Vay

Vay is a German mobility company, founded in 2018 by Thomas von der Ohe, Fabrizio Ugo Scelsi, and Bogdan Djukic, that offers a teledriven car rental service. The company has offices in Berlin, Germany, and Portland, Oregon, and has raised over $200 million in funding from investors including Grab, Kinnevik, Coatue, and Atomico. CEO Thomas von der Ohe holds a degree in computer science and entrepreneurship from Stanford University. The founders and their team combine experience from Silicon Valley tech companies like Google and Tesla with European automotive hardware and safety engineering from firms such as Audi and Daimler.

Vay's core product is an on-demand, by-the-minute car rental service that uses remote driving technology, known as teledriving. Customers use the Vay app to request an electric car, which is then remotely driven to their location by a professionally trained "teledriver" situated in a control center. These remote driving stations are equipped with automotive-grade steering wheels, pedals, and multiple screens that provide a 360-degree view of the vehicle's surroundings, along with audio feedback. Upon the car's arrival, the customer takes control and drives it themselves. At the end of the trip, the customer can exit the vehicle, and a teledriver remotely takes over to either park it or deliver it to the next user, eliminating the need for the customer to find parking.

The service launched commercially in Las Vegas, Nevada, in January 2024, initially serving the area around the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) and the Arts District. By June 2024, the service area had expanded to cover all of central Las Vegas, including the Strip, Chinatown, and other districts. Vay was the first company to operate a car without a person inside on public streets in both Europe and the United States. The company's business model includes both a direct-to-consumer (B2C) usage-based pricing structure and a business-to-business (B2B) offering where it licenses its teledriving technology to other companies in sectors like trucking and logistics. Vay has partnered with Kodiak Robotics to integrate its remote driving capabilities with autonomous trucking technology. The company aims to offer a more affordable alternative to traditional ride-hailing services, with costs cited at about half the price.

Keywords: teledriving, remote driving, car rental, mobility as a service, electric vehicles, on-demand transportation, driverless delivery, automotive technology, last-mile delivery, urban mobility, car sharing, teleoperation, B2B logistics, fleet management, autonomous vehicle technology, Las Vegas, Vay, remote-controlled cars, smart mobility, transportation solutions