Bestmile, Ottopia to Bring Remote Control Solution to AVs

Bestmile and Ottopia are partnering to deliver a remote-control solution that enables entire fleets for transit or logistics to adapt when remote control is needed, to minimize service disruptions.

“This engagement between Bestmile and Ottopia adds remote vehicle control to the Bestmile mobility platform,” says Roger Lanctot, director of mobility for Strategy Analytics. “This is the crucial ingredient to deliver complete mobility solutions while also enabling expanded testing of autonomous vehicles.”

Teleoperation refers to a human operator providing remote assistance, from a fleet control center for example, to an autonomous vehicle. This meets regulations for safety and eliminates the need and expense of an attendant onboard each vehicle.

“When a teleoperation intervention is needed, it can affect an entire fleet of vehicles that are responding to trip requests and delivering passengers and packages,” said Raphael Gindrat, CEO of Bestmile. “The integration of these two technologies ensures that fleet operations can seamlessly adapt to any situation.”

Ottopia’s teleoperation ensures a high-quality, ultra-secure video link between the vehicle and the teleoperator with minimal network delay and crystal-clear vision. The system can also alert remote operators to routes around unexpected obstacles, which the operator can accept, eliminating the need to take over control of the vehicle at all.

Bestmile’s Fleet Orchestration Platform automates dispatching, ride matching, and routing of autonomous and human-driven fleets, matching vehicles with passengers or packages based on current and historical demand, to provide predictable fleet utilization for operators and service levels for rides and deliveries.

Together, the two solutions enable the smooth automation of fleet operations, from vehicle dispatching to disruption management. Any change is immediately handled and the entire fleet is updated with the latest vehicle availability and locations. Vehicles and missions are automatically redistributed to avoid any further disruptions, and customers are alerted about any changes in their trips or deliveries.