The editor of Shared Mobility met with Mr. Edwin Maria Colella, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Omoove
Omoove has been in the Sharing Mobility Market since 2001 and it offers a full suite of products to meet the needs of the most important national and international Car Sharing service providers. From 2016 Omoove is part of OCTO Telematics, the world’s leading insurance telematics provider, to reinforce its technology leadership and create the only Mobility company with a triple integrated play (insurance Telematics, Fleet Management and Car Sharing) with a unique Mobility As A Service platform in the world.
The interview
Shared Mobility:
How can Omoove’s technology enable Car Share Operators (CSOs) to achieve greater operational efficiency? Edwin Colella:
Omoove solution offers a unique integrated solution for fleet management, car sharing, corporate car sharing and ride sharing operators. Our platform is multimodal, multiuser, multivehicle, and multiengine. In fact, it is Multimodal and Multiuser as it supports all car sharing modalities, including “Station Based”, both “one-way” and “round trip”, and “Free Floating” type service models. This is also available for both public car sharing and corporate car sharing. It is Multivehicle and Multiengine because our on-board devices are ready to be (and currently are) installed on dozens of different types of vehicles (cars, scooters and bicycles), with different engines (combustion, electric and hybrid); they are not invasive and provide for full retrieval of all service relevant data at the end of each vehicle use. The platform dedicated to Car Sharing Operators includes several management consoles for the Operators Teams and Front-End functions for end users: web apps, mobile apps and smart watches apps.
Shared Mobility:
In the wider auto industry, more and more connected services in vehicles are relying on the customer’s smartphone as the hub. Are you seeing a shift away from embedded hardware-heavy, car on-board computer solutions in favor of more hardware-light, smartphone-based access solutions?
Edwin Colella:
This shift is happening as a result of a number of reasons, including the need for simple and reliable solutions that have been requested by the Car Sharing operators. We are innovating on both sides of the user-to vehicle interactions. Our on board devices are much simpler and easier to install than ever, and we can easily integrate third party devices (including OEM factory installed hardware). On the users experience side, Omoove offers an innovative and multidevice Mobile User Experience for both Android and iOS operating systems. Moreover, Omoove, in partnership with OT, launched the “easyOpen” solution at MWC2017. This introduces the use of a smartphone with Near Field Communication (NFC) technology to quickly and safely manage access to vehicles. It enables users to directly interact with the vehicle using their smart device, even if their smartphone is out of range of network coverage or runs out of battery. The service can also be extended to any wearable device equipped with an SE (embedded Secure Element) supporting NFC technology.
Shared Mobility:
How long will it be before CSOs will be offering personalization features (like preferred seating position, music, messages etc.) as soon as the customer steps into the vehicle) as soon as the customer steps into the vehicles?
Edwin Colella:
This is an important trend in the innovation path to enrich consumer experience and differentiate Car Sharing from other mobility services. Frost & Sullivan have analysed data to understand driver behavior and offer personalization features. These features include: Wireless induction EV charging, Rapid EV charging, Automated parking, Semi-autonomous driving, V2V technology to provide increased safety, and Calendar-synchronized personal mobility services. All of these technologies will play a pivotal role in improving the experience offered by vehicle-sharing operators. From a pure solution and technology point of view, we already have the tools to analyse driver behavior and offer a more personalized experience to the end users. These innovations will become more and more prevalent from Q1 2018 onwards.
Shared Mobility:
eCarsharing (using electric vehicles) presents special challenges due to the unpredictability of the state of charge of individual vehicles. Can Omoove’s technology support operators to handle this and help ensure consistent availability of EVs in a shared fleet?
Edwin Colella:
Omoove solutions are currently installed on dozens of different types of electric vehicles. We are also cooperating with national electricity corporation to integrate EV charging stations in key cities will enhance opportunities for CSOs and enable electric vehicle charging solution providers to launch new carsharing operations. Our analytics predictive tools is capable to reduce or eliminate the problem of range deficit in EVs, increasing usage and adoption of EV carsharing.
Shared Mobility:
Carsharing technology is yet to penetrate the emerging markets, where only about 20% of the CSOs have taken up to the technology. Do you see this changing any time soon?
Edwin Colella:
Latest carsharing market research shows that the global carsharing market is expected to grow at a CAGR (2015–2025) of 16.4% from 7.9 million to 36.37 million members by 2025 and more than 427,129 vehicles by 2025. One-way is expected to reach 20.88 million members by 2025, accounting for 57% of the total market. This growth includes emerging markets and will be probably driven by both regulatory changes and new entrepreneurs looking wintering in the shared mobility sector with new and innovative market proposal for consumers and corporations.
Shared Mobility:
What is the thing that excites you most about the carsharing business right now?
Edwin Colella:
The economist Professor Rifkin says that the sharing economy is the future of society. To fully embrace the sharing economy, we will require a new business model also in the mobility sector. Personally, I believe that a new group of visionary entrepreneurs will be attracted by this market and challenges. This will give us the opportunity to pursue our innovative proposition and offer them the right solutions to realize their business models. This is what drives me every day and, being part of this mobility revolution is the most exciting challenge!