At Rebel, we believe that a changing world offers opportunities for addressing societal issues. We therefore advise on and invest in change and innovation: no change without a Rebel! This also applies par excellence for innovative transport solutions. We have been advising on this for years. With the establishment of Rebel Automated Shuttles, we are now also taking the step towards realizing the renewal of last mile transport solutions.
As Rebel Automated Shuttles we ourselves, together with partners such as public transport companies, location owners and content specialists such as Future Mobility Network, initiate these last mile solutions with systems with electric automatic shuttles/minibuses. We invest capital, knowledge and commitment to make these solutions possible. Of course with the prospect of a healthy business case.
There are a few reasons why we believe that a big step and a different approach is needed to provide last mile solutions with autonomous driving shuttles. In recent years, the technology and application of self-driving systems have been rapidly developing and some short-term and small tests have been carried out with automatic shuttles in a closed environment. The technology still needs years of development time to drive safely and fully autonomously. Up to now, it is often governments that drive these test projects, but have no options or are not the right party to move from testing to implementation and especially exploitation; that’s where the market comes in. In addition, the regulations in the Netherlands and abroad are not yet so far that fully automatic driving can be safely permitted. Finally, the suppliers of the shuttles are often parties who have a good grasp of the subject-specific side of the shuttles, but are less well-versed in shaping the right implementation.
And all this lies at the basis of our approach: we start from the so-called “use case”, then look for partners who are willing to invest in the development and only then see which system best suits the solution and in what way. A last mile towards the entrance of an airport is a different use case than the connection to a hospital location. In all cases it is a connection with public transport and we believe in close cooperation with public transport companies.