VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Feb. 15, 2022 – ElectraMeccanica Vehicles Corp. (NASDAQ: SOLO) (“ElectraMeccanica” or the "Company"), a designer and manufacturer of electric vehicles revolutionizing the urban driving experience, today announced a non-binding partnership agreement with Faction Technology, Inc. (“Faction”) to demonstrate a pilot deployment of Faction’s driverless and remote vehicle operation technology on the SOLO EV Platform.
Powered by the patent pending DriveLink™ Platform, Faction is focused on autonomous driving AI that is supported by teleoperation. The AI is task-designed with specific patterning to know when a vehicle needs help from the operator.
Faction plans to utilize the SOLO EVs to test their autonomous driving technology as it relates to micro-logistics and ride-on-demand. A test pilot program is currently underway with customers in both the food delivery and vehicle on demand verticals in which the light electric vehicle is right-sized for delivery and shared mobility.
Post-Covid, food delivery and shared ride services remain in high demand in the United States; however, the nation continues to face driver and chip shortages, which is forcing businesses in these industries to increase costs. Faction’s technology embedded in the already competitive price point of the SOLO EV, will allow consumers to pay a lower cost for these services per mile.
Under the memorandum of understanding, ElectraMeccanica and Faction will work on a best-efforts basis to expand the partnership toward the pilot deployment of a driverless demonstration fleet of up to 24 SOLO EVs over the next 12 months. To-date, 3 SOLO EVs have been delivered to Faction.
“Faction was one of our first customers to receive a SOLO EV for its development fleet, and this partnership represents the next step in our ongoing collaboration,” said Kevin Pavlov, CEO of ElectraMeccanica. “We believe Faction’s technology is essential in the evolution towards full autonomous driving, enabling vehicles to deliver cargo through a combination of autonomy and a remote worker using teleoperations to assist. We look forward to working with the team at Faction to test our vehicle with its technology platform and to promote urban micro delivery.”
Ain McKendrick, Founder and CEO of Faction Technology, added, “We have been impressed with our SOLO EVs and this partnership will help to further expand the future of urban mobility. The SOLO EV is an excellent candidate for Faction’s mission to right-size urban delivery and transportation, well suited for our unique approach to combine driverless technology with lightweight vehicle systems. We are excited to move toward implementing our driverless and remote vehicle operation technology into several SOLO EVs in the coming months so that we can begin real world testing and data collection.”
Read the full press release here.
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