Shared Mobility is part of the start of the transformation of the automotive industry as a whole and the new mobility industry. Founded in 2020 as a start-up called Faxi, it was acquired by Toyota Financial Services UK for the purposes of its KINTO brand
Shared Mobility’s executive director Senka Aleksić reveals how this Niš-based company will utilise technology to influence the behaviour of drivers and people who travel in order to reduce the number of cars on the streets on a daily basis, as well as how the future of transportation should look.
We would like to wish you a happy birthday and lots of success, and to ask you to tell us something about your company…
Alongside the two brands that it owns, in TOYOTA and LEXUS, over the next three years Toyota will also transition to a third brand, KINTO, with which it will enter the newly emerging area of MaaS (Mobility as a Service) and shift from being a car manufacturer to a provider of mobility, transitioning from an ownership model to a user model.
We are currently working on two in-house applications, Kinto Join and Kinto Ride (in IOS, Android and Web versions), and our ambition is to become Toyota’s Tech Hub and to take over the development of other applications from the KINTO ecosystem. Apps are made according to the B2B model, so we make applications for partner companies that then distribute them further.
You have spent the past three years working committedly to develop technology that protects the environment while making traffic safer and the society we live in more sustainable. What kind of technology is this?
This is patented technology that enables us, in a healthy way, to change people’s habits towards sharing transportation, i.e., we provide companies with the possibility to prevent their employees from cheating and actually reward them when they share transportation. All shared journeys are verified by a combination of GPS and Bluetooth systems on the actual devices.
Sitting alone in a car and driving to work is a luxury and a habit. However, that “freedom” comes at a cost when you realise that thousands of others from your area are doing the same
The more people we manage to “accommodate” in the fewest possible vehicles, the less harmful gases (CO2 and NOx) are emitted into the atmosphere. The system is also smart enough that it recommends people who are going to the same place as clients, with whom they can travel together.
What does it really mean when you say that “through the KINTO Join and Ride applications you promote carpooling and ride hailing, as the most suitable form of transport for modern man in the digital society”?
At KINTO Join we’re fighting to free man from the jaws of his own “freedoms”, which unconsciously enslave him. Sitting alone in a car and driving to work is a luxury and a habit. However, that “freedom” comes at a cost when you realise that thousands of others from your area are doing the same. Then you are all free to get stuck in congestion and idle on the road while spending your own money and releasing toxic gases into the atmosphere.
What if we can influence the behaviour of drivers and people travelling to work or school with the help of technology? What if we succeed in halving the number of cars on the streets during the course of a day by educating and motivating people to share rides or go by bike or on foot? As Werner Herzog said, “The world reveals itself to those who travel on foot”. That is the goal of the KINTO Join team.
KINTO Ride essentially has the same aim: to solve mobility problems with the help of advanced technologies. Imagine being able, with the help of an app, to reserve a ride for your child and send him to a language class, karate practice or any other activity, in complete safety, and without having to get in the car and drive him… That’s a huge saving in terms of energy and time for the parent and means fewer cars on the streets. That idea has also been extended to encompass more target groups and really functions well on several European markets.
