The Volkswagen Group, Mobileye, and Champion Motors will team up to implement Israel’s first self-driving ride hailing service, or Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS), starting in 2019.

The Volkswagen Group will provide the electric vehicles (EVs), Mobileye will contribute its level-4 AV Kit, which is a sans-driver solution including hardware, driving policy, safety software and map data, as Champion Motors will manage the fleet operations and control center. The three companies will combine mobility platform and services, content and other MaaS tools, for an efficient rider experience in the distribution of MaaS.

Volkswagen, Mobileye and Champion Motors will also be testing the Mobility-as-a-Service model with autonomous electric vehicles, using Israel as a beta testing site starting in early 2019 with the goal to grow mainstream by 2022. “New Mobility in Israel” will start out with a dozen units and eventually expand to hundreds of self-driving electric vehicles.

“We firmly believe that self-driving electric vehicles will offer Israel and cities around the world safe, clean and emission-free mobility, which is accessible and convenient. We are looking forward to this partnership with our local partners Mobileye and Champion Motors from Israel,” said Dr. Herbert Diess, Volkswagen Group’s CEO.