Going Places: Startups Making Waves In The Transportation Industry

Once this decade is out, the way that we travel may never be the same again. Startups are looking to shake up an industry that hasn’t changed much since the 1950s in new and exciting ways. Here, we’re going to investigate some of the most unusual startups out there, redefining our perception of transport.

Autonomous Taxis – No, Not Uber

nuTonomy is yet another hi-tech MIT spinoff. The company has already brought taxis that drive themselves to the streets of Singapore. And now it wants to massively increase the scale of its operation. Currently, the company has around half a dozen cars. But by the end of 2018, it wants to have more than 100 driverless vehicles cruising around the streets of Singapore.

What’s cool about nuTonomy is just how early they are to market with autonomy. Tesla has said that it won’t have a genuinely autonomous car until at least 2018, probably 2020. Yet this MIT startup has managed it, thanks to some smart planning and testing in Singapore. There are rumors that technology at the company is so good that it will soon begin licensing it out to the bigger players as OEM. Now that would make it a very profitable startup indeed.

Chartered Buses That Are Fun

There’s long been a need for chartered bus trips to be a little more, how do should I put it? Fun.

But amazingly, it’s only recently that startups have started turning buses into luxury shindig pads. The idea is to outfit regular buses and coaches with a bunch of modern conveniences that make journeys much, much better. These buses come equipped with reclining seats, Wi-Fi, and drivers who don’t mind drunk passengers.

Shofur is one company looking to capitalize on this opportunity. It was set up on a $800 budget back in 2012. Now the founders have a bunch of different routes, mainly based in Texas. And they’ve got an online platform that allows their customers to rate drivers. Find out more about Shofur bus company here.

Making Autonomous Fleets Work Together

RideCell is a company we’re probably going to be hearing a lot more about in the future. Why? Because they’re out to solve a big problem with tomorrow’s driverless cars. Right now, most companies are concentrating on making individual cars drive themselves. Just look at the energy nuTonomy is expending. But the problem with this is that companies aren’t thinking about how networks of driverless cars will operate together. Sure, driverless technology will be great as it stands and deliver big improvements in efficiency. But it has the potential to be even more awesome with the addition of coordination and synchronization.

This is where RideCell comes in. They want to create the technology that allows driverless cars to “talk” to one another. The more cars that get onto its platform, the more it’ll be able to save passengers’ time.

RideCell also wants to build systems that will make using driverless easier for customers and businesses. They want to build CRM systems and integrate payments into the vehicles themselves.

Main Image: Wikimedia Commons

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