The idea is to give public transportation departments, taxi and rideshare companies as well as those renting bicycles and electric scooters a better idea of where and when to place their fleets.

Quantum computer company D-Wave is providing the high-powered hardware, running the data created by Teralytics. Google completes the triumvirate.

“We want to gain an in-depth understanding of applications of this technology which could be beneficial to the company, including traffic optimization, “said Florian Neukart, principal scientist at Volkswagen’s CODE Lab in San Francisco, in a statement.

 “Public transport organizations and taxi companies in large cities are highly interested in managing their fleets efficiently. Our quantum-optimized traffic management system could help make that a reality.”

In an interview  from his home in London, Teralytics’s MacLeod explained how that data is gathered–essentially by capturing where people are through their mobile phones.

“All that has to happen with us is the phone has to be pinging the network to say ‘I’m alive.’ he said via video conference. “All we get is a randomized dot and its proximity to a cell tower and we do the rest and turns that into these patterns of movement.”

What Teralytics does not capture is personal information, said MacLeod, “so there are zero privacy issues.”

To bring the concept down to a more granular level, he said, think of train passengers who need to find a way to their final destination, perhaps using a rideshare service.

“In the end, mobility at its highest level is humans moving around in patterns and needing to somehow match the mode of transportation that suits best the trip and the supply of those different modes of transportation for the demand,” said MacLeod.

Ford Smart Mobility, LLC acquires Spin, a San Francisco-based electric scooter-sharing company that provides customers with an alternative for first- and last-mile transportationFORD MOTOR CO.

A simple example is the explosion of electric scooter rental services in urban areas, such as Spin, the San Francisco-based scooter-rental company purchased by Ford Motor Co. Understanding where people are, where they’re going and when helps solve the issue of “where do you place the scooters so there’s always one where you need it, rather than just hoping there’s one when you need it,” MacLeod explained.

The work with Volkswagen is ongoing for Teralytics as part of what MacLeod characterized as a “long-term relationship.” The company is also working with Spanish automaker SEAT to understand traffic patterns in Madrid as it starts to roll out a car sharing service, “and how they can contribute to a more sustainable, more efficient mobile ecosystem,” MacLeod said.

It’s all about spelling a better solution for moving humans from A to B, said MacLeod, “making sure mobility services of the future account for the needs of everybody.”

Forbes