Optibus announced it is partnering with Stratio to solve operational and vehicle maintenance challenges in the public transportation industry using artificial intelligence, according to the company's news release. 

The partnership marks the first joint effort between a predictive maintenance company and a planning and operations platform, according to Optibus.

In the UK, a proof of concept study by Stratio estimated that up to 25% of maintenance issues across all systems could be prevented or handled in a more cost-effective way if operators had the technology to predict and mitigate those issues early on. For specific vehicle systems, the estimated percentage of avoidable failures may be as high as 70%. 

“Optibus is excited to partner with Stratio to create more efficient public transportation networks by adding another critical layer of insights to the planning phases. This is a significant step forward in enabling smarter decision-making and building the most comprehensive, end-to-end solution for public transportation operations,” said Amos Haggiag, Optibus CEO and co-founder.

The Optibus-Stratio partnership accelerates the integration of historical data, artificial intelligence, and vehicle health monitoring to offer predictive maintenance solutions that forecast vehicle needs and alert users in advance about when a vehicle may break down or require repair. 

By reducing unplanned downtime and maintenance costs and by extending the vehicle and asset life cycle, operators can save on the cost of emergency repairs, avoid compliance fines, and improve maintenance productivity.

"Stratio is looking forward to collaborating with Optibus to achieve our common objective of increasing the adoption of public transportation, which is a critical move towards a more sustainable future," said Ricardo Margalho, Stratio's CEO and co-founder. "For passengers, the reliability of public transportation is a crucial factor in determining whether or not to use it. By integrating Stratio's complete visibility over the vehicle's condition with Optibus' planning capabilities, we are enabling transport operators to make their service more reliable and, therefore, more attractive," he added.

Optibus’ software is used to plan public transportation for over three billion annual passengers in 2,000 cities across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific.