VAL meaning in Business ?

Véhicule Automatique Léger (lit. 'automatic light vehicle') or VAL is a type of driverless (automated), rubber-tyred, medium-capacity rail transport system (people mover). The technology was developed at the Lille University of Science and Technology, was marketed by Matra, and first used in the early 1980s for the Lille Metro system, one of the world's first fully automated mass-transit rail networks, preceded only by the Port Island Line in Kobe, Japan. The VAL technology is now marketed by Siemens, which acquired Matra in the late 1990s.

A total of 11 lines in 8 systems based on the VAL technology are currently in operation worldwide. The current version of the VAL product is marketed as NeoVal (with a distinction between AirVal for airport environments and CityVal for more conventional transit environments).

The name is a backronym, with the first project to use the technology nicknamed VAL after the routing of the line: Villeneuve d'Ascq à Lille (lit. 'Villeneuve d'Ascq to Lille').