Dromos wants to replace public transportation as we know it and revolutionize commuter traffic with robotaxis and air drones. Putting the fun back into urban mobility is the mandate the Munich startup has given itself. Find out more in our seven questions.
1. Who are you and what do you do? Please briefly introduce yourselves and your startup!
We — Lars Herold, Antje Völker and Martin Dürr — already worked together two decades ago and spent a long time thinking about one thing: While we might talk about robotaxis and air drones, no one is developing an effective concept for high-density commuter traffic in cities around the world.
That was how Dromos originated. Dromos develops, builds and manages the ideal solution for urban traffic in the 21st century: Individual vehicles for one to two people will revolutionize urban mobility by being on-demand around the clock, autonomous and immune to traffic jams, making them faster than any subway. Their construction and operating costs will be roughly half of what is necessary for established transportation systems.
Doing away with combustion engines will also reduce emissions and noise; short construction times and a limited number of infrastructure projects make Dromos attractive to city planners as well. With its consortium partners from the automotive industry and the sphere of infrastructure, Dromos will make urban mobility fun again — both for city administrations and end customers.
“Don’t adopt old paradigms”
2. But that’s already been done!
Subways and suburban railways have obviously been around for more than 100 years. And that’s exactly the problem: Nothing has changed in the area for ages. We offer fast transportation 24/7, on-demand and in a private setting for the same price as a short trip with public transportation — that’s completely new! Cities are happy about it too: It will cut construction and operating costs in half, cut the amount of space needed in half and improve air quality thanks to electric propulsion.
3. What are the three main ingredients in your recipe for success?
a. Experience and knowledge about what’s actually necessary for urban mobility
b. Rethinking everything — not adopting any old paradigms.
c. Integrating cutting-edge technology from the best vendors
The demand is global
4. Now let’s get down to the nitty-gritty: How is business going?
We plan to open our first pilot facility in 2020 and have had lots of requests for information from cities around the world.
5. What does Munich mean to you?
Munich provides access to a lot of high-tech companies and an exceptional talent pool. Moreover, Munich is a crystallization point for mobility concepts for the future and should continue to fulfil that role.
Dromos has its sights on unicorn status
6. How will your startup become the next unicorn? Or will we be seeing you at an Epic Fail Night soon?
With our market of 5 trillion euros, it’s three times larger than the global automotive industry, and we’re expecting each project to run at an average of more than a billion. In light of the global demand that already exists, we feel very confident about making it on the unicorn list.
7. Schweinshaxe (knuckle of pork) or Steckerlfisch (fish grilled on a stick)?
Fish on a stick is a bit more sustainable!