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“Ok Google, book my FlixBus ticket to…”: German bus company teams up with Google Assistant

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You wait for ages and then… well, one artificial intelligence-based bus ticket booking system turns up. German coach company FlixBus has become the first coach operator in the world to integrate with Google Assistant – beginning today, travellers can find FlixBus routes and book their tickets with voice control.



With Google Assistant, FlixBus users can quickly and easily access information about connections, timetables and current prices simply by asking. Once the right journey is found, customers can then book their ticket with voice control.



The FlixBus Action will initially launch in English, French and German. Since March 2017, the international FlixBus route network with over 250,000 daily connections has been available in Google Maps via the Google Transit feature.



Customer-oriented digital solutions have been at the core of the FlixBus model since the company’s launch five years ago. In addition to partnering with leading technology companies such as Google, FlixMobility employs an in-house team of over 200 developers who work to consistently improve the FlixBus product, from the FlixBus App to the Where’s My Bus real-time bus tracker.



“We want to give FlixBus users the best travel experience via innovative and digital solutions,” explains Daniel Krauss, Co-Founder and CIO of FlixMobility GmbH. “By integrating with Google Assistant, our customers can easily book the fastest or cheapest connection with the FlixBus via voice control or receive up-to-date travel information on their long-distance bus journey.”



“The sooner companies take advantage of assistive marketing, the more likely they are to build that expertise,” adds Malte Will, Product Partnerships, Google Assistant. “We are pleased that we have a partner with FlixBus who recognized this potential early on and with whom we can jointly shape the future of the digital assistant.”



In addition to helpful FAQ elements, the FlixBus Action includes more than 800 sample phrases in three languages, each tailored to specific FlixBus criteria. The Action also supports multimodal use, that is, voice, text, or a simple click, depending on which device the customer uses to communicate with the Google Assistant. The integration with Google Assistant makes the 250,000 daily FlixBus connections to over 1,700 destinations in 27 countries directly accessible from home and at any time. Beginning in Spring 2018, FlixBus users will also be able to travel within the United States.



The FlixBus Action is currently available through Google Assistant on Android smartphones. For customers who are not yet using Google Assistant, the app can be downloaded from the following links for iOS and Android.

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