Irish man (30) to head up major new driverless car initiative

A 30-year-old Irish man has been appointed general manager of a major new driverless car initiative unit from Renault and Nissan.

Tim Arnold, who has been general manager for Mytaxi in Ireland (formerly Hailo) for the past five years, is to take up the role of head of ride hailing with the Renault-Nissan Alliance in the new year. He will be based in Paris.

The alliance and Transdev agreed a deal earlier this year to develop mobility services with fleets of electric driverless vehicles for public and on-demand transportation. The move comes as the carmakers look for new revenues streams as ride-hailing services come to the fore.

Goldman Sachs estimates the ride-hailing market will grow eight-fold by 2030 and could be as much as five times the size of the taxi market.

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The Renault-Nissan Alliance is a strategic partnership between Groupe Renault of France and Japan-based Nissan Motor and Mitsubishi Motors. The carmakers combined sold 9.96 million vehicles in nearly 200 countries in 2016 – more than one in nine vehicles worldwide.

The alliance is one of a number of carmakers to enter the ride-hailing market. Mytaxi, which is itself exploring driverless cars, is ultimately owned by Daimler.

Consistent growth

“I am extremely fortunate to have been with Mytaxi from day one in Ireland. I am immensely proud of what has been achieved by the Irish team in that time to completely change how Ireland gets taxis,” said Mr Arnold.

He is to maintain a non-executive director role with Mytaxi, which has initiated a search for his successor.

"Tim Arnold is leaving Mytaxi having made a significant contribution to both the local business and the wider company," said Jonas Gumny, chief operating officer of Mytaxi. "During his tenure, he and his team have driven consistent growth from the Irish market by offering an industry leading service. We wish him all the best in the future".

Mytaxi, which rebranded from Hailo locally in March, said recently it expects to carry four million people in Ireland during the fourth quarter. This is despite the company being the source of frustration for some users, who have experienced issues during the transition to Mytaxi’s technology platform.

It is Europe’s largest e-hailing company with some 10 million registered users across 70 cities in 11 countries.