Routable AI Names Ex-Uber/Canoo Exec James Cox as Chief Operating Officer
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Routable AI, an on-demand vehicle routing and management platform today announced it recently appointed James Cox as its Chief Operating Officer. Cox will lead the Company’s product rollout and growth strategies as it targets on-demand bus, shuttle, ride-sharing, and micro-mobility markets as the industry adjusts to post-COVID-19 activity.
Cox most recently served as the Chief Product Officer at Canoo, a Los Angeles-based subscription company for electric cars. During his tenure, Cox re-shaped market strategy to be compatible with a shared, autonomous, electric future, and successfully garnered thousands of new users for the company. Cox built the customer experience, including the consumer website and app, while launching a gamified, free and viral waitlist unique to the auto industry.
Prior to Canoo, Cox served in a variety of senior product roles at Uber, including his most recent as Global Head of Rider App Product Operations. Cox’s tenure at Uber included leadership of the global rollout of uberPOOL to 41 cities within the USA, China, India, and Europe. As the eighth employee at Uber Australia, he helped launch uberX in Sydney, growing the service to 250,000 trips per week.
“I’m thrilled to be joining Routable AI at a critical time for the ridesharing and public transport industries. High capacity pooling is not a solved problem. As a startup, Routable AI developed a unique and powerful algorithm over five years of research. It doesn’t make sense for every transit agency and ride-sharing company to try to build the same technology internally,” said Cox. “The industry is ripe for innovation right now, and I’m excited to work with Menno van der Zee, Alex Wallar, and the entire Routable AI team as we disrupt high-capacity pooling with our powerful platform.”
Cox joins Routable AI at a time of uncertainty and opportunity within the global ridesharing industry following the COVID-19 pandemic. As individual ridesharing trips decline drastically in cities hit hard by the virus, and local transportation authorities place heavy restrictions or shutdown orders on public transportation, all involved must identify a safe and efficient way to transport people as cities begin to reopen.
“We’re both excited and fortunate to have an industry veteran like James Cox join the Routable AI team. His pedigree speaks for itself, having led many high-profile product rollouts at Uber and Canoo, while successfully accelerating user growth,” said Menno van der Zee, co-founder and CEO, Routable AI. “As the industry rebounds from COVID-19, we believe we have a unique opportunity to provide immediate value for ridesharing companies, public transit authorities, and others in need of an efficient fleet management solution, as they look to safely return to the road and serve their communities.”
Routable AI’s technology is an ideal solution for enabling high-capacity ridesharing on demand, including city shuttle and bus services. The platform enables an efficient and cost-effective way to transport citizens without crowded mass transportation or exponentially more cars on the road serving individual riders.
“We’ve seen a complete openness from government and city agencies to embrace technology to improve public transportation, but that technology is also extremely hard to develop. That’s where we come in – our solution can be integrated quickly to help transit agencies get fleets of shuttles and buses running on-demand in place of shut down or restricted public transportation,” said Alex Wallar, co-founder and CTO, Routable AI. “As cities return to a new normal following COVID-19, it will be critical to ensure safe and reliable transportation for citizens using methods like capacity limitation and more optimized uses of shuttle and bus fleets. Routable AI is here to make that a reality.”
Routable AI is currently working with multiple entities across the globe, including a ridesharing shuttle service in South-East Asia, a shared rides shuttle app in Germany, and one of the largest Chinese ride-sharing companies. They are also in discussions with several U.S. mass transit authorities to help agencies simulate and model what changes will be required to fleets and to identify ways Routable AI’s fleet management solutions can help cities reopen their roadways to travelers.
About Routable AI
Routable AI is an MIT-born startup developing on-demand vehicle routing solutions for high capacity ride sharing within cars, shuttles, and buses. Routable AI’s end-to-end solution targets the high-capacity mobility-as-a-service market with low-cost, highly efficient, and ultra-convenient transportation options for on-demand bus, shuttle, ride-sharing, and micro-mobility markets. The company’s patent-pending routing algorithms and AI offer a 10X advantage over current routing methodologies and have been shown to reduce fleet sizes by as much as 80% due to more efficient routing and optimization. To learn more, please visit https://routable.ai.
Media contact:
Matthew Bretzius
FischTank PR
matt@fischtankpr.com
