Benjamin Baudet, CEO of Beti, reports on the state of play two years on from receiving an award in 2022
Winning a Talent in Mobility Award presented at a leading event like European Mobility Expo is a unique opportunity for an entrepreneur to gain further legitimacy and step up to the next level. Winning a European Talent in Mobility Award in 2022 raised the profile of the mobility projects we design for rural areas with Bertolami and Beti, giving us exposure right across Europe.
It’s at this newfound scale that we’ll be present at the 2024 edition of European Mobility Expo. Our work will be showcased on the MACIF/Automated Vehicle Interest Community stand (Hall 4 – stand 102), offering opportunities for discussions with European stakeholders in the sector about the latest progress in the related expertise, services and technologies. Given the expected visitor numbers, we see this as key to a new stage in our growth.
A career in innovation for rural mobility
Since 2018, Benjamin Beaudet has been putting rural mobility at the heart of the innovative work done by his company, a family-owned SME in the Drôme region of France. It was in September of that year that he began looking at automated mobility and its potential applications in rural areas. He began by seeking an unbiased appraisal of whether automated mobility could be one of the answers to the many mobility challenges faced by such areas. Another reason to conduct experiments and research was to mitigate the effects of the ‘dead zones’ that still exist in mobile phone coverage. Having committed to this initiative with his brothers, since 2020 he has been experimenting with automated transport systems, in particular automated shuttles in the Val de Drôme area, with the aim of confirming technological operability, social acceptability and the existence of business models that could ultimately make the solution replicable for many European territories. One striking finding is the importance of ongoing ties between the areas in question and the history of his 70-year-old company, which has demonstrated that innovation really can happen in less built-up areas through no-nonsense, non-disruptive solutions. Since 2021 Beti and MACIF (another relatively young startup just 61 years old!) have been partners in these projects, now known as Automated Inclusive Mobility Networks (Réseaux Inclusifs de Mobilité Automatisée).
