Assembly of the first two Bluebus Autonom® on the production line of the Bolloré site in Quimper

Villeurbanne, France, January 5th, 2023 – 07:30 am CEST – NAVYA (FR0013018041- Navya), a leader in autonomous mobility systems, and its industrial partner Bluebus, part of the Bolloré Group, have finalized the robotization and automation of two Bluebus Autonom® vehicles and have successfully completed all commissioning tests.

The vehicles, operational for level 4 autonomous driving, will now begin their driving phase on a test track.

This new step marks the achievement of a perfect collaboration between the Navya and Bluebus teams to automate an existing series-produced vehicle. The two teams have demonstrated their ability to work together to produce an industrial production vehicle in a very short time. This step is part of the EFIBA project (Emergence Filière Industrielle Bus Autonome) of the France Relance program.

After only one month of assembly, the Bluebus and Navya teams were able to assemble and integrate all of Navya’s technologies into the Bluebus’ robotic platform for series production.

The Navya technology components integrated in the Bluebus Autonom® include the Navya Pack® sensors set and the Navya Drive® and Navya Operate® software bricks.  The overall design is based on the interaction between the Navya components and the robotic vehicle control (braking, acceleration, steering) developed by Bluebus.

Bluebus Autonom® is the first vehicle to reach level 4 of automation thanks to an inter-system design at the best level of the automotive state of the art and has the safety concepts essential for the deployment of autonomous mobility without an operator on board.

Bluebus Autonom®, driven by the Navya autonomous system, will be series-produced at the Bluebus plant in Quimper on a production line dedicated to autonomous vehicles in compliance with Bluebus’ industrial methods and with high expectations regarding the vehicle’s technical and economic efficiency.

This successful project confirms Navya’s ability to transpose its autonomous mobility technology and systems to any existing mass-produced platform, in partnership with industrial players familiar with the requirements of the automotive industry.

« The assembly of these two vehicles on the production line is the concrete expression of the work we have undertaken on the industrialization of our solutions. After a few weeks of integration of our autonomous driving systems by our teams on the Bluebus assembly lines in Quimper, we have been able to demonstrate that the inter-systems between the Bluebus platform and the Navya autonomous driving systems work perfectly. Our first test drives on the Quimper site allow us to be confident that we will quickly reach our objectives of driving on a test track. »

Olivier Le Cornec, CHIEF TechnologY OFFICER of Navya 

« The completion of these two fully automated industrial prototypes is a great success for Bluebus and Navya and I would like to thank all our teams involved in this forward-looking project. We look forward to mass producing the Bluebus Autonom® in our Quimper plant to diversify our product portfolio and contribute to innovative mobility adapted to the needs of cities and users. The bluebus are also equipped with Blue Solutions’ all-solid batteries, with a total on-board energy of 126 kWh. This is the only all-solid technology in industrial use in the world. »

Richard Bouveret, CEO of Bluebus

The Bluebus vehicules were easily adapted to the needs of an autonomous bus, making the platform usable in both manual and autonomous versions: the prototypes we have developed will also make it possible to build buses that can be retrofitted with autonomous mobility technologies.

In addition, the latest range tests on the Bluebus 6m conducted by UTAC, the market leader in vehicle testing and certification, have validated a record range of 280km*, demonstrating the capacity and reliability of our new bus to meet current and future urban transport needs.

About Bluebus

Created in 2007 in Ergué-Gabéric (Brittany), Bluebus, a Bolloré Group entity, is a French manufacturer of 100% electric buses, available in 6-meter and 12-meter sizes. 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: http://www.navya.tech

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