Elmos ferngesteuerte Autos begannen ihren Dienst auf den Straßen von Helsinki

Estonian company Elmo, the first to put teledriving technology into service in 2022, has expanded to Helsinki. As a result, Finland became the second country in Europe to have teledriving on its streets and roads.

Using teledriving technology on the streets of Helsinki has been approved by Finnish Transport and Communication Agency Traficom based on the permit provided by the Estonian Transport Administration.

“I have always liked Helsinki and its positive attitude towards start-ups. Their openness to innovative technologies is verified by the fact that the largest start-up companies are established in Scandinavia. Their activity is supported on government level, which without a doubt contributes to the success of the companies,” says Elmo’s founder and CEO Enn Laansoo Jr.

Last year, Elmo introduced its teledriving technology on the major international start-up event Slush and simultaneously carried out several successful tests on local roads, which gave the confidence to take teledriving to the streets of Helsinki.

“Elmo brings an interesting addition to the testing of new vehicle-related technology in Finland. This is the first trial of teledriving vehicle in our country. At Traficom, our task is to enable experiments and innovations related to traffic and communication,“ says Reijo Jälkö, the leading expert at the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.

Elmo’s goal is to find a car sharing company in Helsinki who could be provided with a licence for the teledriving technology and offered the teledriving service. Until then, residents of Helsinki can place one-click orders for the delivery of Elmo’s rental cars to their door through Elmo’s app that can be downloaded from the web page elmorent.ee. To deliver a car to the door, Elmo’s certified teledriver will take control of the nearest car through a 4G network and will drive the car to the customer’s door by the time requested.

Elmo currently operates more than 100 electric cars in Estonia, providing delivery of rental cars via teledriving to addresses requested by customers in Tallinn as well as Tartu. Helsinki is now the third city and Finland the second country within the EU to allow teledriving on public roads and in service provision. In parallel, Elmo is in negotiations with several big cities with the goal of launching the teledriving provision in at least three different countries within 2023.

In August and September, Elmo’s focus is on servicing the first pioneer customers and introducing the technology to local car sharing companies, adapting it to Helsinki’s 4G and 5G networks. The gained knowledge helps to improve the next generation of Elmo’s teledriving technology and to help secure the necessary permits for Elmo’s future partners. The more extensive launch of home delivery service is planned in autumn once a local partner has been selected and the summer holiday season has ended.

Last year, Elmo became the world’s first deep-tech company to put road-legal teledriving and teledrivers licenced by the Estonian Transportation Administration into a real-life car sharing service. Elmo’s teledriving technology has been introduced and tested for licencing purposes to customers on the streets of Paris, Munich, Hannover, Zurich, Vienna, Los Angeles and many other big cities.

Elmo is an Estonian company whose main field of activity is the development of innovative deep-tech teledriving technologies (see elmorent.ee) and the provision of an eco-friendly car sharing service. Elmo is the first car rental company in Estonia to be awarded a CSR quality label.

Additional information:
Enn Laansoo, Jr.
CEO
Elmo
enn@elmorent.ee