If you needed more evidence that automobile companies are taking self-driving cars and other emerging mobility tech seriously, look no further than this week’s report that German automakers BMW and Daimler have formed a new mobility services company, which will operate out of a central Berlin building that Daimler formerly used to host Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week events.
According to a story in The Drive, the two companies will unveil their new joint mobility company at the end of next month. They will reportedly call the new entity Jurbey. It is the first major mobility collaboration between German car companies.
OK, so maybe they’re not taking themselves too seriously. Does Jurbey mean something cool auf Deutsch? A quick Google search didn’t reveal anything that wasn’t related to this announcement. Mobility guru and German native Sven Beiker said via e-mail that he suspected the name was a play on “journey,” plus a “b” for mobility.
The Drive located Jurbey’s August trademark filing. In the trademark application, Jurbey is identified as providing software and services related to parking, transportation, ridesharing, loans and financing, insurance, gas stations and car charging, and data. Jurbey has already announced partner service providers, including DriveNow, car2go, ParkMobile, ParkNow, ChargeNow, and Moovel. The European Commission approved the merger of Daimler’s and BMW’s mobility services last November.
The Drive reports that European employees of the partner brands will be required to relocate to Berlin. That decision has apparently inspired some online grumbling. More from The Drive: “These plans have caused some consternation inside various Daimler and BMW mobility sub-brands, sources said. Some of that consternation has spilled out into the public, with one Stuttgart-based employee complaining about the impact of the move in a post on the German job review site Kununu.”
Moovel’s head of people and organization, Thorsten Heilig, responded by confirming the consolidation plans, but said the situation was fluid. Daimler and BMW signed a 30-year lease for the Jurbey headquarters in Berlin, so we can officially classify this story as “developing.”
