Optibus had the honor of hosting Chile’s Minister of Transport and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz Abogabir, at our headquarters to discuss the future of public transportation and new technologies in the field that can improve services for passengers and operational efficiency for operators and agencies in Chile. The Minister was accompanied by Ms. Marion Fuentes, the advisor of the Ministry of Transport, and Jorge Carvajal, the Ambassador of Chile in Israel.
“We see Chile’s transportation industry leading the way in the transition to electric vehicles, backed by an administration that has committed to having a fully electric fleet by 2035. New technologies that support the roll-out of a nationwide EV fleet are crucial to meeting demand for sustainable, efficient public transportation. Optibus is committed to working with Chile’s transportation industry to provide these innovative technologies,” said Amos Haggiag, Optibus CEO and co-founder.
Optibus’ Santiago, Chile office opened in early 2022 and is headed by Alvaro Iriarte Sanderson, Optibus’ Regional Director, South Cone. Through its work with MetBus, the largest public transit operator in Chile and the largest eBus fleet in the Americas, and RedBus Urbano, one of Santiago’s primary public transportation operators and Transdev’s largest bus operation globally, Optibus’ software is helping to power 20 million monthly journeys in Santiago, over 25% of the city’s public transportation.
The meeting included a discussion with Optibus CTO and co-founder Eitan Yanovsky, General Manager LATAM Ronen Avraham, and General Manager APAC Shaun Bretstein about Optibus’ vision for better public transportation, the company’s work in Chile, industry trends, and what technologies Optibus is developing in order to optimize operations and services.
Ivan Schejtman, Presales Lead LATAM, led a demo of Optibus’ cloud-native software, which includes products for end-to-end planning, scheduling, rostering, scheduling, and EV management, for the delegation. The visit culminated in a meeting with Optibus employees and a visit to a local operator using Optibus’ software to optimize their work processes and services in Israel.
“I was very impressed with the entrepreneurial environment I found in Israel, where new companies grow extremely fast, as is the case with Optibus. Providing services and coordinating a large fleet of buses requires sophisticated planning and operation models. Bus companies should consider these tools when looking to improve service quality and frequency, which is an important need in many cities worldwide,” said the Minister.
The Minister, whose trip to Israel also included visits to companies in the fields of road safety, autonomous vehicles, and telecommunications, had earlier that day attended the Conference on Advanced Systems in Public Transport and Transit Data (CASPT) in Tel Aviv. The event convened global public transportation leaders from the academic, private, and public sectors to gain a deeper understanding about current and future systems for public transportation operations and planning. Dr. Nurit Oliker, Algorithm Developer at Optibus, spoke at the conference about new algorithms that she and her team are developing to support timetable generation and optimization.
