Autonomous Mobility Service Management will pave the way to sustainable cities and smarter Transportation Systems
Raphael Gindrat is CEO of BestMile and talks to TaaS Magazine about the future of mobility paving the way to sustainable cities and smarter Transportation Systems.
Urban mobility is one of the most puzzling challenges for cities across the world. Demographic changes and urban population expansion are putting pressure on cities burdened by older public transport infrastructure. At the same time, people are becoming increasingly aware that transportation is one of the biggest causes of greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to deteriorating the living conditions inside cities.
The growing weight of these concerns means that cities must develop new strategies and adapt public transportation services to meet evolving needs. The traffic jams that clog highways and plague many cities are only getting worse. This trend cannot continue indefinitely. Cities need to find a balanced urban mobility system that takes into account ecological issues without sacrificing the comfort of its residents. The current solutions of adding new capacity and multi-modes of transport to match rising demand is not sustainable in the medium to long-term, no matter how innovative and ecological these new means of transport are.
Although autonomous mobility seems to be one of the most promising transportation innovations, autonomous vehicles do not, in themselves, present a complete, self-sufficient mobility service. As a stand-alone technology, the vehicles are not aware of trips being made by the cars around them, nor do they understand how they fit into an overall evolving transportation system. On their own, they are not capable of responding to real-time demand or adhering to a schedule. With a lack of collective awareness and little understanding of the overall needs of the city, autonomous vehicles may lead to new mobility problems and further distance us from holistically managed urban mobility systems.
The future of mobility is not just the autonomous vehicles themselves, but the services they can offer once they're operated and managed together.
Autonomous Vehicles and the Future of Mobility
In the long run, at the scale required to support thousands of autonomous vehicles, there is a need for a fleet management and mobility services platform to optimize traffic and the ecological footprint.
Autonomous mobility within a coordinated transportation system requires a fleet optimization and mobility service management solution that decides in real time what each and every vehicle needs to do. For example, which vehicle can most efficiently make a pickup at point A; which vehicle needs to slow down in order to avoid traffic congestion; how to reroute on-the-go as well as other dynamic and complex management issues. Such a mobility platform is equivalent to an airport control tower; a crucial part of the equation since airplanes would never leave the ground, even if equipped with autopilot.
Fleet Optimization and Mobility Management Impact on Cities
- Real-time coordination and optimization of multi-modes of urban transportation including fixed route and on-demand services, with both autonomous and human driven vehicles
- Dynamic data sharing and analytics between operators, vehicles and users
- Interconnected transportation system able to adjust in actual time to the variable demands in and out of urban areas
- Fleet optimization and management platform optimizes fluidity of traffic, removes congestion issues and thus air pollution hotspots
- Public transportation systems adapt to user patterns, rather than users adapting to a set schedule
A global coordination and real-time optimization in public transportation is not only essential, it's also cost effective. Take for example the Transport Coordination Centre (TTC) set up in London during the 2012 Olympic Games. Its goals were to facilitate active sharing of information and coordinate incident response procedures between multi-modal transport providers, existing Traffic Control Centres, Games Organizers and their stakeholders. According to Arup/Transport for London (Transport Coordination Centre Evaluation, December 2012) if the TCC were to be permanently implanted GB £ 4.4 million could be saved in London only. The TTC is a human materialization of the principle of fleet optimization applied to urban mobility.
An innovative holistic approach to passenger transportation removes the tension between sustainability, a requisite for city institutions, and the quality of services demanded by residents. Cities need to understand what must accompany smart urban mobility solutions beyond the "hardware" of infrastructure and vehicles themselves.
Autonomous Mobility Service Management will pave the way to sustainable cities and smarter Transportation Systems
Modified on Monday 12th February 2018
Find all articles related to:
Autonomous Mobility Service Management will pave the way to sustainable cities and smarter Transportation Systems