IT 
Pikyrent, Auriga and Politecnico di Milano are testing robo-sharing: a new frontier in urban mobility that combines autonomous driving with car sharing.
Imagine booking a car through an app and, instead of having to walk to find it, watching it arrive autonomously at your chosen pick-up location. And once your journey is over, imagine leaving the car without having to worry about finding a parking space.
This is the vision behind robo-sharing, an innovative shared mobility model currently being tested in Milan by Pikyrent, in collaboration with Auriga and the AIDA research team at Politecnico di Milano.
The goal is to make car sharing more accessible, convenient and efficient by overcoming two of the biggest barriers to using shared vehicles: the distance to the nearest available car and the difficulty of finding parking.
The Real Challenge of Car Sharing? Having a Vehicle Nearby When You Need It.
Analysis conducted through B2-Ride, the technology platform used by Pikyrent to manage its shared mobility services, reveals a significant finding: around 60% of users abandon the rental process after checking the distance to the nearest available vehicle.
Most people are willing to walk between 1 and 5 minutes to reach a shared vehicle. Beyond that distance, the likelihood of using the service drops significantly.
Parking is another major challenge and one of the most frequently reported issues among users.
But what if technology could eliminate both of these obstacles?
How Does Robo-Sharing Work?
The pilot project uses an electric Fiat 500e, equipped with technology that allows the vehicle to move autonomously during pick-up and repositioning operations.
The concept is simple:
- Book your car through the app. The vehicle leaves its designated hub autonomously and makes its way to the agreed pick-up location.
- Take the wheel. Once inside, you drive the car as usual to your destination.
- Let the car take care of parking. At the end of your rental, the vehicle autonomously returns to a designated hub or charging station.
Once successfully tested and validated, this solution could radically transform the car-sharing experience, bringing it closer to a personalised, on-demand mobility service.
Fewer Vehicles, Greater Availability: Smarter, More Sustainable Mobility
Robo-sharing is not simply about introducing autonomous driving into car sharing. It is about rethinking how shared vehicle fleets are distributed and operated across cities.
By integrating autonomous driving technology with digital fleet management platforms, vehicles could reposition themselves according to demand, improving service availability without necessarily increasing the number of cars on the road.
The potential benefits go beyond convenience: greater environmental sustainability, reduced unproductive vehicle time, more efficient use of urban space and improved operational efficiency.
According to estimates from the Connected Vehicle & Mobility Observatory at Politecnico di Milano, the development of autonomous and shared mobility could generate up to €6.1 billion in social benefits in Italy by 2050, helping reduce the number of privately owned vehicles and improve road safety.
Pikyrent Is Looking Ahead to the Future of Shared Mobility
Through this pilot project, Pikyrent reaffirms its commitment to developing innovative solutions that address the real mobility needs of people and cities.
The challenge is not to put more vehicles on the road, but to make existing fleets more accessible, intelligent and efficient.
Robo-sharing represents an important step in this direction: a model that brings together technology, sustainability and ease of use to create a new generation of shared mobility services.
