Over recent years the driverless car has taken something of a back seat in the automotive world as the industry is more focused on future power sources and the rise of EVs. However, autonomous vehicle development has continued, although experts continue to say that true self driving cars, in widespread use, are still many years away. 

One German company is hoping to bridge the gap between current and future technology by the use of teledriving. Berlin technology company Vay has just received €34 million in funding from the European Investment Bank to help with the deployment of its remote-driven technology in Europe. 

The company specialises in short term EV rentals and rather than have customers collect cars from a central point, it uses remote driving to deliver them. A customer simply orders a car on an app and a Vay driver will deliver it by driving the vehicle remotely from a drive station complete with steering wheel, camera screens and pedal. 

The system is efficient because the drivers never have to leave the office to drop off and collect cars, there travel time is more than halved. Vay already has the system up and running in Las Vegas and now plans to expand use in Europe. 

CEO Thomas von der Ohe commented, "We believe remote driving is the next frontier technology that can really revolutionise all aspects of transportation without any autonomy."