Addison Lee, the dominant private hire operation in the UK, acquired Tristar Worldwide for £50 million ($ 66 m, € 59 m) creating Europe’s largest executive car service and ensuring a global presence through Tristar’s operations in the US, Asia and continental Europe.

Andy Boland, Addison Lee’s CEO told Private Driver: “This is a major landmark for our business. Coming together with Tristar means our shared ethos and commitment to quality, service and reliability can be expanded globally.”

Tristar’s brand will remain and become the main brand for executive services. It operates the largest executive car fleet in the UK, and has global revenues of £50m ($ 66 m, € 59 m) and more than 450 chauffeurs. Together with Addison Lee’s executive fleet, the combined operation will have almost 1,000 premium vehicles around the world, making it the market leader in the executive car area.

The acquisition fits in well with both companies’ strategy to focus on the premium end of the market. The companies feel there is strong demand for executive car services, particularly on a transatlantic basis, which means the combined business is well positioned for growth.

Addison Lee’s brand will focus on on-demand and private hire operations. The company has also announced plans to establish a full operation in Manchester with 300 cars, and is looking for partners in other cities as it rolls out its app across the UK. “The decision to operate in Manchester has been driven by demand from existing corporate clients,” said Boland.

The app is now live in Edinburgh, Liverpool and Cambridge. “Working with our partners, we will have a presence in 25 UK cities by the end of the year”, Boland added.

The combined Addison Lee-Tristar fleet is Europe’s largest car service operator with more than 5,000 cars, and a team of 800 support staff. Boland commented: “There will be significant growth in the executive car market following the 15% jump in volumes we saw in 2015. With Tristar, we will be able to take our service to the next level and into new markets around the world.”

Tristar Worldwide CEO Dean de Beer told Private Driver: “When we set out to look for a partner with whom we can grow and take our business to the next level, Addison Lee was the obvious choice. I am proud of what we have achieved so far and excited about the next chapter for Tristar.”

• With Tristar Worldwide’s acquisition Addison Lee goes for a worldwide presence. 

At TechCrunch Shanghai, Uber China VP of Operations and Regional General Manager of Central China Kate Wang showed off Uber’s new vision for China — one that includes two new offerings, UberLIFE and Uber + Travel, which will roll out across China this year. With this step Uber is repositioning its app as an all-in-one solution for transport, food and entertainment. Apparently all-in-one apps are what the Chinese market demands.

That’s what WeChat, the hot messaging app that sees 697 million active users worldwide every month, is all about according to TechCrunch. In addition to messaging, the app offers voice and video calling, payments, shopping, games and more. Uber, which has been blocked on WeChat, is taking a page or more from WeChat’s playbook. WeChat is owned by Tencent, which invested in Uber’s biggest rival, Didi Chuxing, previously known as Didi Kuaidi.

In a data-analysis, Uber figured out that people still look at the Uber app for an additional 90 seconds when they’re in the car, so Uber wants to give people more to do when they’re inside the app. With Uber Life, passengers will get served up a digital magazine of sorts to connect them to sports events, art events, plays and other things going on in their local cities. Uber Life is intended to help people “live a better a life” and ultimately spend more time within Uber’s app.

With Uber+Travel, the idea is to connect people to everything they might need while traveling internationally — from boats to air balloons. In a promo video shown at TechCrunch Shanghai, new services like UberBoat and UberBalloon were shown, as well as logos for all of Uber’s partners in local cities.

“This reminds us that Uber is a global service serving global citizens,” Wang said. “It is rooted in each of the cities.” With Uber+Travel, Uber can tap into its network of partners throughout the world to offer more of a seamless travel experience. Last year, Uber filed a patent for something called Uber Travel, which recommends travel itineraries. Wang also spoke about UberPASS, a package of rides that you can buy to use in different cities.

Earlier this month, Uber said it’s on course to become China’s most popular ride service within a year. Uber first entered China about two years ago, while Didi has been operating in China for four years. Since launching in China, Uber’s footprint has expanded from ten to 60 cities. Now, Wang said, Uber’s goal is to transform itself from a player in the car-hailing market “to a commerce service that understands life and a proper life.”

• “Uber is a global service serving global citizens,” Uber China VP of Operations and Regional General Manager of Central China Kate Wang said. Photo: TechCrunch.

Clear message from international conference Taxi & Mobility Update:

“Taxis and PHV must reinvent and serve new business areas”

Even though new taxi and PHV regulation may include a level playing field, it will also provide more space for new forms of mobility like ride hailing. That’s why the taxi and PHV industry must reinvent itself and branch out into other areas.

With a regulatory session moderated by Brussels Mobility Minister Pascal Smet, the presentation of innovations like ‘Mobility as a Service’, a look at long term socio-economic developments and a peek at adjacent business areas, Taxi & Mobility Update 2016 – ‘Solving the Mobility Puzzle’ provided a powerful and concise update of the latest developments. Taxi & Mobility Update returns to Brussels in April 2017.

“Safety and quality are paramount”

Brussels Mobility Minister Pascal Smet is in the last straight line of presenting his ground transportation bill for the Belgian capital. A bill which will undoubtedly give other forms of mobility more (legal) space and demand more innovation of the Brussels taxi sector. Whatever these plans are, Smet insists “Safety and quality will be paramount for any operator.”

Post-Brexit Simon Buggey (Transport for London) may have nothing to fear from ‘Brussels’ anymore, but the new London mayor is worried about the capitals’ air quality. A rapidly growing PHV-fleet (over 100.000) doesn’t exactly help. From 2018 onwards all taxis (25.000) must be electric. What to do?

The EU Commission (Peter Szatmari) is unsure too: apart from giving ‘guidance’ to EU member states how to deal with the ‘collaborative economy’ (banning operators is the last resort), it is running a research project into the taxi, PHV and ‘collaborative’ sector. First indications of changing EU policy can be expected after the summer. The last speaker of the conference, Jean-Charles Simon, presenting his study about large cities, confirmed that proper regulation for every operator is very much needed in these cities.

“Glad to have this overview”

The first three presentations of the conference packed a powerful punch: researcher Swetha Surender (Frost & Sullivan) looked at the next ten years in which we not only will have to deal with autonomous driving, but also with more connectivity (the Internet of Things connecting everything around us) and rapidly changing cognitive and social trends.

Richard Harris (Xerox) and Sampo Hietanen (MaaS Global) sketched the future of networked mobility in which Xerox provides a seamless back office between various (public) transport modes and MaaS strings together various mobility options in one app. Like the Whim app which has just been launched in the Helsinki area. “I had no idea there were so many different developments which are coming right at us”, said one conference attendee. “I’m glad to have this overview.”

More innovation needed: “Uber is not going away”

When it came to innovative systems: Jean Vachon (Taxelco) introduced the zappy ‘green’ Téo system in Montreal, Teemu Sihvola confirmed Helsinki’s Kutsuplus-system is waiting for a new chance and presented Washington DC’s shared ride taxi system Split. Suzanne Hadley (Polis) showed that there is a lot of mileage left in automatic driving before we even get to the autonomous variant. Add to these new variants the need for different vehicles: Levent Erdogan (Karsan) showed it had never given up on a new electric cab (now being developed for London) and showed the Jest-Minibus, eminently suitable for shared taxi services.

James Cooper showed that Uber and other TNC’s are often one step ahead of the traditional taxi and PHV industry and that these trades need to up their game. Earlier lawyer Matt Daus had shown the state of play (in the US) in the hundreds of court cases against the TNC’s. “Uber is not going away, don’t for a moment be fooled into thinking that,” Cooper added, wondering whether the taxi trade has really woken up to the challenge at hand.

New markets

One way the industry is upping its game is by combining many different industry apps and companies in UpTop, the Global Taxi Network, said Oleg Kamberski (IRU), slowly inching towards representing and connecting a sizeable 10% of the world’s taxi industry. The main aggregator now in pole position seems to be Karhoo, introduced by its inventor Daniel Ishag, supplying London, five other large UK cities and soon launching in New York, Singapore and Europe.

The organisers of the conference, Challans & Faber Business Communications in Brussels, had lined up some top speakers from adjacent areas, like Max Zeumer from ‘disruptor’ Flixmobility which has spun a large network of long distance bus-routes across Europe and is now looking into other areas of mobility for ‘the last mile.’ UITP’s Kaan Yildizgoz presented an exciting comparison of taxi data and saw a clear opportunity for cooperation between public transport and taxis in times where the public purse is getting tighter. Finally Corrado Simontacchi showed how business travel is changing: not only the client, but also the traveller needs mobile information. There is (more) room for the taxi industry, but offering a good price is no longer enough. The customer needs service and assistance, plus an efficient and environmentally-friendly service via his smartphone.

Next year Taxi & Mobility Update 2017 will be held in Brussels at the beginning of April 2017. “For the sixth year we will be building a networking platform between the industry and other stakeholders like government institutions, associations, regulators, suppliers and consultants”, says organiser Wim Faber. “We see that this formula works.”

Autonomous Driving advances at fast pace, opening up various revenue streams across industries, discusses a panel debate at Frost & Sullivan’s ‘Intelligent Mobility’ event in London on June 29th.

The mobility industry is at the cusp of realizing the vision of driverless cars and, along with that, accident free transportation. The automation technology roadmaps of 80 percent of the major OEMs are expected to finalised this year. The pace at which connected services, sensoring solutions and the like develop make it safe to assume that full autonomous functionality can be achieved within the next decade. By 2030 the revenue potential is expected to reach $65 billion, making the autonomous market a highly promising field for OEMs, suppliers as well as tech companies.

As part of the Frost & Sullivan industry event ‘Intelligent Mobility’ taking place on the 29^th of June at the Jumeirah Carlton Hotel in London, the panel Autonomous Business Models will provide the stage for a lively discussion on opportunities as well as challenges within the industry. “The most significant challenge autonomous business models have to overcome at this point is a lack of clear regulatory frameworks which outline how these products can be made available to the mass market”, explains Franck Leveque, Frost & Sullivan Partner and Business Unit Leader, who will moderate the panel discussion. While European and US policy makers are stepping up their pace live up to this progress, current test facilities favour countries such as China and Japan. Leveque continues: “The more unified and consistent international regulations will turn out, the better equipped the industry will be to bring forward this disruption. We currently are at the ground zero of the future.”

One of the major benefits arising from autonomous business models may seem a luxury – liberating valuable time passengers will gain. “This obviously is a huge achievement, but autonomous driving actually adds value to society way beyond individual time gains – in an ideal scenario, fully autonomous traffic could reduce accidents by up to 100 percent”, states Mr. Leveque. “But even in a realistic scenario, the majority of the accidents today that occur today due to driver distractions can be addressed by tis technology and that is a strong driving force for its adoption.”

Moreover, autonomous business means of transportation are not limited to the individual passenger car. Trains, buses and taxis will become autonomous, decreasing costs and providing an improved public transportation system. This truly addresses the need for clear, lean and safe transportation, which the growing mega cities strive to achieve. Similarly, Mark Patrick, CTO of Digital Barriers and panelist states: “At Digital Barriers we will focus in on how video in driverless vehicles won’t just be for consumption of media but, more importantly, transmitted for safety and security.  Our demonstration will show how technology designed for military and law enforcement surveillance is able to deliver real time situational awareness for passenger.” Other industry leaders and experts to join the Autonomous Business Models panel discussion are Dr. George Gillespie, OBE, CEO, HORIBA MIRA Ltd, Graham Bradley, Senior Sales Director EMEA and UK Country Manager, Inrix and Iain Forbes, Head of the Centre for Connected.

Besides focusing on autonomous business models, Intelligent Mobility will bring together industry experts on Mega Trends, the future of connectivity, corporate mobility, integrated transport solutions as well as new mobility concepts.

• Autonomous Driving advances at fast pace, opening up various revenue streams across industries, says Frost & Sullivan.

Jeffrey Miller, an associate professor of engineering practice, was a participant in a survey about autonomous driving. He had reservations. The technology to make autonomous cars a reality may be ready, but American drivers don’t seem to be.

From smartphone-addicted teenagers to researchers designing the next generation of self-driving vehicles, there’s a fair amount of skepticism among consumers when it comes to letting go of the wheel and allowing a car to do the driving, several surveys over the last year have found. Even engineers have some qualms.

“I have no problem letting a car take control,” said Jeffrey Miller, an associate professor of engineering practice at the University of Southern California. “But having a car take my kids to school? You’re talking about people who don’t have the ability to take over if something goes wrong. I’m not that comfortable with it.”

That sentiment was echoed in a survey of over 400 respondents by IEEE, the professional engineering organization, that grew out of a round table that Professor Miller took part in. On a scale of 1 to 5 — with “very comfortable” being a 5 — more than two-thirds of the experts in the study said they weren’t ready to have a robotic car play nanny, giving the concept a 3 or lower. Not exactly a ringing endorsement from engineers of the state of the art in self-driving cars.

“It’s not the technology. It’s user acceptance that’s holding us up right now,” Professor Miller said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/17/automobiles/wheels/skeptics-of-self-driving-cars-span-generations.html?em_pos=small&emc=edit_ct_20160616&nl=technology&nl_art=3&nlid=31553297&ref=headline&te=1&_r=0

• Not everyone is equally happy handing over control.