How many hours per day do you use your car? Most probably not more than 1 or 2 hours. The rest of the day it just stands there, taking not only space, but also a lot of your money. Eindhoven’s startup Amber Mobility is developing a car sharing platform that should solve this problem. With this service, owning a car might become something of the past. Last week at Hightech XL Demoday, the Eindhoven startup unveiled their electric car, the Amber One.
Order a car by smartphone
The Amber One is an electronic car that can be ordered whenever and wherever you need it. That is, the company guarantees that there will be a car available within half an hour, and the maximum walking distance from your location is 30 minutes. With your smartphone you can preset your preferences, that will be automatically transferred to the car. You don’t even have to return the car to the same place, you can just leave it at the location you arrived at.
Freedom without financial burdens
Many people own a car, while using it only occasionally. Yet the owner pays a lot of money every month. That could be more efficient, and this is where Amber One comes in. The company offers a so-called guaranteed mobility service: the car is available for you at any time, and at any desired location. This way, Amber One offers you the freedom of going somewhere with a car, but without the responsibility and burdens of ownership.
The car and its possibilities
The Amber One is an electric vehicle. Its use is not limited to small distances within the city, we can use the car for distances up to 400 kilometers. We can even use it to drive on highways, as it has a maximum speed of 150 kilometers per hour. The design of the car is modular, which makes it very easy to upgrade the car to the newest technologies.
Available in Eindhoven first
Amber One is a concept of Amber Mobility and part of the HighTechXL Fall 2016 accelerator programme. Amber Mobility will be testing the new cars at the end of 2016, together with its partners Athlon and ABN Amro. The plan is that the first cars will be available in 2018 in Eindhoven. From there they want to expand to other cities and even to other countries. The car is available for employees of corporate clients only, and a subscription will cost 33 euro per week.
Freedom or burden?
“Freedom and flexibility far beyond owning a car”, that is what Amber Mobility promises us. But is it really the same kind of freedom and flexibility as having our own car? We still have to order it, and at times, we might even have to walk 25 minutes to get it. That requires a certain flexibility of the user. On the other hand, if it really takes away a heavy burden, maybe that is not so bad after all.
