Vay is a Berlin-based deep tech scale-up and a member of the EIC Scaling Club's Smart Mobility group. Its team is revolutionizing urban mobility through automotive-grade remote driving technology.
Founded in 2018, this German company is making driverless transportation a reality today by taking a fundamentally different approach than autonomous vehicles – using professionally trained remote drivers, or “teledrivers”, to operate vehicles from afar.
While much of the automotive industry has focused on developing fully autonomous vehicles, Vay has pursued an alternative approach that delivers driverless transportation today. The company's remote driving technology enables professionally trained teledrivers to operate vehicles from a distance, sitting at a teledrive station equipped with a steering wheel, pedals, and other vehicle controls developed to meet automotive industry standards.
The vehicle's surroundings are reproduced via camera sensors and transmitted to screens at the remote driving station, while road traffic sounds are transmitted through microphones to the teledriver's headphones. In addition to a strong focus on safety, the team puts extra weight in targeting the top four causes of fatal urban accidents – speeding, intoxication, distraction, and fatigue – while providing 360-degree blindspot-free vision. In emergency situations, vehicles automatically enter a safe state within milliseconds. Vay follows key automotive standards including ISO 26262 for functional safety and ISO 21434 for cybersecurity, with independent validation from TÜV SÜD.
The market potential is substantial. McKinsey & Company research projects the remote-driving market could reach $42 billion by 2040, with 70% of premium car owners willing to switch brands to access remote driving services. Consumers are ready to pay $53 per hour for such services, with 40% willing to pay up to $72 per hour.
Vay's first commercial application demonstrates this value proposition. Users request an electric vehicle through the Vay app, a teledriver remotely delivers the car to their location within minutes, the user drives themselves to their destination, and upon arrival, another teledriver takes over. The service eliminates parking hassles while offering door-to-door mobility at half the price of ride-hailing services. Beyond consumer mobility, the technology addresses needs across luxury automobiles, commercial logistics, autonomous vehicle development, and public transport.
Vay was founded in 2018 by three entrepreneurs who recognized that Europe's world-leading automotive engineering could be combined with Silicon Valley's software expertise to create a new category in mobility.
Thomas von der Ohe, Co-Founder and CEO, previously worked as a technical program manager at Zoox, the self-driving car startup acquired by Amazon, and helped ship Amazon's first Echo and Tap devices. Thomas was recognized as Founder of the Year 2023 by the German startup federation, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivering the keynote address.
Bogdan Djukic, Co-Founder and VP of Engineering, brings software engineering experience from Microsoft. Fabrizio Ugo Scelsi, Co-Founder and CTO, contributes over 15 years of automotive industry experience, including leading the development of an electric van for Deutsche Post DHL that became one of Germany's most successful electric utility vehicles.
Vay's team of over 150 people combines talent from leading technology companies such as Tesla, Google, Waymo, Zoox, Amazon, and Uber, as well as automotive manufacturers including Audi, BMW, and Daimler.
Vay has achieved groundbreaking milestones demonstrating both technical capability and regulatory progress. In February 2023, the company became the first – and remains the only – company to drive a vehicle without a person inside on public roads in Europe, conducting test drives in Hamburg, Germany after securing regulatory approval.
In January 2024, Vay launched its commercial service in Las Vegas, becoming a pioneer in teledriven cars without safety drivers in the United States. By June 2024, the service had expanded to cover all of central Las Vegas, including the Strip – an area nearly twice the size of San Francisco – and surpassed 7,000 trips, demonstrating strong market demand.
Strategic partnerships validate the technology's versatility. In May 2024, French automotive giant Peugeot partnered with Vay to integrate remote driving into its vehicles for last-mile delivery operations. In February 2025, Vay's technology enabled Belgium's first remote-driven car service at the Port of Antwerp-Bruges, marking the first commercial remote-driving service on European roads.
Vay has raised over $110 million to date, including a $95 million Series B in December 2021 that made it the highest-funded startup in Europe pursuing self-driving car technology. Investors include Kinnevik, Coatue, Eurazeo, Atomico, and Formula 1 World Champion Nico Rosberg.
Vay's founders deliberately chose to build the company in Europe, leveraging the continent's automotive engineering excellence to create technology that can compete globally. The company's mission centers on bringing forward green, sustainable transportation that achieves positive impact on societies – from Europe to the world.
Through its membership in the EIC Scaling Club, Vay continues strengthening connections within Europe's deep tech ecosystem while demonstrating that European innovation can lead global transformation in mobility. With commercial operations proving the technology's viability, strategic partnerships with major manufacturers, and regulatory approvals advancing, Vay represents a tangible mobility solution that works today, while establishing the foundations for future fully-autonomous options.
The EIC Scaling Club is a curated community where 120+ European deep tech scale-ups with the potential to build world-class businesses and solve major global challenges come together with investors, corporate innovators and other industry stakeholders to spur growth.
The top 120+ European deep tech companies will be carefully selected from a pool of high-growth scale-ups that have benefitted from EIC financial schemes, other European and national innovation programmes, and beyond.
The EIC Scaling Club is an EIC-funded initiative run in partnership by Tech Tour, Bpifrance (EuroQuity), Hello Tomorrow, Tech.eu (Webrazzi), EurA and IESE Business School.
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