Lack of parking spaces is as unavoidable as it is an annoying part of everyday motorists’ lives in big cities. Since August 2019, the Citymove app developed by ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab has been helping its users to decide whether or not to take their car. A wide range of mobility options – buses, trams, the metro, rental bikes, taxis and ride-hailing cars – can be chosen, booked and paid for via the app. Thanks to Anagog’s AI technology, users can also benefit from additional, personalised offers tailored to their location and behaviour patterns.
Jarmila Plachá, Head of ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab, said: “Our Citymove app is part of the ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab Smart Mobility ecosystem and our main focus is on customers who enjoy the most efficient routes based on their individual preferences and can use additional benefits like parking payments or newly also relevant offers based on their current location.”
As soon as the user has entered the start and destination points of their journey, the free Citymove app calculates the best route and suggests the most suitable means of transport, along with the respective prices and time comparisons. In addition to the services offered by Prague’s transport association DPP (the metro, buses and trams), local trains, taxis and ŠKODA AUTO DigiLab’s shared mobility services (BeRider electric scooters, HoppyGo peer-to-peer car sharing and Uniqway for students), as well as third-party services such as ride-hailing, are all included.
Furthermore, the multi-modal app promises easy and efficient parking in Prague’s city centre: If a user parks in a chargeable zone, for example, Citymove recognises this and provides the option to pay the parking fees immediately via the app, and to extend the parking time later if required. The app includes a map with charging points for electric cars.
What’s new is that the Citymove app now uses artificial intelligence to send offers to customer smartphones via push notifications. The offers are tailored to the respective location, the chosen means of transport and the user behaviour. They can include deals on drinks, snacks or services in the vicinity, fuel or car wash discounts, and much more.
The technology developed by Israeli company Anagog analyses data from smartphone sensors and uses it to create mobility patterns. The app does not collect the data – the required location and activity information remains on the mobile phone, making the solution fully compliant with GDPR rules. ŠKODA AUTO acquired a minority stake in Anagog in July 2018. The start-up was founded in 2010 and specialises in the development of artificial intelligence technologies.
To use the Citymove services, individuals simply need to set up an account once the app (Android or iOS) has been downloaded free of charge. Since its launch in August 2019, the app has already been downloaded 150,000 times, with around 10,000 new users joining every month. More than 10,000 transactions take place every week. In 2020, the Smart City Innovations Institute (SCII) named the app the best project for a city with more than 200,000 inhabitants.
SOURCE: ŠKODA
