Navya SAS, a French start-up that makes driverless buses, yesterday said it plans to launch shuttle services in Kaohsiung next year.
Company executives told a Taipei news conference that they are in talks with the Kaohsiung City Government, hoping to begin trial operation of its ARMA model in the Hamasen (哈瑪星) area during the EcoMobility World Festival in October next year.
ARMA is able to transport up to 15 passengers at a time at speeds up to 45kph, the executives said.
Autonomous vehicles offer a higher frequency of transportation service and can reduce travel time and costs, they said.
Navya has formed a partnership with a local firm, 7starlake Consultant Co Ltd (喜門史塔雷克), to promote and distribute its autonomous vehicles in Taiwan.
The Taiwanese firm also supplies computer systems to Navya.
“We need local partners to work on negotiations with local governments, as restrictions are different [in different countries],” Navya vice president Henri Coron said on the sidelines of the news conference.
At present, autonomous cars are not allowed on Taiwan’s streets.
“We are now planning to first promote driverless cars in industrial parks or airports to comply with legal requirements,” 7starlake general manager Martin Ting (丁彥允) told reporters.
Navya is considering introducing its autonomous buses to companies at Taichung Gateway Park (水湳經貿園區) and the Taoyuan Aerotropolis (桃園航空城), Ting said.
Driverless cars can provide low-cost shuttle services for commuters who work in industrial parks or airports, as vehicles equipped with artificial intelligence are able to detect obstacles on roads and determine the best routes to take, he said.
The two-year-old Navya develops driverless electric and robotic vehicles with the aim of optimizing travel on private sites, including urban areas, industrial sites and airports, the company’s Web site says.
Navya raised US$34 million in fresh funds in October, with the capital coming from two strategic partners: automotive parts group Valeo and public transportation provider Keolis.
It has launched shuttle services in France and Australia.
The US dollar was trading at NT$29.7 at 10am today on the Taipei Foreign Exchange, as the New Taiwan dollar gained NT$1.364 from the previous close last week. The NT dollar continued to rise today, after surging 3.07 percent on Friday. After opening at NT$30.91, the NT dollar gained more than NT$1 in just 15 minutes, briefly passing the NT$30 mark. Before the US Department of the Treasury's semi-annual currency report came out, expectations that the NT dollar would keep rising were already building. The NT dollar on Friday closed at NT$31.064, up by NT$0.953 — a 3.07 percent single-day gain. Today,
‘SHORT TERM’: The local currency would likely remain strong in the near term, driven by anticipated US trade pressure, capital inflows and expectations of a US Fed rate cut The US dollar is expected to fall below NT$30 in the near term, as traders anticipate increased pressure from Washington for Taiwan to allow the New Taiwan dollar to appreciate, Cathay United Bank (國泰世華銀行) chief economist Lin Chi-chao (林啟超) said. Following a sharp drop in the greenback against the NT dollar on Friday, Lin told the Central News Agency that the local currency is likely to remain strong in the short term, driven in part by market psychology surrounding anticipated US policy pressure. On Friday, the US dollar fell NT$0.953, or 3.07 percent, closing at NT$31.064 — its lowest level since Jan.
Hong Kong authorities ramped up sales of the local dollar as the greenback’s slide threatened the foreign-exchange peg. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) sold a record HK$60.5 billion (US$7.8 billion) of the city’s currency, according to an alert sent on its Bloomberg page yesterday in Asia, after it tested the upper end of its trading band. That added to the HK$56.1 billion of sales versus the greenback since Friday. The rapid intervention signals efforts from the city’s authorities to limit the local currency’s moves within its HK$7.75 to HK$7.85 per US dollar trading band. Heavy sales of the local dollar by
The Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) yesterday met with some of the nation’s largest insurance companies as a skyrocketing New Taiwan dollar piles pressure on their hundreds of billions of dollars in US bond investments. The commission has asked some life insurance firms, among the biggest Asian holders of US debt, to discuss how the rapidly strengthening NT dollar has impacted their operations, people familiar with the matter said. The meeting took place as the NT dollar jumped as much as 5 percent yesterday, its biggest intraday gain in more than three decades. The local currency surged as exporters rushed to
RSS