We drove via Berlin with a distant -controlled Ev. Is that the way forward for the automotive in widespread?

“Hello, I will be your driver for today,” says Bartek Szurgot, software engineer at German Startup Vay and my chauffeur for this trip. He triggers the handbrake and gently squeezes the accelerator and the new Kia Niro EV, in which I am slowly sitting out of the parking lot.

As we approach the first intersection, Bartek turns, the steering wheel turns, makes its observations and drives onto a busy road near the center of Berlin. So far pretty standard – except a big difference.

Bartek is not in the car. He is a few blocks away in an office and controls the vehicle like a high-tech puppeteer.

Remote controls like Bartek Vay's car command From a video game style Station with a driver's seat, steering wheel, pedals and three monitors who are visible in front of the car and the side.

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Road traffic noises such as emergency vehicle sirens and other warning signals are transferred to the headphones of the teledride via microphones. The operators could sit on the other side of the world.

Vay has developed a proprietary hardware and software system called “Drive-by-Wire” that communicates with the most important controls of the car, including steering wheel, brakes and gear slid. Electrical signals that are transmitted by the remote control indicate what to do, so that the car can reflect the long -distance drivers' actions in real time.

Redundant mobile networks Transfer the data. In the event of a network failure or an emergency, the vehicle automatically comes to a safe stop.

The remote Vay drivers spend most of the time to deliver customers who welcome the cars in an app. After the car arrives, users take the wheel and ride themselves.

Teledribers check the cars from remote locations. Credit: Siôn speed

Customers can use the car for a short trip, hours, days or even longer. As soon as you are finished, keep the car safely on the street, apply the handbrake, get out and continue your day. Then a remote commissioner takes over again and drives to the next customer.

As everyone who is familiar with autonomous vehicles, it takes some getting used to that driving itself get used to watching a car driving. Knowing that my “driver” was blocked, steered screens and sensors and felt surreal. But as soon as you have got used to it, the journey is almost disappointingly normal – I assume that is the point.

Vay's technology is undoubtedly impressive, but in Europe the supervisory authorities can strangle its potential before it is ever scaled. Meanwhile, Vay accelerates over the Atlantic.

Vay already has A 40-person fleet of remote-controlled cars in Las Vegas. In Berlin and all over Europe, however, progress was slower, without any commercial service.

Due to the regulatory bureaucracy, Vay is only limited to test drives and is necessary to keep a safety driver on board. However, it received an exception beforehand. In 2023 it used such a supervisory authority pass to be the first company to operate a car on a European public road without one person inside.

However, the German government hands over economical. So I couldn't take the wheel on our test drive. That was Graemes job, our security driver for the trip. Nevertheless, it gave me a fixed idea of ​​what to expect.

Cameras are attached to Vay's cars. Credit: Siôn speed

The future of the car sharing?

When I heard from Vay's remote driving concept for the first time a few years ago, I was skeptical. The company has advertised the advantages: less trouble, cheaper tariffs, better working conditions for employees. But it seemed to be a business model that had the risk of fitting in irrelevation as soon as self -driving cars went the mainstream.

But if I was fixed on the other hand and full autonomy on the other side, I may have overlooked that Vay did something else.

“We create a completely new category of mobility,” Thomas von der Ohe, CEO of Vay And co -founder tells me about the headquarters of the company in Berlin. After years He returned to Europe in the self -driving cars of the Bay Area Building and founded Vay in 2018 alongside Fabrizio Scelsi and Bogdan Djukic.

Vay's trips in Las Vegas cost about half as much as Uber. From the OHE says that they keep prices low by reducing the cost of driver working costs. With travel services it is a driver, a car. However, a single Vay driver can monitor up to 10 vehicles on a certain day. If you drop a car with a customer, the drivers can “teleport” and get control of another vehicle.

Vay could offer a taxi-style service in which passengers drive in the back, but that would reduce profits and increase prices. That is why it makes the business sense to do the customer, says von der Ohe.

Vay aims not at hailing the greatest influence on the caressing and renting cars. According to the OHE, the company can help the average car rental prices in Germany at the same time with the rental companies to reduce costs by reducing the need for large parking, especially at busy airports.

Vay also hopes to offer a better version of the car healing. Customers do not have to pick up their cars or park – big problems in dense European cities. Fleet owners can keep the vehicles in use for longer, and the OHE believes that the model could even reduce ownership in urban areas in urban areas.

All of this ensures a convincing promise of value. So far, Vay has collected $ 150 million in funds, including € 34 million ($ 37 million) from The European investment bank.

But there are still many potholes on the street. Outside of Las Vegas, Vay is still unproven – and the regulatory bureaucracy doesn't make it easier.

In Europe, the governments have slowly adopted rules for cars driven from afar. At the moment, the vehicles are subject to the same guidelines as autonomous vehicles – which are at best stained.

“We have the technology, it works, it could be anywhere in Berlin and Europe,” says von der Ohe. “But politics stands in the way, there is no consensus. It's just so strange.”

But Vay accelerates over the pond. The company has over 10,000 trips to Vegas and completed Plans to scale his fleet of remote -controlled Kia Niros to 100 this year.

Vay recently secured a new production facility in Vegas, in which the cars will retrofit with its drive-by-wire system and a relatively inexpensive set of cameras. In order to finance the expansion, the company also hits another round of financing, says von der Ohe.

After my test drive, I called an Uber to take myself to Berlin Brandenburg Airport. When it rolled up, I couldn't help but wish that it was empty – just waiting for me to get in and take the bike. Maybe one day. But if I want this future, I have to book a ticket to Vegas.