Great to be in Wellington for a couple of days & sharing our Ohmio Lift Autonomous vehicle with the public! Come down for a free test ride!

Great day in Queenstown with the Ohmio Lift AV cruising the streets & offering rides to the public as part of the demonstration aspect of the joint Intelligent Transport Systems New Zealand (ITSNZ) & Ohmio Global AV Forum!

“Imagine an autonomous shuttle from a blind person's perspective: How will an autonomous vehicle know that I am waiting at the bus stop? How will I know that the doors are not closing before I have made my way? How do I know that the vehicle won't leave before me and my dog are adequately seated? Things good bus drivers normally look after. We gave hail, door open, door close, help, start, and stop controls in the hands of the end users”, said Erik van Vulpen of LaTrobe University.

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Ohmio, Think Robotics and Dense Air have partnered to develop and build this cutting-edge system that will provide on demand transport to future residents of Paerata Rise via a smart phone app. Chris Johnston, Executive Director for Paerata Rise says: “Our goal is to be one of the most desirable places to live in Auckland and becoming a Smart Village is an extension of this. It means we are able to offer the utmost connection to our residents through a private network, and the most cutting-edge technologies.” The self-driving shuttle system is a key element to the state-of-the-art lifestyle Paerata Rise will offer residents, as it will improve access between facilities such as park and ride spaces and the Paerata train station which is set to begin development in 2020. “The autonomous vehicle will act as both an autonomous transport vehicle, navigating around a predefined circuit for residents to utilise, and as a platform for other services, such as connectivity to the outside world,” says Ohmio’s Executive Chairman Mohammed Hikmet. “We were able to test, for the first time in New Zealand, our Hail service that allows the autonomous vehicle to pick up passengers on demand. Paerata Rise provided us the right environment to test our technologies and its interaction with the rest of the eco-system elements.”

Today marked a momentous milestone in the history of Ohmio with the delivery of its first Ohmio LIFT vehicle outside of New Zealand. The first Ohmio LIFT vehicle was delivered to Korea via MaaS, Korea. Ohmio Executive Chairman Mohammed Hikmet acknowledged the milestone, while noting that due to Covid-19 restrictions, the team was unable to be present in Korea for the delivery. “It is unfortunate, but we trust that this will be the first of many such sales in Korea and the rest of the world,” he said.

This week Christchurch residents got a chance to try an autonomous shuttle owned by Christchurch Airport during test rides at the Botanic Gardens. There were supervisors on-board and along the short route as the shuttle trundled through the gardens. The airport bought the 15-person New Zealand-built Ohmio LIFT shuttle last year as part of an ongoing autonomous vehicle trial. It has invited members of the public to ride the shuttle before, but the vehicle has mostly been tested on private roads around the airport. Christchurch Airport Chief Executive Malcolm Johns said the shuttle was autonomous, electric and 3D printed and could carry up to 15 people. We believe the potential benefits of autonomous shuttles are exciting and are pleased to be able to put the Smart Shuttle in the centre of the city to continue our learning about people's interactions with an autonomous vehicle, he said. Ohmio Executive Chairman Mohammed Hikmet acknowledged the support of the Christchurch City Council to showcase the technology to residents, and also for a  grant of $50,000 from the Council’s Innovation and Sustainability Fund. Ohmio Chief Executive Dean Zabrieszach said people could be "scared off" by the idea of a vehicle without a steering wheel, “but what we've found is that once people can actually feel it, touch it, have a ride in it, experience it, the feeling changes completely."

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The vehicle, produced by Ohmio, is autonomous, electric and parts of it have been 3D printed. “The Kiwi Smart Shuttle can carry up to 15 adults, so may offer more possible uses for us across our campus in future. In the meantime, we will continue testing and learning to understand its capabilities,” said Christchurch Airport Chief Executive Malcolm Johns. Ohmio Executive Chairman, Mohammed Hikmet said the realisation of the first LIFT represented a real achievement for the company: “It is proof of our capability and realisation of our world-class driverless vehicle technology, pioneered in New Zealand. “We are very excited to partner with Christchurch Airport. Their vision to realise the future allows us to demonstrate Ohmio vehicles successfully operating as a first- and last-mile strategy in the airport context.” Christchurch Airport General Manager Corporate Affairs Michael Singleton, commented: “Our joint fully-autonomous vehicle trial continues, with the Ohmio LIFT proving this country is able to design and construct a vehicle made for our conditions. Collaborating with Ohmio means we have a technology partner and producer which is able to take the learnings from the trial to date and then adapt and enhance the vehicle to New Zealand needs. The focus of the trial remains on autonomy rather than a particular vehicle, and we look forward to continuing to explore how autonomous shuttles might play a part in our future at our airport.” The Kiwi Smart Shuttle will travel on public roads around the airport campus until the end of the week. Passengers can ride for free with collection times outside the terminal at 8:00am, 10:00am, 12:00pm and 2:00pm, running from June 24 to June 28.

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The Ohmio LIFT is a 3D-printed autonomous shuttle built on Ohmio’s innovative “flying carpet” chassis design and incorporates Ohmio and HMI Technologies’ guidance system. HMI and Ohmio Executive Chairman Mohammed Hikmet said the company’s small size has enabled it to be “agile and innovative in design and approach”. “As an example, the Ohmio LIFT is the largest 3D printed vehicle of its kind that we are aware of. It is another demonstration of our focus on doing things in a smart way, and breaking new ground to deliver a truly innovative, scalable and reliable product in the autonomous shuttle market”. The Ohmio LIFT is Ohmio’s flagship autonomous shuttle and is capable of carrying up to 20 passengers. The flying carpet chassis optimises space and adaptability, allowing it to potentially be deployed in a range of ways – including using it as a passenger vehicle, or as a freight vehicle. It can also be easily extended to use more than one vehicle, creating longer vehicles with even greater carrying capacity. Ohmio’s autonomous guidance system is modular and flexible, making it easier to use and adaptable for different purposes, including for use indoors. Routes can be implemented and changed with ease, allowing for more flexible and remote deployment of the vehicle. The level 4+ guidance system can be further developed to incorporate many more innovations. “We envisage these vehicles operating as part of a larger transport ecosystem, where they may need to be easily and remotely redirected to follow different routes. And so, we have designed a control system that is very adaptable and flexible,” said Mr Hikmet. HMI and Ohmio Chief Executive Dean Zabrieszach described the unveiling as “a significant milestone” for the company and “the first step in becoming a major supplier of autonomous shuttles around the world”. The first vehicle will be delivered to Christchurch International Airport. “We thank Christchurch Airport for having faith in Ohmio and enabling us to produce this vehicle for use at the airport. We look forward to expanding upon that faith in the future,” said Mr Zabrieszach.

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Today, Ohmio partnered with SPARK (telecommunications provider) in New Zealand to test 5G communications on a prototype vehicle. This was the first trial of its type in the world, using an Ohmio autonomous shuttle.

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At the launch, Ohmio demonstrated its ability to communicate with traffic signals and to operate in a convoy mode. HMI/Ohmio Executive Chairman, Mohammed Hikmet, said “New Zealand is at the forefront of the transport technology revolution.” After this demonstration, Ohmio aspires to designing and manufacturing vehicles to customer requirements.

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Our business model focuses on the transport ecosystem, the vehicle, the infrastructure and the management of both. We believe that any one of those three items alone cannot deliver a transport solution, so we focus on working on all three aspects.

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