Arcimoto Announces Development of Driverless EVs for Tourism Rentals with Faction and GoCar Tours
EUGENE, Ore., Dec. 13, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Arcimoto, Inc.® (NASDAQ: FUV), makers of rightsized, outrageously fun, ultra-efficient electric vehicles, today announced a partnership with Faction Technology, Inc. and GoCar Tours, Inc. to develop up to 310 driverless electric vehicles, powered by Faction’s DriveLink® and TeleAssist® technologies and GoCar’s patented GoCar Network technology, which allows users to explore select cities on their own schedule at their own pace.
The partnership calls for an initial 20-vehicle pilot program to begin at GoCar Tours Las Vegas in 2023. Upon successful completion of the pilot, GoCar will begin a phased deployment of up to an additional 290 vehicles to GoCar locations in Las Vegas, San Francisco, and San Diego, Calif., and later in Barcelona, Spain.
“This is a confluence of three cutting-edge technologies: the rightsized Arcimoto electric vehicle architecture, Faction’s driverless technology, and GoCar’s award-winning GPS-guided tours,” said Jesse Fittipaldi, Arcimoto Interim CEO. “Building on GoCar’s proven business model, we believe this is a perfect fit for the sustainable tourism industry today, and will be a key step in our plans to deploy driverless FUVs for everyday transportation in the future.”
The cure for the common tour, GoCar’s storytelling cars allows users to explore the city on their own schedule at their own pace. The GoCar mobile tour guide, the world’s first GPS-guided tour, gives directions, cracks jokes, recommends restaurants, and tells the legendary stories that bring each city to life.
“This is an incredible innovation on so many levels, dramatically improving our customer rental experience while driving down the cost of fleet operations,” said Nathan Withrington, Founder of GoCar Tours. “I love that a customer will be able to reserve a GoCar, it will driverlessly arrive at their location, they get in and take the controls, getting the same award-winning GoCar experience, stopping wherever they like when they like. And then, when they head back to their hotels, the Arcimoto will driverlessly return to GoCar. It’s magic.”
Faction’s DriveLink® and TeleAssist® technologies will enable GoCar EVs to combine autonomy with remote human teleoperation. Faction’s technology architecture is designed with driverless systems in mind, which allows it to incorporate new technology radically faster than legacy vehicle platforms. It partners with innovative companies to develop sophisticated teleoperation abilities, precise vehicle positioning, hazard recognition, and vehicle design to accommodate the 90 percent of urban trips that consist of one passenger traveling a few miles.
“This is an exciting use case for Faction’s driverless technology, bringing customers a world-class tourism and driving experience right to their hotels,” said Faction CEO, Ain McKendrick. “Exploring a new city at your own pace with your friends in a fleet of FUVs is far more enticing than any oversized, gas-powered tour bus will ever be, with the added convenience that customers won’t have to wait in lines to pick up or return the vehicle. That’s where Faction has you covered.”
For more information on Faction’s driverless technology, visit Faction.us. To book your GoCar Tour, visit GoCarTours.com
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About Arcimoto
Arcimoto is a pioneer in the design and manufacture of rightsized, ultra-efficient, incredibly fun electric vehicles for everyday mobility. Built on the revolutionary three-wheel Arcimoto Platform, our vehicles are purpose-built for daily driving, local delivery, and emergency response, all at a fraction of the cost and environmental impact of traditional gas-powered vehicles. Based in Eugene, Oregon, the Arcimoto team is dedicated to creating world-class EVs that make the world a better place. For more information, please visit Arcimoto.com.
About GoCar Tours
The world's first GPS-guided tour takes tourists on one-of-a-kind adventures through the streets of some of the world's most amazing cities. GoCar’s custom-designed tours guide users to a city's most iconic landmarks, wheeling through colorful, vibrant neighborhoods and past sweeping vistas while providing audio commentary on the rich histories that live around every corner. Conceived, developed and created by Nathan Withrington and Alasdair Clements, the first GoCar tour service launched in San Francisco in 2004. GoCar Tours has since expanded with operations and licensees located in: San Diego, CA; Monterey, CA; Barcelona, Spain; Lisbon, Portugal; and Porto, Portugal.
About Faction
Faction Technology, Inc. is a Silicon Valley startup that develops driverless solutions based on light electric vehicles. Founded in February 2020, Faction is on a mission to revolutionize micro-logistics and vehicle-on-demand. The company believes the future of sustainable transportation is to develop driverless vehicles that are safe, cost-effective, and right-sized to serve a range of use cases for both business and passenger transportation needs. For more information visit www.faction.us
Safe Harbor / Forward-Looking Statements
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations, and assumptions contained in this press release are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, statements that express our intentions, beliefs, expectations, strategies, predictions, or any other statements relating to our future activities or other future events or conditions. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, and projections about our business based, in part, on assumptions made by management. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that are difficult to predict and include, without limitation, our expectations as to product deliveries, the establishment of our service and delivery network, and our expected rate of production. Therefore, actual outcomes and results may, and are likely to, differ materially from what is expressed or forecasted in the forward-looking statements due to numerous factors discussed from time to time in documents which we file with the SEC. In addition, such statements could be affected by risks and uncertainties related to, among other things: our ability to manage the distribution channels for our products, including our ability to successfully implement our rental strategy, direct to consumer distribution strategy and any additional distribution strategies we may deem appropriate; our ability to design, manufacture and market vehicle models within projected timeframes given that a vehicle consists of several thousand unique items and we can only go as fast as the slowest item; our inexperience to date in manufacturing vehicles at the high volumes that we anticipate; our ability to maintain quality control over our vehicles and avoid material vehicle recalls; the number of reservations and cancellations for our vehicles and our ability to deliver on those reservations; unforeseen or recurring operational problems at our facility, or a catastrophic loss of our manufacturing facility; our dependence on our suppliers; changes in consumer demand for, and acceptance of, our products: changes in the competitive environment, including adoption of technologies and products that compete with our products; the overall strength and stability of general economic conditions and of the automotive industry more specifically; changes in laws or regulations governing our business and operations; costs and risks associated with potential litigation; and other risks described from time to time in periodic and current reports that we file with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made, and except as may be required under applicable securities laws, we do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.
Public Relations Contact:
Megan Kathman
(651) 785-3212
pr@arcimoto.com
Investor Relations Contact:
investor@arcimoto.com
Arcimoto Rental Partnerships
Sam Fittipaldi
samf@arcimoto.com
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d22adee8-6343-448c-b6d3-674007ec85f5
