Transforming transport by building ecosystems, not ego-systems

By Jenny Lindqvist, Head of Intelligent Transport Systems, Ericsson Industry & Society.

Do you remember when phones were just for making calls? Soon we will be asking the same kind of question about connected cars: do you remember when cars were just for driving?

Today the same connectivity that so transformed mobile devices is being embedded throughout the transport infrastructure–in vehicles, streetlights, road sensors, management systems and tollbooths and more. City governments are becoming software developers and data analysts, while car manufacturers are morphing into transport service providers.

By gathering, analysing and sharing data in real-time throughout the traffic ecosystem, we can completely reshape the transport experience for people and its impact on communities. By rerouting traffic congestion can be reduced, accident rates can be lowered by car-to-car communications, and emergency response times shortened by integrating public safety agencies into the traffic system.

Sharing transport infrastructure and its related data can also open up any given user’s transport options. People will no longer need to choose a single way to travel. Instead they can combine public transport and car sharing, for instance, or their private car and a rented bicycle–whatever works best for them at that moment.

Much of the information currently collected from sensors, vehicles, social media and other sources is locked away in unconnected data silos, or ‘ego-systems’

Imagine small electric autonomous vehicles picking up pre-booked passengers at the train station, and being routed smartly through being connected to the city traffic management. Imagine shared vehicles that are always moving and never parked, part of door-to-door mobility services based on several modes of transport. This is possible already today.

However, much of the information currently collected from sensors, vehicles, social media and other sources is locked away in unconnected data silos, or ‘ego-systems’. If we want to develop services like the example above, it is key that all players in the transport ecosystem be able to interact in a safe and globally deployable way. In other words, it is about creating ecosystems, not ego-systems.

This is a mammoth task, as the connected global transport system will soon rival mobile networks in scale and security concerns. Various internet companies are offering commuter services based on crowd-sourced data, while some automotive manufacturers are only just starting to capture internal data from their own vehicles. Yet traffic and transport authorities remain frustrated with their lack of access to raw data from the private sector that could help them improve public services.

Within such a complex infrastructure, we need to ask serious questions concerning trust, ownership, data privacy and the public good. Who owns the data from a connected car or bus stop or streetlight? How will new services be regulated?

We need to develop cross-sector platforms that can simplify data sharing between traditionally separate sectors without losing quality or timeliness. For example, implementing use-case-specific driver consent allows car owners to open up their data without a loss of privacy. And public application program interfaces (APIs) can specify what data is available from different sources in different vehicles at different times, giving people or organisations even more control.

At Ericsson, our approach to connecting the transport industry is focused on providing solutions in three stages: connected, cooperating and automated.

We are now in the cooperating stage, which aims for every player in the ecosystem to share a common language and together build economies of scale. And within this scope, we believe connected transport must meet three criteria:

• multimodal–using different modes of transport in a smart way
• shared–both vehicles and transport infrastructure must be shared in a smart way
• managed–achieved through services such as smart booking, smart traffic management and smart payments.

Our Ericsson Connected Traffic Cloud is a good example of our efforts, a managed cloud solution that enables the sharing of data between connected vehicles, roadside sensors, drivers and road traffic authorities. We are also active in projects such as CONVERGE, focused on cooperative intelligent transport systems, and CoCarX, as well as working with Scania and the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm to develop a traffic lab for future infrastructure.

As vehicles increasingly become connected rolling software platforms, the long-term success of building a connected transport ecosystem ultimately depends on the engagement of all its potential members–from governments and transport authorities to new and established transport operators. It is so important that we all come together to build an innovative, effective and trustworthy digital marketplace for transport services.

These efforts will demand new open interfaces and new collaborations, and the process of transforming will not be easy, whether politically, digitally or from a business perspective. But if the data silos come down and a new marketplace rises, there is great potential to unlock vast financial, environmental and societal value for all.

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See Ericsson’s White Paper, A Wider Sharing Ecosystem at www.ericsson.com/transport