The way Stratim Founder and CEO Sean Behr sees the future, car-sharing and autonomous-drive vehicles will fill the roads as more people turn to someone else’s car to get around.
The big year he’s focused on is 2019.
“We believe by then, that a good number of autonomous services will be available in a number of cities,” said Behr. “2028 is really the year a large number of people probably have the transportation budgets going to a mobility service.”
Behr’s vision has fueled his company Stratim to be the platform tracking, monitoring and overseeing the maintenance of more than 10,000 vehicles operated by more than 50 mobility services.
San Francisco-based Stratim, which has raised more than $36 million through two rounds of funding, is a peek into the growing world of companies targeting the burgeoning car-sharing and ride-hailing markets.
General Motors’ Maven car-share program is one service using Stratim.
“They use our system to not only monitor their vehicles, but also to get those vehicles repaired so they can go back into usage,” said Behr.
In short, Stratim is the coordinator of when vehicles in ride-hailing fleets need to be gassed up (or recharged), cleaned, or have maintenance performed. It not only alerts the owners of the vehicles it also plans when and where services of vehicles take place.
With Waymo making plans to roll out self-driving minivans to give paying customers rides and GM planning to announce its strategy for autonomous-drive vehicles, it’s clear driverless cars and trucks will soon become a part of everyday traffic.
This is why firms like Stratim are building out the support network for thousands of vehicles expected to be driving without a human behind the steering wheel.
Right now, Stratim is overseeing vehicles in just 20 cities, but as automakers and tech firms expand their fleets and add more self-driving vehicles, Behr expects his company is well positioned to not only know cars need something, but to also make it happen quickly.
“Every minute that a car can’t be used by one of these mobility services is a minute of downtime and a minute of lost money,” he said.
Source: Tech CNBC
As car share fleets grow, Stratim targets managing fleets