens and other warning signals4. This comprehensive sensory feedback creates an immersive driving experience for the teledriver despite being physically separated from the vehicle.
The Technology Behind Teledriving
Vay’s technical implementation stands out for its innovative use of existing technologies combined in novel ways. The system is built on the NVIDIA DRIVE AGX centralized compute platform, running the NVIDIA DriveOS operating system designed for AI-defined autonomous vehicles1. This powerful computing infrastructure enables the processing of large volumes of camera and other vehicle data in real-time, providing enhanced situational awareness for teledrivers.
Rather than relying on expensive LiDAR systems commonly used in autonomous vehicles, Vay employs more affordable camera technology along with radar and ultrasonic sensors28. This strategic choice significantly reduces hardware costs while maintaining effective environmental perception. The teledriving system processes and transmits high-definition video feeds in real-time, delivering critical situational awareness to the remote driver1.
To ensure reliable and uninterrupted operation, Vay implements multiple redundancies throughout its system. Most notably, the company utilizes multiple cellular networks simultaneously to maintain a consistent connection between the vehicle and the teledriving station412. This redundancy minimizes the risk of communication failures and ensures continuous control even if one network experiences issues.
In the event of an emergency or communication disruption, the vehicle is designed to automatically enter a safe state within milliseconds by coming to a controlled stop in the same lane4. This fail-safe mechanism provides an additional layer of safety beyond the teledriver’s control, addressing potential concerns about remote operation reliability.
A Unique Operational Model
Vay has developed a distinctive operational model that combines elements of ride-hailing, car-sharing, and car rental services. The customer experience begins with ordering a car through Vay’s mobile application. Within minutes, a professionally trained teledriver remotely drives the vehicle to the customer’s location5. Once the car arrives, the customer takes manual control and drives it to their destination just like a conventional vehicle13.
Upon reaching their destination, the customer ends the rental through the app and exits the vehicle without needing to find parking. The teledriver then resumes control remotely and drives the car to its next customer or to a parking location14. This seamless handover process eliminates common pain points of traditional mobility services, such as finding and walking to available vehicles or struggling to find parking in congested urban areas.
This operational model offers a unique combination of convenience and flexibility not found in other mobility services. Unlike traditional car rentals or car-sharing services, customers don’t need to pick up cars from designated rental centers5. Unlike ride-hailing services, customers retain the privacy and control of driving themselves. And unlike personal car ownership, there’s no need to worry about parking, maintenance, or vehicle availability511.
Economic and Practical Advantages
Vay’s teledriving approach offers several significant economic and practical advantages over both conventional driving and fully autonomous vehicles. From a cost perspective, the system doesn’t require the expensive LiDAR sensors typically used in autonomous vehicles, making it comparatively inexpensive to deploy2612. This cost efficiency translates directly to consumer savings, with Vay offering prices at approximately half the cost of traditional ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft2711.
The technology can be deployed immediately in the real world, without requiring the extensive simulation testing essential for autonomous systems2. Vay has already demonstrated the viability of its approach by scaling operations in Las Vegas from two to thirty vehicles in just twelve months, completing 6,000 rides during this period2. This rapid deployment capability gives Vay a significant time-to-market advantage over fully autonomous alternatives.
From an environmental perspective, Vay operates a fully electric fleet that can be highly utilized through dynamic vehicle relocation, reducing carbon emissions as well as air and noise pollution11. The teledriving system enables more efficient fleet management, with vehicles spending less time parked and more time in service, maximizing the utilization of each vehicle11.
For fleet operators, teledriving offers additional benefits including optimized vehicle distribution and cost-effective maintenance11. The ability to remotely relocate vehicles ensures balanced distribution across service areas, while centralized oversight facilitates efficient charging, cleaning, and maintenance operations.
Industry Partnerships and Future Direction
Vay has established strategic partnerships to expand its technology applications beyond its own consumer service. The company has signed deals with French automaker Peugeot and Belgium-based mobility provider Poppy to extend its commercial and business-to-business services7. These partnerships demonstrate industry recognition of teledriving’s potential applications in various mobility segments.
With Peugeot, Vay is testing how an E-308 electric van equipped with teledriving technology could work in real-world commercial scenarios. The partnership with Poppy allows Vay to test its teleoperations technology on an existing mobility fleet7. According to von der Ohe, more high-profile customer announcements are expected in the near future, indicating growing industry interest in the technology7.
Vay’s long-term vision includes a gradual integration of autonomous features alongside teledriving. While maintaining human teledriver control as the foundation, the company plans to introduce autonomous driving functions to the system as they become safe and permitted12. This hybrid approach allows Vay to collect valuable driving data from real-world teledriving operations, which can inform and accelerate the development of autonomous capabilities.
The company envisions a future where remote driving and autonomous driving coexist, reducing the number of parked cars and promoting greener urban spaces4. This pragmatic strategy acknowledges both the current limitations of autonomous technology and its eventual potential, positioning Vay to evolve alongside technological advancements.
Conclusion
Vay’s teledriving technology represents a unique and innovative approach to driverless mobility that distinguishes itself from both conventional driving and fully autonomous vehicles. By keeping humans in the control loop through remote operation, Vay has created a system that offers the benefits of driverless vehicles—door-to-door convenience, reduced parking needs, and efficient fleet utilization—while maintaining the safety advantages of human judgment and control.
The technology’s distinctiveness lies in its pragmatic solution to current technological limitations, its cost-effective implementation without expensive LiDAR sensors, and its ability to be deployed immediately rather than waiting for full autonomy. Vay’s operational model offers an innovative hybrid between ride-hailing and car rental services, providing customers with both convenience and control.
As urban mobility continues to evolve, Vay’s teledriving approach offers a compelling alternative that addresses immediate needs while positioning itself for future integration with autonomous technologies. By bridging the gap between today’s capabilities and tomorrow’s possibilities, Vay has created a unique position in the driverless mobility landscape that merits continued attention as it expands its services and partnerships globally.