• With the Vasy application, under development in Montpellier, users will be able to define pedestrian routes according to a disability, their fears or their desires.

    Cycling or public transport will also be valued.

  • The application, under development, promises to highlight soft mobility, unlike most of its competitors, which are more car-centric.

  • The Vasy application will be launched in Montpellier and Djerba in 2024.

In the applications that we use to move around, the car is the queen.

Public transport or walking are often only second or even third choices.

The good idea of ​​Vasy, an application under development in Montpellier (Hérault), is to offer the user, first of all, routes by tram, bus, bicycle, scooter, and above all, to foot.

The mobile software, which will be launched in 2024 in the Hérault capital and in Djerba, Tunisia, before setting off to take on the world, will indeed report on environmental constraints and energy expenditure.

"The application will be designed in such a way that we opt more for soft mobility than for the automobile, which we will offer last," explains Dhia Souei, president and co-founder of Vasy.

Exactly the opposite of most major GPS applications on the market.



Routes adapted to fears or disabilities

And Vasy will not only encourage people to leave their car in the garage.

The application promises to be more suitable for soft mobility, and in particular for walking.

Pedestrian routes will indeed be refined, taking into account the specificities of this mode of travel.

But not only.

Vasy's team, whose members come from very diverse backgrounds (connected objects, cartography, cognitive sciences, psychology, computer science, etc.), has developed ingenious algorithms capable of defining with precision of a journey on foot, from point A to point B, taking into account particular circumstances, such as a phobia, or a situation of disability.

“Imagine that you want to go from the Place de la Comédie to the Peyrou gardens, in Montpellier, image Dhia Souei, teacher-researcher, expert in soft mobility.

Imagine that you are agoraphobic.

You can't stand crowds.

The application will calculate a route, where you do not cross the rue de la Loge, for example”, thanks to an artificial intelligence similar to that which Wave uses for traffic jams.

“A person with reduced mobility can also avoid cobbled streets, for example.

Or a young woman, who returns late at night, can choose a “Safe” route, that is to say far from badly lit alleys, or those suffering from a bad reputation.

Vasy will monetize its own routes

The application will also be able to generate routes according to your desires, depending on whether you want to walk in green, in streets where street art is king, or in quiet neighborhoods.

And the little extra is that “everyone will be able to create their own routes, with particular specificities, and market them.

Each time someone downloads their itinerary, the user will receive a commission,” continues the co-creator of the concept.

A trip from bar to bar, from museum to museum, or to discover the most beautiful buildings in the city.

Vasy will even integrate a social network, where everyone can share their most beautiful photos, good restaurant addresses, etc.

The application project was crowned by the Meet Africa program, which supports diaspora entrepreneurship between Africa and Europe, and caught the eye of the Epsylon laboratory at Paul-Valéry University.

And since this year, the Vasy team has been incubated at Bic, the famous nursery for promising start-ups in Montpellier.

Planet

Heat wave: These bus shelters offer a feeling of freshness without water or electricity

Montpellier

Montpellier: The metropolis is testing a cycle path that lights up at night

  • high tech