#CES2023 - HOLON Mover Fills Gap for Autonomous Movers With Mobileye & Beep - MD Marco Kollmeier

Launched at CES, the HOLON autonomous purpose-built mover is designed for public transport, ride-hailing and shuttle services. Marco Kollmeier, Managing Director of HOLON, talked to Auto Futures and highlighted the vehicle features and future aspirations.

HOLON is a new brand from Germany's BENTELER GROUP, with offices in Auburn Hills, Michigan.

"There is a gap in the market. There is a strong demand for autonomous vehicles and autonomous driving in the US, Europe, and all over the world. We saw that there is very little offered in higher volumes for public or private transportation. This is where we come into the game as a whole. We are offering the first automotive-grade mover. It means we offer quality, robustness, performance, comfort and attractiveness at a reasonable price," says Kollmeier.

He says the mover can be used for ride pooling or robotaxis, and campus/airport shuttle services. It could also be used for fixed-route public transportation.

The electric mover with a 110kWh battery pack has a range of about 290 kilometres (180 miles).

The dimensions are 2.79 m high (9.15 ft) and 4.82m long (15.81 ft). The mover is shorter than most minivans (17 feet 5.18 m) and pickup trucks (19.8 feet. 6.04 m). It is slightly longer than the Tesla Model Y 4.75m (15.58 feet).

The mover’s maximum speed is 37 mph.

"It is Class III M2. It will go through the needed certification to get full approval. With our partners, Mobileye and Beep we will also go for certification and approval for autonomous driving," he explains.

The mover is being tested for mass transit in Germany with Hamburg's Hochbah.

He says, designed for autonomous driving, the vehicle will accommodate fifteen passengers- five standing and ten seated.

Keeping an eye on the Passengers

Pininfarina designed the vehicle to be accessible, comfortable and safe. Electric double-wing doors have photo-electric sensors and a ramp that automatically extends for easy access. Wheelchairs are automatically secured.

There is no steering wheel but a joystick is available.

"The mover is Level Four autonomous. We don't have a driver's seat. We don't have a steering wheel. We have a potential interaction with a joystick for a safety assistant. But which is in case I would say potentially not needed. There is a little desk with a joystick in case a safety assistant is needed," says Kollmeier.

Since there is no driver, a camera watches passengers.

"As we do not have a driver. We have interior camera detection for several reasons. It gives security to the passengers in case of misuse. It detects if somebody is sleeping in his seat or maybe he just had a heart attack or something like that." 

He says the mover will deal with interior edge cases differently. It could stop driving when something urgent happens. There could be a voice interaction by a supervisor in the command centre.

Every autonomous mover connects to a command centre. The supervisor oversees what is happening with all the transportation vehicles in the loop.

"We pick the best partners to achieve the best product. We are coming from the automotive side and delivering an automotive rate mover, with all the capabilities for the autonomous system. We partner with Mobileye, an Intel company, one of the best autonomous tech companies. AI is part of our development process. We developed the mover together with Mobileye, which means we have a very high integration of the camera, radar LiDAR and sensors," he says.

He explains companies buy the vehicle and then buy a service agreement with the autonomous stack provider for the over-the-air updates, etc.

Global Roll-out Plans

There is a third side to the rollout triangle. There is the vehicle, there is the stack provider (Mobileye Drive) and there is the deployer like a Beep, says Kollmeier.

"Together with these three partners, we cover all the software, hardware, fleet management operations software for mobility services." 

"We are looking forward to having our first production starting in the US," he says. Then the company plans a global rollout to Europe, Asia and the Middle East.

"For the time being, we are located in Michigan. The manufacturing plant will most likely be at another location. But it's not fixed yet. We expect to decide in mid-2023 which location to manufacture the vehicle in a greenfield plant." 

He adds: "Our target is to go for pigmented thermoplastic bodies. Thermoplastic is a very sustainable technology and easy to maintain.”

He expects vehicle production to start in 2025. After CES, the company will start hiring and then decide on a location.

"We will have industrial scale production, which means we can deliver to higher volumes. We expect pricing to be 30% cheaper than other movers which are handmade and produced in low volumes," predicts Kollmeier.