Navya and Bluebus achieve a key milestone in the automation of the 6 meter IT3 bus

Villeurbanne, France, October 14th, 2022 – 07h30 CEST – NAVYA (FR0013018041- Navya), an autonomous mobility systems leader, and Bluebus, announce the finalization of a key step in the preparatory stage toward the robotization of two IT3 Bluebus.

After working together for a year to adapt the IT3 platform to the needs of autonomous driving, the two partners have succeeded in creating the whole new architecture with the right level mechanical, electrical and safety features to ensure the automation of the 6 meter long Bluebus.

This is a major step in the integration of Navya’s AD-Pack and its Navya Drive® and Navya Operate® autonomous driving technologies.

In keeping with the project’s roadmap, the two 6 meter long IT3 buses will be ready to undergo the first level 4 autonomous operating trials by the end of November. They will take place at a testing centre that specilizes in urban mobility, initially on a simple, predetermind route, with the aim of achieving speeds of up to 25 km an hour by the end of 2022. This will serve to demonstrate the smooth flow of communication between the Bluebus platform and Navya’s autonomous driving systems.

In light of the technological and industrial progress already achieved, the two partners are looking to bring the Navya Autonom® Bluebus to market, with the first deployments taking place from September 2023.

The Navya Autonom® Bluebus is a veritable hub of technology devoted to the needs of new urban mobility, which at the same time responds to the current market trends of agility, flexibility, high performance, comfort and safety, while being eco-friendly, bridging the manpower shortage gap and ensuring profitability. With its capacity to transport up to 36 passengers, the bus is able to adapt to a large number of use cases in both urban and peri-urban zones, as well as in rural areas and on closed road circuits.

Bluebus believes that that its self-driving bus will represent a major part of its sales from 2025 onwards.

The automation of the IT3 Bluebus by Navya was carried out within the framework of the EFIBA project, in partnership with Bluebus, Keolis and Plastic Omnium, and supported by France Relance.

« Bluebus benefits from 10 years of experience after having covered more than 30 million kilometers in more than 60 communities. This new generation of 6-meter vehicles is still compact, clean, but even more efficient and has a greater capacity (up to 36 passengers), allowing it to travel in hard-to-reach areas, and now has a range of over 200 km. It has the latest innovations and all the options of larger buses (100% pneumatic EBS braking, pneumatic suspension controlling vehicle height, etc.). The other major innovation is that from the design phase of the new 6-meter Bluebus, the engineering teams have developed its platform by integrating a fully robotized version, supporting an autonomous vehicle. We are proud of our collaboration with Navya, with whom we are helping to accelerate the marketing to operators, cities or companies of a complete, technological and innovative solution.»

david guennou, CEO of Bluebus 

« Our collaboration with Bluebus, Keolis and Plastic Omnium within the framework of the EFIBA project is just one part of future mobility. We have surmounted a complex phase of preparation for robotization which few players across the globe are capable of achieving. We are now looking forward to the new step of integrating our AD-Pack . »

olivier le cornec, cto of NAVYA

« Navya and its partners are proud to have created a new type of mobility that our customers and their end users have been waiting for, which is cleaner and more inclusive and which responds to the requirements of the transportation of people and goods. Mobility is part of everyday life for billions of people worldwide, and our autonomous solutions are contributing to getting them moving. This is an essential market where Navya will weigh heavily and enduringly because we work closely with the OEMs on their roadmaps toward automation, because our AD-Packs are available on a large scale, and because we are able to provide related services on a continual basis. »

Sophie Desormière, CEO of navya

About Bluebus

Founded in 2007 in Ergué-Gabéric (Brittany), Bluebus, a Bolloré Group company, is a French manufacturer of 100% electric buses, available in 6-meter and 12-meter versions. These buses are equipped with all-solid batteries produced by Blue Solutions. The Bluebus and Blue Solutions production sites are ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified and have the Origine France Garantie label. The Bluebus range offers zero-emission technology and a silent solution that meets the demand of local authorities and transport operators for clean and sustainable mobility. Today, more than 450 Bluebus electric buses are in operation worldwide

About NAVYA

NAVYA is a leading French company that specializes in the supply of autonomous mobility systems and related services. It was founded in 2014 and has a total of 280 employees in France (Paris and Lyon), in the United States (Michigan) and in Singapore. NAVYA’s aim is to become the benchmark provider of level 4 autonomous mobility systems for the transportation of people and goods. The company achieved a world first when it launched its Autonom® Shuttle for passengers in 2015. Since that year and up until 31 December 2021, more than 200 vehicles were sold in 25 countries. In 2021 Navya launched its industry equivalent, the Autonom® Tract, a tractor for the transportation of goods. The company is firmly and actively committed to CSR, and it was awarded the ISO 9001 certification in September 2021. The Valeo and Keolis groups count among Navya’s historical shareholders.

NAVYA is listed on the Euronext regulated market in Paris (ISIN code: FR0013018041- Navya).

For further information, visit our website: https://navya.tech/fr

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