Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
1–10 of 19 posts
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#2Idk I see the Moia shuttles all over the place, but have rarely seen a passenger in them, though I know someone who knows someone who's used them. I guess they're driving around algorithmically to reach every point in short time, while at the same time not having to use parking lots (which are non-existant anyway) and parking areas reserved and financed by proper taxies/cabs.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#3Idk I see the Moia shuttles all over the place, but have rarely seen a passenger in them, though I know someone who knows someone who's used them. I guess they're driving around algorithmically to reach every point in short time, while at the same time not having to use parking lots (which are non-existant anyway) and parking areas reserved and financed by proper taxies/cabs.
I used them to get to the airport and back once. Pricing was ok (probably around two thirds of a cab for a single person, but for more persons the ratio gets worse).
On the way back it took twice as long though since the driver went back to the airport to get another passenger when we were already half way home.
The software worked fine.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#4Idk I see the Moia shuttles all over the place, but have rarely seen a passenger in them, though I know someone who knows someone who's used them. I guess they're driving around algorithmically to reach every point in short time, while at the same time not having to use parking lots (which are non-existant anyway) and parking areas reserved and financed by proper taxies/cabs.
I've used them about a handful of times by now. Only once was I the sole occupant, and in that case it already had another pickup lined up after my stop.
I don't really pay them much attention in traffic, but from my very limited experiences in them, utilisation does not seem too bad.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#5I heard they are using quantum computing for the routing. Will be interesting to see if they open-source the code, and how much time and money they save with the new techniques.
https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2018/11/intelli...
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#6I heard they are using quantum computing for the routing. Will be interesting to see if they open-source the code, and how much time and money they save with the new techniques. https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2018/11/intelli...
I actually had a longer talk with a guy from Fujitsu, who was working in their Quantum computing division. He said one of the bigger problems with out autonomous driving ideas, is actually the routing and the huge inter dependencies it creates-- ideally, routes will be planned by taking other commuters routes into account (ie. self regulating traffic flows). That is, from what I understood, an area where quantum computing can really excel within the currently known limits/possibilities.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#7This is wonderful. The zone covered by the MOIA service is restricted by the number of vehicles they have available, and I live a couple of Km outside.
For non German speakers, the taxi unions sued to restrict either zone, or number of vehicles back in April and won.
This article is about that being overturned by a higher court and allowing MOIA to extend the fleet from 200 to 1000 vehicles.
There's a paragraph in the article dedicated to "massive criticism from the taxi drivers" where the chairman of the Hamburg Taxi association says:
> ...The aim of the VW subsidiary Moia is to replace as much of today's public transport by private offers...
That implies that he thinks Taxis are a public transport, but of course, they aren't. Taxis have no affiliation with the city to my knowledge, save for some regulation.
Hamburg has an excellent multi-line metro network carrying millions of passengers per day and taxis are prohibitively expensive here. A taxi from my place to the airport, a < 10 minute drive is easily over 30 EUR, with MOIA (if serviced) it would be something like 85% cheaper.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#8I heard they are using quantum computing for the routing. Will be interesting to see if they open-source the code, and how much time and money they save with the new techniques. https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2018/11/intelli...
I wasn't even aware that quantum computing was available commercially.
Apparently they are using a quantum computer-backed cloud service from D-Wave.
https://www.volkswagenag.com/en/news/stories/2018/06/avoidin...
https://www.dwavesys.com/take-leap
Has anyone some experience working on it?
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#9Idk I see the Moia shuttles all over the place, but have rarely seen a passenger in them, though I know someone who knows someone who's used them. I guess they're driving around algorithmically to reach every point in short time, while at the same time not having to use parking lots (which are non-existant anyway) and parking areas reserved and financed by proper taxies/cabs.
I used them to get to the airport and back once. Pricing was ok (probably around two thirds of a cab for a single person, but for more persons the ratio gets worse). On the way back it took twice as long though since the driver went back to the airport to get another passenger when we were already half way home. The software worked fine.
Route planning is a very hard problem I came to realize having faced it at picking in warehouses and route planning for bus charter company, imagine MOIA for travelling groups.
It gets easier with volume so due to density. Getting to that critical volume is business wise the first trick. And in cities you have competition by Taxis, Uber, Lyft and public transport running on a schedule. Especially your last example shows a critical point: people complain about busses, subways and so being 5 minutes late. And than you have the total unpredictability, as of now, for providers like MOIA.
Re: Volkswagen backed shuttle service will grow in Hamburg
#10So, it's driverless or what? I have no translate button in Firefox... Is it like Uber?