According to foreign media reports, the Berlin Transport Company and ViaVan company reached an agreement to dedicate to researching and developing and providing public transportation on-demand service for local passengers. ViaVan was jointly invested by Mercedes-Benz and Via.
The PTS pilot will be launched in spring 2018 and will initially deploy 50 Mercedes cars in the eastern part of central Berlin. Passengers may use an application to call bus system vehicles at a designated site, Accessible. Most of BVG's current sites and new virtual stops will be integrated into the new network of Virtual Destinations for Public Transport stops. In addition, the fleet is expected to expand to 300 cars.Daimler said the Berlin project for the first time will be shared services and local public transport on a large scale closely together.
Each trip begins and ends at the virtual site and can share vehicles with other passengers.The algorithm was created by software expert Via and developed a system that calculates in real time which trips can be scheduled together without detours. The project also developed a special electronic price list, the cost consists of two parts: the basic price plus the fee charged according to the distance, the cost of traditional public transport and taxi costs between the cost of travel booking through the APP, when The final charge will be displayed if no changes have been made to the trip. If a person booked a trip for several passengers, a discounted price is also applicable Mercedes-Benz will initially offer a Mercedes Vito and a Class V 8-box van (Euro 6) , As well as the Mercedes-Benz pure electric version of the B250e Class B. The new pure electric eVito Tourer will join the team starting in the summer of 2018. In addition, the project is also expected to be extended to other parts of Berlin.