shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively

Posted on 10 November 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

TOP PLAYER

shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively

For most, the term ‘shared mobility’ immediately brings to mind the practice of car-sharing but in reality, its scope and ambitions are much larger. From questions of inclusion, to the reduction of greenhouse gases, to rethinking the way we innovate, in this interview, future mobility and open innovation expert Judit Batayé explains how shared mobility will help build better transport in the future.

connectivity
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energy transition
shared mobility

In light of social distancing measures introduced during the pandemic, the idea of sharing seems to have taken a backseat for now. What consequences has the pandemic had on shared mobility and carpooling?

As a member of the board of directors for Som Mobilitat (a vehicle-sharing cooperative based in Catalonia), I got to experience this crisis from the inside. We’d experienced tremendous growth over the last two years, and overnight, everything collapsed with the lockdown. Between March and May, we experienced a brutal 85% drop in reservations.

This period also taught us a lot. We of course increased health and safety measures by putting gel and masks in every shared vehicle, and by airing out each one between uses—but what this crisis also provided was a lesson in community solidarity. Very quickly, we made vehicles including the Renault ZOE available to health professionals so that they could travel to and from the hospital more easily.

We also gained important insight into general public feeling. Though lockdown was a difficult time, we noticed that the public nevertheless seemed to appreciate having a city that was less crowded and less polluted, as much in terms of sound and visual pollution as in terms of CO2 emissions.

This kind of clean city is something shared mobility can help make possible. We’re contributing to it with low-emission vehicles and optimised trips. We think this experience should motivate local councils to adopt shared mobility policies in the future.

Judit Batayé, future mobility expert

We tend to think of shared mobility in terms of connecting people — but could we say that the future of shared mobility depends more on successful data-sharing than on sharing between people?

Absolutely. Creating efficient shared transport is largely a question of how to handle data in order to make trips as fluid as possible. The goal is to arrive at a real MaaS (Mobility as a Service) model in which you can easily share information, book vehicles, or even calculate the best way to get from point A to point B (in terms of travel time or environmental impact), using a mix of public transport, private transport, and the other complementary services available. This is not a new model: it was invented in 2006 by a Finnish man named Sampo Hietanen, who describes it as “the Netflix of mobility.” But putting it in place can be complex sometimes due to the data-sharing that’s required to develop these kinds of services. I’d nevertheless say that there are many projects being developed that indicate things are going in the right direction.

Creating efficient shared transport is largely a question of how to handle data.

If I had to highlight one in particular, it would be the test project Renfe as a Service (RaaS), an A-Z mobility experience that allows you to access all Renfe services (Spain’s national railway company) alongside third-party services within a single app. By making multiple mobility services available, you make the user journey more efficient to and from train stations. By sharing data, we can create a truly integrated system that makes passenger mobility truly fluid. I think we have to move towards this model of data integration.

Your consulting firm Six-Ter champions the idea of a sharing economy that fosters inclusion using the principles of a social solidarity economy. Could you give us some examples of how shared mobility contributes to inclusion?

I think that the idea of inclusion underpins the sharing economy philosophy. Once again, there are many projects I could cite, but I’m a particular fan of what Taxistop is doing in Belgium by making social solidarity initiatives an integral part of their objectives, whether in terms of housing or mobility. I could also cite Mobicoop, a company that’s bringing transport services to the populations and places that need the most.

And in a larger sense, I think that technological advances like self-driving vehicles will also help contribute to greater inclusion. I still remember my 72-year-old mother’s reaction upon discovering Waymo and its self-driving car service. She was extremely enthusiastic about the possibilities a service like that could offer her.

By reducing the number of vehicles per person in service, the very nature of the sharing economy can help us reduce our environmental impact. What else is the shared mobility sector doing to take this even further?

To have real environmental impact, shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively, and involve all key players: cities, infrastructure, manufacturing… but also all the different sectors that are linked to mobility: delivery services, ports… Everything is interconnected. Shared mobility is a collective pursuit—and each link in the chain has to work towards sustainability. If, for example, infrastructure makers decide not to get involved, manufacturers won’t have enough reason to develop electric-powered services.

To have real environmental impact, shared mobility needs to be structured collaboratively.

Returning to the example of delivery services, in Barcelona, the growing number of “Amazon-type” deliveries taking place is creating real congestion issues. So logistical solutions like building more pickup points can help reduce traffic and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Logistical optimisations like these are also a part of shared mobility.

It’s clear that working together is essential, and that such efforts will require a kind of collective coordination — if only to avoid ‘silo-thinking’ in which everyone works alone on their own solution. How do we encourage this?

I very much believe in mobility hubs. For me, they’re the best way to encourage open innovation that truly involves all parties. There are already several exciting projects like this underway—for example Railgroup, the most innovative cluster in my opinion, which is a perfect example of how to apply the principles of open innovation. In Europe, I could cite EIT Urban Mobility, which is made up of 40 members (cities, public transport providers, universities…) that work together to envision the future of mobility. Here in Barcelona, industrial actors come together at Cámara de Comerç de Barcelona to invent future mobility systems. And the Barcelona Global consortium — a group of the most important companies in the region who are working to promote a new model of mobility that’s more sustainable, safe, efficient, and inclusive. In their manifesto, they presented policy leaders with 15 concrete mobility solutions, from parking projects, to the use of big data, to an overhaul of public transport. So, I think that the future of mobility will have to be shared.

Not only in the sense of sharing between the final users, but in the sense of sharing the design and ideation process, too.

About Judit Batayé

Over 20 years of experience working on innovation projects in the mobility sector
Director of Six-Ter, a consulting firm focused on social innovation and sustainable mobility.
Member of OuiShare, advising on themes related to the future of sustainable mobility
Co-founder of COVIDWarriors, a non-profit organisation working to accelerate social, technological, and health-related projects that address the current crisis

Interview by Jérémy Lopes, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyrights: Kaspars Upmanis via Unsplash, DR

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speeding up the development of sustainable mobility through behaviour sciences

Posted on 10 November 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

REBOOT

speeding up the development of sustainable mobility through behaviour sciences

When choosing our methods of transport, we’re anything but rational. That’s the thinking behind the work of Professor Jinhua Zhao, an Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researcher who believes behavioural science can help cities create and develop more sustainable mobility systems.

connectivity
design
energy transition

REBOOT 1: developing new forms of mobility with the help of behavioural science

According to the French Environment and Energy Management Agency, transport is the number-one source of greenhouse gas emissions in France. This places urgent pressure on decision-makers and leaders in the mobility sector to propose alternative solutions and create a more sustainable transport network. What if behavioural science was the key to making the change? From French research campus Paris-Saclay to MIT, more and more researchers are asking this question…

“The main part of my own thinking is the recognition that transportation systems are half physical infrastructure, and half human beings,” says Jinhua Zhao, director of MIT’s JTL Urban Mobility Lab. And yet, over the last decades, transport decision-makers have mostly focused on pursuing technological advances and diversifying urban transport services, without giving much consideration to how passengers actually behave. Transport providers tend to assume that passengers are strictly rational when it comes to their daily commutes, and so the majority of transport systems are built on the idea that people base their travel decisions on journey time and cost.

And yet, this normative approach has had little effect on changing user behaviors. “It seems necessary to take behavioural science, and particularly social psychology, into greater account in order to create solutions that will lead to a lasting change in transport decisions,” wrote Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph E. Stiglitz in 2019. “People make decisions in all sorts of different ways,” says Professor Zhao in an MIT article entitled What moves people? “The notion that people wake up and calculate the utility of taking the car versus taking the bus — or walking, or cycling — and find the one that maximises their utility doesn’t speak to reality.”

REBOOT 2: encourage citizens to change their behaviour

Given all this, precisely what data should transport providers be focusing on to help them develop more sustainable mobility systems? After 20 years of teaching and research at MIT in particular, Zhao’s work now revolves around three main themes: the emotional aspects of transport, how these apply to mobility design, and how mobility relates to public policy. It’s an innovative approach that has helped him better understand, among other things, the success of multimodal travelcards, the impact of off-peak prices on crowding, the consequences of the sense of pride felt by many car owners, and even how discriminatory attitudes around race and class may affect people’s preferences around ride-sharing.

Used strategically, this data could provide multiple opportunities to anticipate, and thus modify user behaviour. “Each of the different disciplines within the social sciences can help us understand behaviour, identify and anticipate blocks, and shape the transition to more sustainable forms of mobility. Nevertheless, for them to be most effective, they need to be combined,” writes Anaïs Rocci, a specialist in the evolution of mobility practices, for a conference organised by Paris-Saclay entitled “New forms of mobility through the lens of the social sciences”.

REBOOT 3: inspiring future public policies on mobility

Faced with certain value systems still deeply-rooted in society — for example, car ownership as a status symbol — will, or should, local authorities be able to use this data to create more transparent, inclusive, and sustainable mobility systems? “We are at the dawn of the most profound changes in transportation: an unprecedented combination of new technologies, such as autonomy, electrification, computation and AI, and new objectives, including decarbonization, public health, economic vibrancy, data security and privacy, and social justice,” says Jinhua Zhao. He continues: “The timeframe for these changes — decarbonization in particular — is short in a system with massive amounts of fixed, long-life assets and entrenched behavior and culture.” Naturally, he jumped at the chance to enact transport policy reforms within MIT — including offering fully-subsidised public transport for employees, and making changes to campus parking fees. As a result, single-occupant car use has fallen, and employees report increased overall satisfaction. Could this be the future of transport policy for the rest of us?

Sarah Sabsibo, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyrights: Ishan, Tom Chen

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THE NEW CONNECTED CHARGING POINT: MOBILIZE POWERBOX

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from space conquest to electric flying

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

REBOOT

from space conquest to electric flying

A few years from now, electric-powered aerial cars may begin zipping through the air. Anita Sengupta, a leading figure in spatial engineering and alumnus of both NASA and Hyperloop, is working on how to democratise them. But there are lots of challenges to overcome before aerial mobility becomes a reality…

connectivity
design
electric vehicle
energy transition

A new kind of road map for the mobility sector has been published across the Atlantic. The World Economic Forum and the city of Los Angeles laid out seven principles for ethical urban air mobility. Is this the last step before we’ll be able to get around cities… through the air? In any case, interest in the aerial transport sector is building: transport builders and manufacturers are seeking out more partnerships and increased funding, working to improve technology, and are well on their way to turning the sky into a new space for clean, quiet transport.

CHALLENGE 1: democratising urban air mobility

After 20 years spent developing the technology that’s allowed us to explore Mars, asteroids, and deep space and earning a PhD in ion research from NASA, Anita Sengupta worked at Virgin Hyperloop as Vice President of Engineering Systems. Her impressive career path paved the way for the creation of Airspace Experience Technologies, which she co-founded. Based in Detroit, A.K.A. The Motor City, and historic capital of the American automobile industry, this startup is working to design the future of aerial mobility.

According to the Roland Berger consulting group, this sector will be worth 80 billion dollars per year by 2050: “To start with, we think aerial services will be quite highly-priced and exclusive, but in the longer term as operating costs evolve, it will be more like today’s premium public transport services, such as taxis,” says Manfred Hader, director of Roland Berger’s aerospace and defense practice. These taxis are exactly what Sengupta is working on. This certified rocket scientist promises we’ll have on-demand flying cars that will get you to your destination five times faster for the same price as an Uber ride—and in just a few years from now.

CHALLENGE 2: solving the economic equation of the car of the future

Safer, cleaner, and quieter than helicopters, these flying vehicles would also be capable of carrying more passengers. The result, according to British consulting firm Ayming, is that more than 100 companies are currently working on the development of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts. These include Sengupta’s company, which joined forces with global aircraft manufacturer Spirit Aerosystems to develop Mobi-One, a quiet, eco-friendly aerial transport vehicle that will be able to carry up to five people at a time.

Their goal is to mass-produce vehicles and minimise costs before Mobi-One arrives on the market. The first challenge aerial vehicle makers will face is how to commercialise these futuristic mobility services. Flying is expensive: Japanese company SkyDrive is planning to sell its two-seater VOLT, scheduled to arrive in 2023, at anywhere from $300,000 to $500,000. German startup Volocopter offers 15-minute rides for $354. And then there’s the question of energy storage. Specialists say that achieving the level of battery autonomy necessary to run vehicles like these will require us to develop new, higher-cycle lithium-ion batteries. Both engineers and cities are also concerned about security: how do you avoid collisions and traffic jams in the air? According to an article featuring Sengupta in the Financial Times, “They would not be crowded with air taxis zooming along in proximity… aerial taxis would need to be properly spaced for safety… with ‘an airspace bubble’ around them in case of emergency. Take-off times would be regulated, possibly by an air traffic control system that would have human overseers as long as safety considerations required it, before eventually becoming autonomous.”

Anita Sengupta, spatial engineering specialist

CHALLENGE 3: registering the aerial car in the regulations

Further challenges exist in this space race around safety certification and infrastructure. What kinds of standard regulations should apply to eVTOLs? Where will they take off and land in large cities full of skyscrapers? And that’s all to say nothing of what the public’s enthusiasm will be for transport like this. “Generally speaking, the use of urban airspace means there will be less pollution and a more pleasant environment for pedestrians,” predicts Sengupta. It’s a strong argument that could help convince everyday citizens to climb aboard an aerial electric taxi in the future, from an engineer who likes to regularly remind people that “the sky is not the limit—only the beginning.”

Sarah Sabsibo, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyright: Lloyd Horgan, iflyasx.com

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Carlo Ratti: from “smart city” to “senseable city”

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

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Carlo Ratti: from “smart city” to “senseable city”

Though the term ‘smart city’ has yet to appear in the dictionary, its meaning is already the subject of debates both technological and civic. Carlo Ratti, the architect and engineer at the head of MIT’s Senseable City Lab, one of the world’s premier smart city research hubs, prefers to use the term ‘senseable city.’ What exactly is behind this concept? He explains.

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Could you explain what a ‘senseable city’ is?

We live in a fascinating age in which technology is present in everything. This has a direct impact on the way we design, live in, and understand cities, particularly with regards to the convergence of the physical and the digital. The most obvious example is in the evolution of the Internet, which has metamorphosed into an Internet of Things. This metamorphosis has ended up making cities “intelligent”—they’ve become ‘smart cities’. That’s a term I don’t really like to use, as it puts technology at the heart of the whole definition and concept. I prefer to use a more human term that priorities peoples’ needs: ‘senseable cities’. In this conception, the most important consideration is how to anticipate and fulfill the needs of the people who live in a given city. The city thus becomes a sensitive city, in which the optimisation of urban spaces can only be carried out by taking social considerations into account from the very start.

What role should technology play in the future of cities?

In 1966, the architect Cedric Price asked the following question, which I think is very apt: “Technology is the answer, but what was the question?” This question was as important at the time he asked it as it is today. That’s why it’s interesting to approach it through the lens of ‘senseable cities’. Technology certainly can help us live better, but how do we use it in a more responsible way? How can it be used to meet the greatest challenges of this century, from climate change to discrimination? Technology is a tool, but it has to coexist with big societal issues. For example, technology could be used in policy to start conversations about the kind of future we want in cities.

So you’re talking about a vision for the future in which the people co-create the city.

Absolutely! It’s important to have their input, and to constantly ask for their opinion on the kind of city that they want to see in the future.

Carlo Ratti, architect and engineer at the head of the MIT’s Senseable City Lab

How do you create a smart city that’s capable of adapting to and interacting with its inhabitants?

It’s already happening today with the Internet of Things. Thanks to sensors, for example, buildings are starting to respond to us, almost as if they’re living things. You’ll note that designers and architects are always thinking about how to render our surroundings more intelligent and organic so we can better communicate with them. We’re very involved in these kinds of considerations. We developed the “Dynamic Street”, an experimental project created in partnership with Toronto SideWalk Labs. We created a modular street that could be reconfigured according to footfall, time of day, and use. To make cities truly interactive, we have to continue with more of these kinds of city experiments in partnership with startups and residents.

We’re witnessing a surge in civic smartphone apps. Is this another way to create ‘senseable’ cities?

Apps like these create new possibilities, new habits, a new kind of language. I think the key thing is to get feedback—which is a word that’s really key in the creation of ‘senseable’ cities. I actually think that ‘feedback’ is the defining word in the creation of the smart city. In this field of work, we have to draw inspiration from nature’s ability to rapidly integrate feedback. Technology needs to be able to collect citizen feedback just as quickly and use it as a principal element in the evolution of cities.

Concretely speaking, how do you move from the current model of cities to a ‘senseable’ one?

It’s a question of democratic education. And all education is based on participation. Cities have to keep their citizens involved and allow them to take part in debates. In Latin, there are two words used to describe cities: ‘urbs’, or the physical city, and ‘civitas’, or its citizens. We have to return to this model in order to bring equilibrium back to cities—and we have to do it via the people.

Speaking of citizen contributions, your “Paris Navigating Gym” is a boat powered by exercise. Could human energy be harnessed to power the cities of the future?

I don’t think so. The goal of that project was to show people the importance of their own energy. This was a major undertaking from an education standpoint, as it got people thinking about the efficiency of the human body, and of the energy it produces and uses. But in a day, the ‘human machine’ uses less energy than a computer does.

This energy mostly serves a vital function: it makes the body work and keeps it alive. However, some of that unused energy can be collected, transformed, and used to power outside objects, as here in the case of the boat. But scaled to the size of a city, you’d need a lot more people than the city could possibly hold in order to power it with human energy.

That said, it’s true that we use human energy every day in soft mobility. You see it already with walking and cycling. But that tends to evolve. With bicycles, for example, human energy is being combined more and more with a new source of energy (electric) in order to help save some of the former. It’s hybrid energy. The convergence of the natural and the artificial.

What kinds of mobility systems do you envision in the near future?

I imagine multiple systems interwoven together. Today, thanks to smartphones, we already have access to so much information and choice around mobility. The future lies in these growing options. And I think we’re just at the beginning. We need to be conscious of the fact that there’s a powerful dynamic at work here: behind every choice of transport, there’s a person and a way of getting around. Which over time will create an infinite number of combinations that will be centralised in all the multimodal transport apps out there.

Digital services are growing, bringing with them fresh, new debates about pollution. Do you think technology is an ally or enemy of the decarbonisation of cities?

We know that information and communication technologies use up energy. The question we need to ask ourselves is: how are we using it? We can waste energy by using technology to post Instagram photos—or instead, we can use it to reduce traffic jams in cities… The optimisation that technology allows for can help reduce carbon emissions, even if it’s partially responsible for them.

What does your dream smart city look like?

To paraphrase the great architect Yona Friedman, I’d say it’s a city created “with the people, by the people, and for the people.” Everything starts with people. Also, I’d say architects and designers have to strive for greater convergence between the natural and the artificial, and find a way for these two worlds to work together in a more efficient way.

Interview by Vincent Thobel, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyrights: Sara Magni, David Pike, CRA

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ecomobility reinvents travel

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

TIPS & TRICKS

ecomobility reinvents travel

Ecomobility touches on all mobility issues and lifestyles in this era of transition to clean energy. But how does it fit into the daily lives of those who live in cities and rural areas? And how can we make it ecomobility a reality so that everyone can make it their own? Here are some recipes to try.

connectivity
electric vehicle
energy transition
shared mobility
transport on demand

Recipe #1: understanding ecomobility with a pinch of imagination

The principle of ecomobility involves initiatives and infrastructures that make sustainable mobility possible, whether in cities, suburbs or rural areas. Just imagine public services, shops, schools, close to each other and easily accessible while, in the streets, tramways, car-sharing electric vehicles, gyropods and bicycles on bike paths would circulate. New mobility habits are gradually emerging along these lines.

All these vehicles could, for example, run on a road that absorbs 10-20% of the sun’s rays. The road surface could then carry this energy to the neighboring buildings to heat water. On the sidewalks, greenery would reclaim its rightful place and bring shade to temper the blazing sun during heatwaves. The roads would be used by soft mobility modes of transport as part of a sustainable development strategy. Ecomobility, to make it happen, you must first dream it a little!

Recipe #2: mixing ecomobility and electromobility over a low flame

Although the two notions are not equivalent, the solutions provided by ecomobility include those provided by electromobility. They range from car-sharing, to bicycles, to gyropods and all other sustainable means of locomotion. Ecomobility also addresses the issue of infrastructure that facilitates travel. It covers both the use of clean vehicles and everything that makes them work: electrical terminals, renewable sources of electricity, roadway design, etc.

Recipe #3: combine the three main ingredients of ecomobility

The present and future of ecomobility consist of three main pillars:

multimodality and intermodality

For ecomobility to be achievable, a diverse array of available modes of public transport is essential. No matter where they are, everyone should have access, at any time of the day or night, to one or more modes of transport adapted to his or her needs, i.e. to a multimodal offer. Intermodality, meanwhile, is about being able to use different modes of transport across a single zone or journey. These two complementary concepts serve as a basis for improving sustainable mobility options. Cities, as densely populated areas by definition, are logically the best positioned and act as laboratories for new forms of mobility.

shared clean vehicles

Multimodality and intermodality rely primarily on clean vehicles, that is, electric or electrified, and/or shared vehicles. These uses are made possible – and above all simplified to the extreme – by the omnipresence of connectivity. Free-floating, for example, offers an advantage in car-sharing: the vehicle can be left and picked up almost anywhere.

Mobilize, the Renault Group brand that sees mobility as more than just owning a vehicle, is positioning itself on these new forms of mobility. Its free-floating car-sharing service Zity by Mobilize, for example, is 100% electric and particularly well suited to city centres. And its Mobilize Share car rental and sharing solution meets a wide range of travel needs, as close as possible to inhabitants, and more often than not outside the major conurbations.

new technologies

These days, ecomobility is also becoming a reality through mobile applications that connect humans to vehicles at the click of a button. And everything that has been imagined in science fiction literature could well become reality!

For example, Mobilize relies on a technological platform to offer mobility packages tailored to each user’s needs. They include the use of a vehicle and a set of associated services.  Mobilize Duo is not just an electric micro-vehicle for city traffic, Mobilize Bento is not just an electric mini-utility for delivering goods and services in urban areas … Each one is a connected interface between the user and the infrastructure, which opens up a thousand and one possibilities in terms of services to make mobility more fluid, optimise its cost and reduce its impact on the environment.

Recipe n°4: invite the actors of the energy transition to share the table

Ultimately, everyone is an actor in ecomobility solutions. But to achieve this, public policies need to be followed up. According to a study by the Arcadis Group, Hong Kong is the most sustainable place in the world in terms of mobility, thanks in particular to its particularly efficient metro. In Europe, Vienna, Austria, is the model with a pedestrianised city centre and public transport that is mostly electric.

Car manufacturers are obviously in the forefront of designing electric and conected vehicle solutions that meet the challenges of ecomobility and sustainable mobility. So are all the companies that are innovating for clean individual or public transport. New brands are emerging that are rethinking the design of mobility beyond the car itself, to take into account all the points of contact between the user and his or her mobility.

Ecomobility therefore includes all the transport possibilities of each individual, each company, each community, to achieve another form of mobility, sustainable and soft. And this through innovations, public and private initiatives, and joint reflection between the various stakeholders.

Copyright : LeoPatrizi, Tramino, Elektronik-Zeit

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future mobility: on the road to greater inclusivity

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

REBOOT

future mobility: on the road to greater inclusivity

How do you design the mobility of the future without considering the question of inclusivity? From self-driving vehicles, to real-life assistance, to apps, a number of solutions are emerging that can help make transport more accessible to all. Here, we spotlight initiatives that are helping drive greater inclusivity in mobility.

connectivity
transport on demand

In France, according to the “Mobility and Lifestyles in 2020” survey carried out by the Forum Vies Mobiles, three out of four persons declare that they are constrained in their travel. This inequality can have terrible social consequences on a daily basis. And for good reason: 1 in 4 French people have already given up a job because of travel difficulties. But the players in the sector are redoubling their efforts to devise models that are accessible to all and – why not! – return to the initial promise of mobility: to move around freely.What’s at stake: a reduction of the societal consequences such inequalities can create, the removal of constraints across the country, and potential access to new markets.

REBOOT 1: the redesign of territorial transport

“The first, most urgent question is that of social and territorial divides, and ultimately that of the equity of France’s mobility offer,” says Valérie Dreyfuss, managing director of France’s Laboratoire de la Mobilité Inclusive (Inclusive Mobility Lab). Social fractures, at the heart of public space, highlight the role of local councils, and the question of how to best accompany them in the creation of new, more inclusive services. But making the transport offer more equitable often requires a redesign of infrastructure. One example is French transport operator Transdev, who’s working to offer those who are handicapped more solutions for getting around. These include redesigning stations and vehicle access ramps, building trams and buses with lower platforms, and improving signage as well as visual, audio, and tactile forms of communication.

REBOOT 2: assistance at the heart of the future of mobility

Is ‘travel companion’ set to become a bonafide future profession? If mobility is to move towards greater inclusivity, all signs point to handicap-oriented journey assistance becoming a crucial service across the country. An online platform called Mon Copilote (My Co-Pilot) is already leading the charge. They provide travel assistance to those with reduced mobility, whether for work, leisure, or for completing day-to-day tasks. The platform lets pilots and their co-pilots choose their mode of transport: car, train, plane, bus, metro, or even walking, and find someone to travel alongside them. Another startup founded by Charlotte de Vilmorin, Wheeliz, defines itself as ‘the Airbnb of accessible vehicles’ and lets individuals rent out handicap-accessible vehicles to those who need them.

REBOOT 3: the autonomous car as a car for disabled person?

With all the focus on their potential speed and reliability, it’s easy to forget that self-driving cars also have much to offer by way of inclusivity. Shelley Lin, professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Northeastern University in the US is trying to revolutionise transport for the blind and visually-impaired using AI. It’s quite the challenge, requiring the system to analyse data in real time, and understand passenger behaviour and movement in order to provide the car with reliable instructions. In short, you’ll need to have two-way communication between the vehicle and its passengers, which can ultimately benefit everyone: “In an autonomous vehicle, sighted people are going to be highly distracted,” says Nicholas Giudice, a professor of spatial informatics at the University of Maine. “They aren’t going to be aware of their environment, much like a blind person will be, so in that instance, the types of things that we’re talking about could support them as well, which is a huge amount of people.”

The mobility of the future will have to account for questions of gender, handicap, age, and even the differences within regions, including their economic realities. Could the pandemic help speed up mobility’s transition to greater inclusivity? That’s certainly what the World Economic Forum is hoping for, which evokes the notion of universal mobility and relies on innovation, cooperation, and partnerships between the public and private sector to make future transport a reality for all, no exceptions.

Vincent Thobel, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyrights: Unsplash – Joshua Hoehne, Unsplash – Robert Ruggiero

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how design fiction impacts mobility

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

TOP PLAYER

how design fiction impacts mobility

What can ‘design fiction’ tell us about mobility? How can it help us anticipate our future mobility practices? Noémie Aubron, founder of the highly-successful newsletter La Mutante and expert consultant in innovation processes provides insight into the powers of low tech.

connectivity
design

To what areas does ‘design fiction’ apply in your work?

I try to articulate the scientific and the rational—almost like prospective studies—through things that are based more on intuition and paying attention to little hints of things to come: behaviours that may seem a bit strange in the present, but that hint at the future and that can fleshed out into a prospective scenario. To bring this material or vision to life, we tend to turn to slightly more artistic formats; that’s why you’ve got the term ‘design’ in ‘design fiction.’ Role play, art exhibits, magazine posters, fiction writing… the idea is to articulate things that until now, have never been articulated. Humans don’t change fundamentally; it’s the environment that evolves, and in this respect, the behavioural dimension is very important.

How do you choose between possibility and pure speculation?

That depends on the subject we want to address, as well as the audience, bearing in mind that the goal is to get you to experience something that will end up resonating with you. For certain audiences, an overly-speculative scenario just won’t work. In my work, I tend to gravitate towards things that are probable. I like to anchor my work in prospective scenarios that are more tried-and-tested.

What’s interesting is the ability to articulate things that we’ll experience in the long term through what can be done concretely.

Speculative work can be good for opening up minds, but it’s hard to tie it back to daily life, or even more so, for example, to a company’s road map. By basing things on what’s probable, it’s easier to envision something more realistic that may actually happen, and if you can take that seriously, you can be better prepared to face it.

What mobility-related ideas do you find most interesting?

There’s one subject in mobility that I find highly interesting, which is somewhat overdone and yet not completely resolved: automation systems. I think there’s still much more to be imagined in that area. I think that’s how technology works. But what about our practices? Another subject is mobility’s place in cities. The point of design fiction is to try and understand how we place a given practice within its context and within society at large. In designing urban mobility, these two things overlap, and there are many things we’ll need to invent that address how people live in urban settings—so, around how we get around.

Will future areas of exploration be more focused on mobility practices than on technology?

All our ways of living in relation to transport use are being turned so upside-down that the real vehicle of change may be humans rather than technology. The ways that people want to get around is becoming a big trend. It’s interesting to think that perhaps sociology has as much of a place in this question as technology does. Understanding people’s needs and desires is just as crucial as the development of new technologies.

Noémie Aubron, specialist in innovation approaches

How might climate change impact our ideas around mobility?

Climate change is now something that shapes almost all future scenarios: we can’t push it aside. I do a lot of work on what’s known as ‘low tech’, which I believe is going to be a long-term trend. What’s striking is that when you dig deeper into ideas around mobility, you have this diverse variety of responses to climate change that range from very low-tech to very elaborate. And depending on the sociological lens or prospective scenario you’re looking at the question through, the answer won’t be at all the same, and even the practices around mobility will be very different. If you look at mobility through the lens of climate change, there are so many ideas that come up and just as many possibilities depending on prevailing sociological forces, thus bringing us back to this very sociological dimension of mobility.

Speaking of mobility, what other interesting ‘hints of things to come’ have you been able to identify?

To me, mobility is part of a much bigger subject. I see a lot of new practices—I think of mobility as a moment that becomes about more than just getting from point A to B. Mobility might become a kind of ‘bubble’ in which we do other things… And all this could be made possible by autonomous driving systems. The idea of mobility that’s paired with ‘concentration practices’ is a very interesting area to explore.

Is the future of mobility, especially urban mobility, also about anticipating the role different regions will play in energy distribution?

In terms of energy, I don’t know if we’re going to be able to get past our sociological barriers, but I’m convinced that in the future, people will choose to live in a given place based on its political orientation. Certain cities might want to develop shared resilient energy systems; perhaps there will be as many smaller utopias and ways of living as there are cities. I definitely see how we might have decentralised energy systems in cities where that would be important, while other cities might develop more technological solutions because their populations care more about that kind of thing.

We’ll invent new ways of being, but with local particularities.

The decentralisation of energy, the ability to decarbonise energy production and to put a kind of energetic autonomy in place… that’s a probable scenario, but not necessarily in all areas.

In a scenario in which autonomous systems become democratised, what might we be able to do onboard a self-driving vehicle in the future?

Work, of course—but vehicles might also become a space for leisure. A place where you can do karaoke, play board games, video games… I imagine space for parties, real spaces for entertainment where we’d spend time together with multiple people. Like a kind of reinvented Blablacar, but without drivers and where everyone travels together at the same time to play. The journey time would serve to create or reinforce social ties. For people with very busy schedules, autonomous systems could give us some space to breathe—where you could, say, give yourself a manicure. I envision a kind of ‘wellbeing bubble’ in which you can take time for yourself. The question here is how to turn travel time into free time for things we don’t have time to do. In terms of ideas, this opens up a vast field of possibilities and innovation.

What role might virtual reality play in these vehicles? Fulfil the promise of ‘travel within travel’?

For those who work, VR might allow you to feel like you’re at the office—or at least provide a space to concentrate in that would help you ignore what’s around you. We’ll no longer be getting into cars, but into another world. Virtual reality holds very great potential.

Interview by Sarah Sabsibo, L’ADN journalist

L’ADN is the media on innovation that every day analyses the best concepts of the new economy on the web and in magazine format.

Copyrights: Brice Coustillet, Ryoji Iwata – Unsplash

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smart charging, the perfect partner for the electric car!

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

TIPS & TRICKS

smart charging, the perfect partner for the electric car!

Plug in your electric car and let it handle the rest of the process from there, thanks to smart charging. Mobilize, the Renault Group brand dedicated to new mobility and vehicle-related services, provides users with technologies that modulate recharging according to information sent in real time by the electrical network. What’s the point? To limit costs, favour low-carbon energies and promote the general balance of the electricity network.

connectivity
electric vehicle
energy transition

advantage n#1: Save money by scheduling your charging

The connectivity of Renault electric vehicles means that home charging can be started or stopped according to the tariffs applied by the electricity supplier or the availability of electricity on the network. Thus the driver need not worry about studying the potential changes in the rate over time to start charging: he simply plugs in his car and sets the desired end-of-charge time and charge level. Everything then happens out of sight and mind.

advantage n#2: Benefit from green electricity from your own electric car charging station

The benefits of smart charging are real at the individual level, but they also extend to the collective. For example, the car will activate charging when the network operators indicate a surplus of production, in particular when the sun hits the photovoltaic panels or the wind blows on the windmills. Conversely, it will interrupt charging when demand exceeds supply to avoid exacerbating the deficit, for example when everyone turns on their household appliances at the same time and renewable energy sources are less productive.

At the grid level, smart charging increases the share of green electricity in the energy mix because it encourages the use of energy sources that have the merit of being renewable and low-carbon, but the defect of being intermittent. As there is no need for a storage phase, smart charging makes full use of this electricity as soon as it is produced

Advantage n#3: Being rewarded for flexibility

Saving money is good, but making money is better! An application like Mobilize Smart Charge knows how to trigger or interrupt charging to maintain a balance, in real time, between the production and consumption of energy over the grid.

The driver plugs in his vehicle when he gets home, and programs his departure time with its associated charge level in the Mobilize Smart Charge app, easily and one time only. From there, the application takes over, recharging the vehicle based on the availability of electricity on the grid, while ensuring the desired level of operating range is reached.

In the Netherlands, France and Belgium, where the Mobilize Smart Charge application is available, drivers of Renault E-TECH electric models (Megane, ZOE, Twingo, and soon Kangoo) are paid for their contribution to the electrical grid’s balance. In other words, the flexibility they allow for when charging is rewarded. In some cases, the amount earned can reach the equivalent of a full recharge per month, and that’s just the beginning.

The next step? That would be bi-directional charging, which will allow an electric car to return part of the electricity stored in its battery to the grid. Whereas the current smart charging helps to absorb production peaks, reversibility of charging will help to not only relieve the grid during consumption peaks, but also to store renewable electricity produced locally to promote self-consumption. By acting as a temporary energy reserve, the electric car will become a real link in the electricity network.

advantage n#4: Operating in an ecosystem conducive to intelligent mobility and charging

As the European pioneer in the field of electric cars, Renault Group, through its Mobilize brand, has brought the main players of the energy world together to create conditions favourable to the democratisation of these technologies. Electricity suppliers, distribution or transportation networks, local communities, public authorities: all the stakeholders must be involved to meet the challenges of green mobility.

Several pilot programmes have demonstrated this strong commitment throughout Europe. Need an example? In Utrecht, in the Netherlands, a set of solar panels installed on the roofs of buildings supplies the energy for a fleet of 150 ZOEs made available to residents.

These full-scale tests are being conducted to measure the uses and refine the operation of the algorithms that will draw or inject energy into the grid as needed. Such technological advances will benefit as many people as possible in the future.

Copyrights: Renault Communication

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Zity by Mobilize, a 100% electric car share

Posted on 28 October 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

CHECK POINT

Zity by Mobilize, a 100% electric car share

Zity by Mobilize is an electric car-sharing service with no terminals or stations. It is a mobility solution that helps to reduce traffic congestion and encourages the use of more environmentally-friendly car share.

connectivity
electric vehicle
energy transition
shared mobility

Check 1: meeting the needs of major cities

Launched in 2017, Zity (renamed Zity by Mobilize in 2021) is a car-sharing service operating in 3 major European cities: Madrid and Milan.

For major cities, such a service meets the travel needs of their residents with a solution that is accessible, environmentally friendly and complementary to existing transport services.

To use the Zity by Mobilize service, all you have to do is download the free, dedicated application onto a smartphone to locate, reserve, open, lock and return a Dacia Spring, as well as pay for your journey. This ultra-flexible service is available without subscription. This ease of use is designed to encourage a shift from ownership to sharing, i.e. getting a vehicle when you really need it.

Check 2: more restrictions on city centre access

In terms of new mobility in the centres of large cities, Madrid is a pioneer. With four operators in place by 2017, Madrid’s car-sharing offer is among the most advanced in Europe. It was a development pushed along by city policies like the “Madrid Central” plan adopted at the end of 2018, which encourages the use of public transport or lower-impact options, such as bicycles. By offering a 100% electric carsharing service, Zity by Mobilize gives the ability to drive in the heart of Madrid and in low-emission zones.

Check 3: electric car sharing service, a trend in Europe

Electric carsharing is a means of relieving congestion in city centres, all while meeting the need to improve the quality of life in urban areas.

As part of the Renault Group, a pioneer in electric vehicles in Europe, Mobilize sees mobility as a set of services designed around the vehicle and is involved in developing electric car-sharing services.

Nearly 1,200 Dacia Spring are available for car sharing via Zity by Mobilize in Madrid and Milan.

Copyrights: Renault Communication, iStock

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connectivity working to support low-carbon mobility and energy consumption: Mobilize at your service

Posted on 30 September 202221 August 2024 by Sébastien Besançon

SCOREBOARD

connectivity working to support low-carbon mobility and energy consumption: Mobilize at your service

To promote carbon neutrality, Mobilize is putting data at the service of mobility and energy. Digital is everywhere, at the core of everyday apps and platforms for professionals. Here’s an explanation in figures!

connectivity
electric vehicle
energy transition
shared mobility

Individuals

with smart charging, you pay 15% less for your top-ups at home*

Currently available in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, Mobilize Smart Charge controls electric vehicle charging intelligently. This app also helps to keep the electrical grid balanced. It promotes the use of renewable energies by compensating for their intermittency. Budget wise, Mobilize Smart Charge also supports off-peak hours, with financial rewards for smart green electricity use.

Professionnals

instantly manage your vehicle fleet on the iCabbi digital platform!

Because it computes customer routes and driver availability in real time, iCabbi optimises fleet management for taxi and chauffeur-driven vehicle companies. A Mobilize partner since 2018, this Irish company uses the cloud to deliver an automated solution designed to meet the expectations of passengers, drivers and managers alike. A fleet performance analysis tool thanks to the data collected – iCabbi Insights – is also available.

Individuals

book your Zity car-sharing vehicle whenever you want!

Thanks to the Zity by Mobilize app available on Android and Apple store, you can rent an electric car whenever you want, at any time. Operational in Madrid, Lyon and Milan, Zity by Mobilize convinces its customers, the “Zityzens”, thanks to its ease of use and efficiency.

Professionnals

equip your vehicles and manage your fleet with glide.io!

With more than 6,700 vehicles already equipped with the glide.io technology in 150 projects across the globe, Mobilize subsidiary glide.io is targeting businesses, mobility operators and car rental companies who want to expand the use of car sharing through digital tools. The principle? To optimise car pools, glide.io is developing a technology that is compatible with all vehicle types. This 100% digital platform is linked to on-board units that monitor each vehicle in real time.

Individuals

travel light across Europe with Mobilize Charge Pass

The Mobilize Charge Pass app delivers access to a network of over 600,000 charge points across 25 European countries. It lets users locate the nearest recharging station with an available charge point compatible with their vehicle, shows the tariffs and displays the route to get there. Once the car is plugged in, a charging session can be started with Mobilize Charge Pass. Only a single payment card required for all charge point operators – no subscription.

Individuals

for one hour’s vehicle rental in Ikea car parks

Can’t get your Ikea furniture into your car? Just download the Mobilize Share app to your smartphone and let it guide you. Mobilize rents a van, from 15 euros per hour, directly on Ikea car parks. The two brands are partnering to provide this service. With just a few clicks, a selfie and some information to provide (driving licence, etc.), users are done registering in 15 minutes max.

Individuals

the number of vehicles already eligible for the battery certificate is constantly increasing!

Thanks to its technology based on driving and charging data provided by the electric vehicle’s Battery Management System (BMS), Mobilize launched the “battery certificate” in December 2021. This document attests to an electric vehicle battery’s remaining energy capacity. By February 2022, the battery certificate covered 175,000 cars and that figure is set to rise. Accessible from a smartphone and the internet, the certificate is aimed at users of vehicles from the Renault and Dacia electric E-TECH family (Megane, Zoe, Kangoo, Twingo and Spring). What’s the main benefit of this innovation? Increasing the residual value of used electric vehicles by reassuring the buyer about their battery capacity.

^* Typical savings calculated on the basis of charging a Megane E- tech 100% electric (60 kWh) car in France from a mains socket under a “peak/off-peak” utility contract (with a difference of 2 cents between the two tariffs) through 100% use of the Mobilize Smart Charge service in off-peak hours only (based on a kWh tariff of 17 cents) and an annual consumption of 2,600 kWh (i.e. 20,000 km/year, or 43 full battery recharges).

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