FAU one of the first partners to sign up for uRyde
Making individual commuter traffic more sustainable
The Erlangen-based start-up and FAU spin-off uRyde is now offering an app aimed at optimizing the volume of traffic on German roads. The system combines navigation and ride-sharing functions in order to display and arrange real-time opportunities for sharing a ride. The difference to similar options already available on the market is that rides in a region are limited to a network of fixed partner companies and institutions that are guaranteed to be safe and trustworthy and also have the means to ensure the critical mass of journeys.
In the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, uRyde was launched in the first week of May with major partners such as Siemens, Adidas, Siemens Energy, Siemens Healthineers, the city of Erlangen and FAU.
uRyde does not by any means consider itself in competition to public transport. Quite the opposite, in fact. Although the mobility app offers options such as the shuttle bus systems of Siemens Healthineers, all public transport connections are also integrated.
“Especially when you look at everyday commuter journeys, the majority of vehicles only have on average one person in them,” explains Malte Andree, CEO of CONNECT Mobility GmbH, the company that developed the uRyde app. Basing calculations on an average of 1.2 people per car and public transport running at an average capacity of 22 percent, mobility as it stands at present definitely does seem to have a lot of room for improvement when it comes to efficiency. “We hope to significantly increase the number of occupants in vehicles, thereby increasing mobility whilst reducing traffic on the road,” the founder of the company explains.
The uRyde app combines navigation services with the offer of a ride, making every car available for others in real time. The idea is that car drivers on daily commutes become uRyde drivers, encouraging better use to be made of existing free capacities on the roads. Those offering rides do not incur any additional costs, instead they can cover some of their fuel costs. Those taking a ride pay only a few cents for each kilometer, meaning that the typical short distance journeys within urban regions tend to cost very little.
According to Malte Andree, one advantage of uRyde over other solutions is the approach involving several different partners. As well as being able to cope with the critical mass from the outset, it also encourages networking among employees within a company as well as providing an opportunity for students and employees of other uRyde partners to mix and communicate with each other. The start-up does not focus entirely on ride sharing. It has also integrated the whole of the public transport system in its mobility app.
According to figures from the German Environmental Agency, the transport sector is responsible for almost 20 percent of all CO2 emissions in Germany, with road traffic accounting for a significant portion of 95 percent. Founder Malte Andree believes that the intelligent ride-sharing app uRyde could save 100,000 tonnes of CO2 within a year.
After a successful launch, Malte Andree now hopes to extend the system further. “The Nuremberg Metropolitan Region is just a start. The solution has already been prepared for a global launch, and we are set to roll it out in further European metropolitan regions in a matter of months, based on the same concept as in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region and in close collaboration with companies, cities and universities.’
FAU President Prof. Dr. Joachim Hornegger is one hundred percent behind the concept, “It is great to see innovative spin-offs developing at our FAU, and to experience how our culture of sustainable partnerships is flourishing. Our brave founders are not afraid to take a consequential approach to future-oriented topics, actively implementing change and moving knowledge in the process. We are particularly proud that people at FAU are passionate about taking their scientific findings to find practical solutions to problems.” FAU was keen to sign up as one of the first partners to give students and employees at the university the opportunity to use uRyde.
More than 20 employers are already involved in the concept in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region, including four DAX companies from the region and the two universities. This means that the app is available within the metropolitan region to a total of more than 130,000 people.
Further information
More detailed information about the app and the concept is available on the uRyde website.