By Dan Hubert, Founder and CEO of AppyWay

The process of trying to park on the streets – driving around looking for a space, watching for wardens, and trying to meet a deadline, all with a stream of traffic right behind you – isn’t exactly one of life’s pleasures. Yet, a different, smarter, tech-enabled approach is possible and gaining ground in the UK and globally. It is set to help deliver smarter cities, cleaner inner-city environments and healthier urban economies too.

Drivers in the UK waste an average of four days a year (91 hours) looking for a parking space^[1] and their parking fines come to around £1.2 billion a year. The current approach to parking also contributes significantly to congestion and emissions in cities. And the overall loss to the UK economy is about £26 billion a year when you add up all the fines, missed revenue opportunities, the cost of congestion and delays, the environmental impact, opportunity costs, and other societal costs.

Digitising the process is the key

So what exactly is this new approach? It’s digitised parking solutions. Excitingly, it is now possible to digitise the entire process of finding and securing parking spaces in the most seamless, efficient way. In fact, the technology is available to deliver effective utilisation of parking space, integrate payments and implement local traffic regulations. And by digitising on and off-street parking assets, drivers can access information on parking space availability and enjoy frictionless ‘one-click’ payments.

That is because today’s digitised parking utilises IoT technology, which enables smart parking sensors to provide absolute certainty on parking time, location, payments and other related interactions. Meanwhile, the cars themselves are increasingly becoming part of the traffic management infrastructure, using connected car data to help sense parking space availability.

This digitised approach to traffic management can bring significant benefits to road users. But for local authorities, there are benefits too. In the UK, the 418 councils spend around £1 billion a year operating parking services, while the cost of managing kerb regulation runs to only about £126 million a year.

Councils are therefore missing out on fair, effective and efficient revenue generation, along with the opportunity to reduce congestion and air pollution. And at a time of reduced revenues due to coronavirus and already tight budgets, this smart approach to traffic management presents councils with a real opportunity to optimise parking solutions. It is a seamless process that generates revenues thanks to increased dwell time by consumers and more efficient business use of parking.

Harrogate leads by example

Take Harrogate Borough Council. It faced typical challenges that many towns around the UK do – traffic congestion, concerns over air quality, reduction in central government funding and parking challenges in the town centre – but decided to take action through technology. In collaboration with North Yorkshire County Council, Harrogate implemented AppyWay’s Smart City Parking Solution. As the name suggests, this is specifically designed to best serve those needing to park whilst providing a kerbside management tool for local authorities to better manage and optimise space.

The Smart City Parking Solution was launched in January 2019 and involved the installation of 2,156 smart sensors and the consolidation of digitised parking data, parking sensors, parking payments, automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) and linear pricing into a single solution for the two authorities. This enabled a totally seamless experience for users of the mobile app developed by AppyWay.

The new solution allowed users to find on-street or off-street parking with real-time availability and then start paying for parking sessions that end automatically when they drive away with a single click – One Click Parking. Also established was an entirely frictionless experience for drivers when passing through ANPR barriers in car parks. Meanwhile, the local authorities can see how their assets are consumed using a web-hosted analytics platform.

Feedback from consumers in Harrogate was very positive. Of those surveyed, 56% said they saved time parking, while 62% said they stayed longer in Harrogate as a result of not worrying about their parking ticket expiring.

Fleet operators benefit too

But while the benefits to private car drivers and local councils are clear, the system has real advantages for fleet operators too. In London, for example, Pimlico Plumbers were wasting between 20-30 minutes each time they needed a parking space and would receive 4-5 parking tickets a day due to lack of availability. They also had to guess the length of time required for a job, sometimes paying for 4-5 hours when the job only took one hour. This meant wasted time, stress and unnecessary cost.

To address this, AppyWay provided its “One Click Parking” solution to Pimlico Plumbers. Using a combination of M2M dongles and a mobile app, fleet drivers were able to find available spaces quickly and easily, start a parking session with one click and only paying for the minutes parked.

Road ahead is clear

The good news is that the above examples are not one offs, but very much the direction of travel for the whole country. That’s because such standardised and interoperable parking data forms part of the UK Government’s ‘Future of Mobility: Urban Strategy.’ Key priorities in the strategy – tackling air pollution, congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and noise pollution – are all supported by the parking management solution.

Ultimately, the result of such tech-driven parking solutions is to ease stress, save drivers’ time and make city centres more pleasant, all while helping local councils find huge efficiencies in their traffic management programs. And what’s not to like in that?

Dan Hubert is Founder and CEO of AppyWay, a leading kerbside management and smart parking technology company. Follow him on Twitter @DanHubertAppy

The post Digitising Parking Management appeared first on Tech Trends.

By Amr Salem, CEO & Sridhar Gadhi, Founder & Chairman of Quantela

Technology companies have traditionally sold their products in much the same way as physical commodities. There was little or no difference between buying a toothbrush from your local supermarket or MS office for your computer. We can call this model of transaction – where the customer pays a certain price for a certain product and considers it the end of the story – Consumption 1.0.

After the financial crisis in 2008, however, technology providers had to find innovative ways to deal with drastically reduced IT budgets, and increase their addressable market by lowering the barrier to entry for smaller customers. The introduction of cloud computing made it possible to deliver “anything as a service” (XaaS), and new flexible consumption models have emerged that are far more economical. This model, where a subscription gives you the right to use MS Office rather than paying the full cost upfront, can be described as Consumption 2.0. Like Microsoft, most tech companies such as AWS, SAP, Oracle, IBM, and Cisco offer their products on a subscription basis, and for many there is no longer even an option to purchase the product in any other way.

The relationship between the Offered Value and the Aspired Value should define the price the buyer should pay to the supplier
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Many companies, however, continued to innovate this consumption model by offering customers the opportunity to only pay for what they actually use. This, in turn, lowered the barrier of entry for smaller customers and increased the addressable market for firms such as SAP, which entered the SME space after it was known for years as the Rolls Royce of ERP, only accessible to large enterprises. These “pay-as-you-grow” consumption models offer customers a minimum entry point based on their needs today, and as they grow and their requirements change, they can then buy more licenses, storage, processing power, features or bandwidth as required. These models were not necessarily restricted to XaaS or subscription pricing structures, but have also been applied to some perpetual or CAPEX based pricing offers. Let’s call this Consumption 3.0.

Throughout this evolution, customers became better educated and empowered, and we have seen a power shift towards the user, who increasingly questions why they have to pay for the technology they consume, and not just pay for the value they are getting out of it.

Technology companies have traditionally sold their products in much the same way as physical commodities
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Aspired, Offered, and Economic Value

This is the right question to ask. Customers are seeking quantifiable value from their technology investments. Before technology buyers commit to a new technology investment, they must identify the outcomes they are looking for, and convert these outcomes into economic value. This Aspired Value is the value gained by the buyer from the economic outcomes generated by the technology implementation.

Once the buyer’s aspired value is understood, the technology provider needs to deliver on those desired outcomes. This is the Offered Value by the supplier.

After the financial crisis in 2008 technology providers had to find innovative ways to deal with drastically reduced IT budgets
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Logically, the relationship between the Offered Value and the Aspired Value should define the price the buyer should pay to the supplier. A solution from “Supplier A” that has a higher Offered Value than a solution from “Supplier B” should be more expensive to acquire by the buyer, as long as it is aligned with the Aspired Value and the outcomes the buyer is seeking. This brings us to how technology companies should be re-thinking their pricing models and offerings so that they reflect a clear co-relation between Aspired, Offered, and Economic Value.

When a technology provider understands the outcomes desired and can convert these into economic value for the buyer, they are able to effectively use that projected economic value as collateral, enabling customers to obtain internal buy-in, approvals and financing by justifying the budget ask with data.

Most technology providers will gradually pivot towards some form of Outcome-Based model which aligns the goals of all stakeholders
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Smart City technology is a case in point. The benefits of deploying these to optimize assets usage, reduce cost of maintenance and generate additional revenues, are widely recognized, yet most cities seeking to implement these struggle with finding the needed budget.

Therefore, Smart City solution providers are looking at collaborative ways to unlock economic value, which could, in turn, be used to finance the capital required to deploy the solution. Smart Lighting is a good use case here, where savings generated by lower energy consumption due to LED lights efficiency and smarter controls reduce operating costs associated with street lighting. These savings can be used to guarantee and repay the debt of financing the city borrowed to deploy the smart lighting infrastructure.

Smart City solution providers are looking at collaborative ways to unlock economic value
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This most evolved outcome-based consumption model, where the initial financing is guaranteed and repaid by the sought economic value outcomes from the technology solution, can be called Consumption 4.0, where customers are not paying for consumption, but rather become collaborative partners with the technology provider, as both strive to achieve mutually beneficial goals and KPIs.

Outcome-Based Financing is the vehicle used by technology providers to address this emerging trend. This is a sign of maturity in the technology industry, which will push providers to focus everything they do from R&D to advertising on the value and outcomes they are delivering to the market. This model is still in its early stages, yet we are already seeing many examples of long-term concessions for Smart technologies, Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) being formed to share value between private and public sector, and advertising revenues financing digital signage projects in large malls or stadia.

In the not-so-distant future, this evolution will come to a head, and we believe most technology providers will gradually pivot towards some form of Outcome-Based model which aligns the goals of all stakeholders. This will not only generate the best economic outcomes, but also democratize access to technology and generate extra value that filters down to individual citizens and benefits society at large.

The post The Evolution of Technology Consumption appeared first on Tech Trends.

And if what we’ve seen at VanMoof’s latest launch in London is anything to go by, they might well be on their way to achieving their lofty goal.

People don’t really need to be sold on the advantages of getting on your bike where it comes to urban mobility. Compared to driving, cycling is better for the environment, cheaper, less issues with parking, and any time there is traffic you’re likely to get to your destination sooner than the cars anyway. And unless you really enjoy getting up-close and personal with random strangers every day, commuting on public transport can quickly lose its appeal, even if we forget about price rises, strikes and random delays.

Compared to driving, cycling is better for the environment, cheaper, less issues with parking, and any time there is traffic you’re likely to get to your destination sooner than the cars
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Yet there are also some issues – ranging from minor annoyances to big problems – that put some folks off cycling too. Exercise is great, but arriving to work all sweaty can be a problem if you’ve got a meeting first thing, or if your employer doesn’t offer proper shower and changing facilities, for example. Then there’s the issue of where to store your bike so it doesn’t get stolen, and safety and maintenance concerns.

That’s why brothers Taco and Ties Carlier started VanMoof back in 2009. To solve all the problems that were stopping ordinary folk from using bikes as their primary city-based mode of transport, just as people do in their native Amsterdam.

From the start, the remit was to be different from any other bike company out there. They avoided hiring people from the industry because they might be reluctant to break the rules and innovate, and they decided that they would make a premium, cool – yet affordable – product to sell directly to consumers, building a global community of fans. Think Tesla, but with fewer wheels.

” To compete at that level, we had to make everything better, faster, simpler, and more convenient. We’ve seen similar business models in the tech industry, but for the 100-year-old bike industry, this is pretty disruptive,” says VanMoof Co-founder Ties Carlier. “We’ve changed everything from design, to production, to the entire consumer experience. We strive to invest as much as possible into the product, and then get it directly to the rider – more bike, less BS.”

If anything shows that there was definitely a gap in the market for that, is the fact that when the VanMoof’s Electrified S2 & X2 became available for pre-order, 6000 people signed up without ever having seen it. That makes it the most successful pre-order launch in cycling history at over €15m so far. That’s certainly impressive, but not really that surprising if you consider how the e-bike market is booming, with global sales predicted to grow by over 60% to $8.5 billion by 2025.

When the VanMoof’s Electrified S2 & X2 became available for pre-order, 6000 people signed up without ever having seen it
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In the years that followed, VanMoof has indeed built that loyal following (and you know you’re at the cool kids’ table when you get David Beckham to take a ride on your bike) with stylish design as well as a some deliciously geeky features to go alongside inherently practical ones. I particularly enjoyed the demo of the alarm system, which features an animated skull so full of malevolent personality you’ll be tempted to name it (at least I would. Skeletor, anyone?)

You know you’re at the cool kids’ table when you get David Beckham to take a ride on your bike
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But even if you’re not down with your pop culture 80s references and literally have trouble telling one end of a bike from another, you’ll still probably like the seamless, idiot-proof and utterly intuitive features of the VanMoof bikes. For example, the bike connects to your phone via an app and instantly recognizes when you approach it, unlocking itself without any need for you to rummage in your bag for keys or struggle with a padlock.

The e-bike market is booming, with global sales predicted to grow by over 60% to $8.5 billion by 2025
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And although there are plenty of existing features to delight current users, there are also enticing possibilities that spring to mind for future iterations, such as integration with maps and navigation apps (as someone with no sense of direction, I can also tell you that a display which indicated which way I should turn to reach my destination would be a godsend) and perhaps the ability to personalize the sound of the bell, much as you would a ringtone. In fact, I believe I would probably have mine set to this “get out of the bike lane” tune by an anonymous cycling hero that went viral a while back…

So let’s delve into the tasty features of the Electrified S2 and X2:

• Intelligent Motor – Smart, powerful integrated front hub motor offering pedal assist up to 32km/h on demand via the boost button (in US mode; EU mode restricts to 25km/h in line with EU regulations.
• Powerful battery – Capacity increases by over 20% to VanMoof Li-ON, 36V, integrated LG cells, removable for servicing.

• Turbo boost – Press the button on the handlebar for on-demand acceleration, getting you up hills and away from crowds at the flash of a green traffic light.
• Quick charge – Empty to full in just 4 hours. Charges to 50% in under 80 minutes.
• Stealth lock – A keyless integrated module that immobilizes the bike and auto-activates the theft defense with a single kick.
• Ultimate Theft Defense – When tampered with, the bike responds with three phases of alarm sounds and flashing lights, telling would-be thieves this bike is too dangerous to steal.
• Rider Recognition – Secure Bluetooth technology allows the bike to respond when the owner is near, automatically unlocking and disarming the Theft Defense system.
• Smart Cartridge – The brains of the bike are tucked into a removable (and replaceable) cylinder, so buying online is seamless and worry-free.
• Matrix Display – Over 160 responsive lights bring the frame to life, displaying speed, battery level, and power-assist level.
• Connected App – Remembers your parking spot, controls the lights, power and theft defense settings. over-the-air updates mean the bike gets smarter over time.
• New Frame Design – VanMoof’s iconic front and rear lights have evolved to fit seamlessly into the re-engineered frame, which houses more tech and power in a sleek new body.
• Tokyo-inspired X Frame – Originally a Japan exclusive, the feisty unisex X-frame is now available worldwide, suited to all riders between 155 and 200 cm

The VanMoof bike connects to your phone via an app and instantly recognizes when you approach it, unlocking itself without any need for you to rummage in your bag for keys or struggle with a padlock
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VanMoof currently has brand stores in Amsterdam, London, Berlin, Tokyo, and San Francisco
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Having seen the strong trend towards smart mobility in places like Holland, I don’t find it surprising that this has been created by a Dutch company. What I do find encouraging is how it’s resonated all over the world already, with VanMoof opening brand shops not only in Amsterdam, but also in London,Paris, Berlin, Tokyo, New York, Taipei and San Francisco.

Having seen the strong trend towards smart mobility in places like Holland, I don’t find it surprising that this has been created by a Dutch company
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You can still reserve the VanMoof Electrified S2 & X2 at vanmoof.com for £100, with a current delivery window of Dec-Jan (just in time for those new year resolutions and rail fare increases). Early bird riders will enjoy an £800 discount on the list price of £3,198, paying the balance of £2,398 before the bike ships. And although that does sound like a lot of money, compared to a car or high-end bike it’s actually pretty reasonable. As someone who used to commute by train, I can also attest to the fact that it is significantly cheaper than a yearly season ticket from some popular London commuter destinations, so I can see this taking off in a really big way. You heard it here first.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post More Bike, less BS appeared first on Tech Trends.

Less than a quarter of UK citizens have heard of smart cities.

Posterscope surveyed more than 5,500 consumers about their opinion on smart cities and their key features, and the key findings are laid out in the infographic below, including:

• New research reveals that only 23% of people have heard of the term ‘smart city’, with young, men and tech adopters most likely to be aware
• However, initiatives that provide real life benefits such as smart water, smart energy and smart traffic control are rated highly
• Huge knowledge gap exists between what consumers know about and what they want from smart cities
• Partnerships with brands and telecoms operators could be the way to drive innovation and increase consumer awareness

Less than a quarter of UK consumers are aware of the term ‘smart cities’
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The report reveals that in order to drive engagement, consumers need to be able to clearly picture the benefits of smart cities. For example, smart transport overall was rated at 71% usefulness, but when specific transport initiatives were described in more detail, people rated them more highly, with smart traffic control (87%), smart public parking (83%) and real-time personalised transport information (74%) deemed the most useful. This is because Smart transport initiatives will help solve real-life problems like that of the hidden cost of driving, such as sitting in traffic and searching for parking, which is estimated to cost UK drivers around £1,924 each in 2017.

The report reveals that in order to drive engagement, consumers need to be able to clearly picture the benefits of smart cities
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Smart health also came high up the list of highly-rated initiatives as consumers’ recognise the future potential. The survey found that 20% of consumers currently own a wearable device, with the most popular being smart health/fitness devices (14%). However of those consumers who don’t currently own a wearable, 55% would consider buying one in the future, so it’s likely that wearables could become the norm, making smart health initiatives, such as linking wearables to GP surgery records for example, a reality for tens of millions of people.

“While initial analysis of this research suggests that the public have little awareness or understanding of the Smart City concept or initiatives, when we dig a little deeper into specific features we see a different picture emerge,” commented Nick Halas at Posterscope. “People are interested and will embrace those schemes that they see providing a real benefit or making a genuine difference to their daily lives, such as smart utilities, smart transport and, of course, smart infrastructure that provides services such as free wi-fi or power. The appetite is there, but there’s a huge knowledge gap that needs to be overcome with increased awareness and education of consumer benefits.”

Sitting in traffic and searching for parking cost an estimated £1,924 to each UK driver in 2017
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The research also explored consumer attitudes to brand involvement in smart city schemes and the results reveal positive outcomes for brands that support these initiatives, which may provide an additional impetus for driving innovation in smart city initiatives. Over 60% of respondents said they would be happy to see advertising or branding funding smart city schemes, while 52% said they would think more favourably of brands that partner with organisations to provide smart city projects. Encouragingly, 42% of those interviewed also stated that they would be more likely to consider buying a product or service from a brand that contributes to the provision of a smart city scheme.

“We need to combine the commercial commitment and awareness of big name brands, the IoT capabilities of telecoms operators and the infrastructure of councils and utility providers to create initiatives which help consumers understand and embrace the benefits that a smart city framework can bring. Our Smart Bench project in 2017 saw Cancer Research UK, Strawberry Energy and Posterscope’s community division Urban Partnerships come together to provide solar-powered benches with mobile device charging ports and free Wi-Fi access to consumers who could donate £2 to the charity using contactless payment technology, Halas concludes”

Smart City initiatives will require the use of data, and this will need to be given careful consideration in any smart city scheme. 53% of respondents expect to have to provide personal information in order to buy or benefit from smart city services, while 42% said they were happy to do so in turn for services that are useful to them. Unsurprisingly, though, 79% expressed concern that brands and corporations may not use their data responsibly. This suggests that brands and scheme operators will need to work hard for consumers to feel confident in sharing their data, and ensure scheme benefits far outweigh those concerns.

53% of respondents expect to have to provide personal information in order to buy or benefit from smart city services, while 42% said they were happy to do so in turn for services that are useful to them
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Smart in the City by Posterscope UK

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Infographic: Smart Cities Awareness appeared first on Tech Trends.

For much of the last century, our working lives have been dominated by the 9-to-5 grind. Recent research has broken this down in numbers – highlighting how much time we spend in the office, commuting or waiting for the kettle to boil.

While the research data is more than a little depressing in terms of what it means for our work-life balance, the advent of new technology is evolving the way we approach work, so those numbers look set to be transformed.

Allowing for holidays, the average office worker will spend 82,068 hours at work over their lifetime
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Time in the Office

A huge amount of your life is likely to be spent in the workplace. Allowing for holidays, the average office worker will spend 82,068 hours at work over their lifetime, which amounts to 3,420 days or 9.4 years based on a working week of 35 hours. Yet new tech developments will see the time you actually spend in the workplace drop over the next few years, with remote working and working from home becoming more commonplace.

New tech developments will see the time you actually spend in the workplace drop over the next few years, with remote working and working from home becoming more commonplace
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The major barrier to remote working has historically been the struggle to maintain communication between staff if they are working at separate locations. New communications technology has largely overcome this challenge, with email, conference calling, video conferencing and instant messaging all allowing employees to stay connected even when they are miles apart.

Even after the rise of e-communications, there were still problems with regularly working from home. Sharing and accessing any files needed to finish work was difficult to accomplish securely from a remote location. Portable equipment, such as tablets and laptops, combined with file sharing applications like Google Drive, iCloud and Dropbox have enabled even small businesses to empower their employees to work remotely.

The major barrier to remote working has been the struggle to maintain communication between staff working at separate locations
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For large or more established businesses, a virtual private network (VPN) further improves the ability of employees to work from home. A VPN allows authorised users to access a company’s network from an approved machine. It means that workers are able to work on up-to-date documents and immediately share them with colleagues.

The result of these developments will see a severe reduction in the number of hours spent in the office for a lot of workers. Some studies predict as much as 75% of work across the US will be carried out remotely by 2020. Figures are similar for the UK, with research showing that if flexi- and remote working options continue to grow at their current rate, over 50% of the country’s work force will be working remotely by 2020. You can find more information about ways to defend your sleep as a freelancer in this handy remote working guide from sleepadvisor.org.

Portable equipment, such as tablets and laptops, combined with file sharing applications like Google Drive, iCloud and Dropbox have enabled even small businesses to empower their employees to work remotely
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The Future of Commuting

No longer having to journey daily to and from the office will significantly reduce the hours spent commuting. Currently, the average UK worker will travel 216,932 miles commuting over the course of their life – a distance which would get you 91% of the way to the moon.

As much as 75% of work in the US will be carried out remotely by 2020
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In addition to this mileage being sliced, with working from home doing away with much commuting time, new developments in transport will also transform our journeys to and from work.

With the advent of driverless cars, the commute can be transformed from time spent frustrated at the wheel to additional opportunity for working remotely. Being able to work on the commute, using a laptop, a 4G dongle and your company’s VPN, will lessen the time spent away from home every day, as you can get started on the day’s work whilst travelling.

Currently, the average UK worker will travel 216,932 miles commuting over the course of their life
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Although driverless cars are still a long way from being the norm, they are now in the advanced stages of testing, and have been out on the roads in both the UK and USA. They may become commonplace in time to make an impact on your working life.

The Cost of Commuting

Not only will the time and length of commuting be cut by new technology, it is also likely to have an impact on the cost of your journey to work. Currently driving a car to and from work throughout your working life costs £19,444 in fuel. With sales of diesel and petrol vehicles set to banned by 2040, this cost is going to change.

Driving to and from work throughout your working life costs £19,444 in fuel
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Electric alternatives to petrol and diesel cars will see expenses for powering your car drop significantly. To charge an electric car to travel 115 miles will cost you £3.64. Over the course of your working life, where you will journey an average of 216,932 miles, this amounts to just £6,677 – a two thirds (66%) saving compared to petrol and diesel cars.

From this data we see that technology will bring more change to our working life, but these changes look like they will be for the better – giving people greater freedom to choose their working environment and cutting down on commuting time and costs.

If flexi and remote working options continue to grow at their current rate, over 50% of the UK's work force will be working remotely by 2020
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Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Infographic: A Lifetime of Work in Numbers appeared first on Tech Trends.

Dubai’s goal is to have 25% of its public transport self-driving by 2030.

A new partnership between The Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) of Dubai and HERE Technologies will develop data infrastructure for driverless transportation. RTA and HERE will conduct a number of pilots aimed at enabling HD Live Map, HERE’s map for autonomous cars, for public service vehicles operating in Dubai.

RTA and HERE will conduct a number of pilots aimed at enabling HD Live Map, HERE’s map for autonomous cars, for public service vehicles operating in Dubai
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HD Live Map is a high definition and self-updating map designed to provide vehicles with accurate information about what is happening on the road. This technology will map the “City of Gold” for the first time using high definition technology – collating and analysing layers of data from across the city – from environmental data, through to car positioning and congestion.

HD Live Map is a high definition and self-updating map designed to provide vehicles with accurate information about what is happening on the road
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The partnership uses new map and location technology to support the deployment of self-driving vehicles at EXPO 2020, which Dubai will be hosting
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The core purpose of this partnership is to increase the quality of life for people in Dubai and prepare for a fully Autonomous World in line with Dubai’s Smart City strategy and its self-driving transport roadmap. This partnership looks to utilise new map and location technology to support the deployment of self-driving vehicles at EXPO 2020, which Dubai will be hosting.

Dubai’s goal is to have 25% of its public transport self-driving by 2030
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HERE Open Location Platform (OLP) will connect vehicles with each other as well as the road infrastructure
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It will use the HERE Open Location Platform (OLP) as a system to intelligently connect vehicles with each other as well as the road infrastructure, such as traffic lights and sensors on roadways and sidewalks. OLP enables multiple automakers and other organizations and sources to transmit live, anonymized sensor data that is then aggregated, enriched with high-precision location data, and transmitted back to cars in the form of near real-time, geo-targeted, contextually-relevant information about changing road conditions.

“RTA has always been a forerunner in harnessing the most sophisticated technologies through collaborating with the world’s best providers,” says Abdulla Al Madani, CEO of RTA’s Corporate Technology Support Services Sector.

This is yet another example of governments investing in the deployment of location technologies in the development of a data infrastructure to support safe, sustainable and efficient autonomous transportation, something that Tech Trends also reported in a recent trip to Holland.

“Dubai recognizes the importance of new location technologies in making transportation more efficient, safer and sustainable for people,” adds Leon van de Pas, SVP, Internet of Things at HERE Technologies. Driven by our vision of enabling an autonomous world for everyone, the HERE Technologies team is excited and energized to help Dubai deliver on its ambition plans for a driverless future.”

The post Preparing for a Fully Autonomous World appeared first on Tech Trends.

How the Netherlands is futureproofing its transport technology strategy and infrastructure by looking at the bigger picture.

The problem of moving people around efficiently is a bit of a ticking time bomb. The global population continues to grow and concentrate in already overcrowded urban centres. Add to this the fact that we’re all getting older and living longer, and the urgent need to cut down carbon emissions, and we’ve got a serious challenge on our hands. Technology will no doubt play a huge role in addressing that problem, but many of the people working on that at the moment are not doing so from Silicon Valley, but in Holland.

The problem of sustainable and efficient mobility is a big global challenge
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It will probably surprise nobody to learn that the Netherlands has the highest bicycle usage rates in the world. Much less known, however, is the fact that they also have a long and proud history of pioneering automated driving technology going back to 1995, or that its electric bus manufacturers are thriving due to the government’s directive that by 2025 every public transport vehicle sold in the country will have to be zero-emission.

I learned all this while touring Holland last month as a guest of the Netherlands Foreign Investment Agency, who were keen to show off their innovation in the area of automotive technology and mobility.

As is always the case with such trips, you take everything you’re told with a healthy grain of salt, but at the end of a rather gruelling 3-day trip (the Dutch don’t believe in over-pampering journalists and even my jet-lagged American colleagues were held to strict 7:30am starts) I was still left rather impressed.

It wasn’t any one particular company or technology that stood out, however, but the way that everyone I met seemed to be so focused on how it all fit together into long-term and sustainable strategies. Much of the focus where it comes to smart mobility tends to be on the “sexier” tech of self-driving cars – it is, after all, as one of our hosts put it, “the first large-scale deployment of robotics in a society at large in human history” but that’s only part of the picture.

As vehicles become smarter, they will communicate with other vehicles and road devices
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Because as vehicles become smarter and more automated, there will also be advances in data communication between cars on the road and between cars and roadside installations. In other words, there is a need to teach those “autonomous” cars to take into account real-time data about their surroundings and other vehicles.

Automated driving in real life should take into account the role of data, object detection and social driving. These are all incredibly complex things to try and teach a machine, says Robbert Lohman from a start-up called 2getthere, which works on automated transit applications ranging from Automated People Movers to Shared Autonomous Vehicles.

The Netherlands believes that by introducing cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and focusing on infrastructure rather than just vehicles, they will be able to significantly improve traffic flows in terms of safety, efficiency and environmental impact, as well as boosting their competitiveness in terms of job opportunities and economic growth.

Economies of scale quickly add up when looking at broader infrastructure
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And when you start looking at whole infrastructure solutions, the economies of scale quickly start adding up in seemingly unlikely places. Take Heavy Goods Vehicle (HGV) Platooning, for example. This is the practice whereby automated/self-driving technology can be applied so that several trucks can follow one another along a road. By keeping a steady speed and very short distance from one another, they reduce factors such as wind resistance, and manage to significantly reduce fuel consumption as well as dramatically improve safety.

“I expect that our children will live in a world where humans are not allowed to drive. 1.2 million deaths are caused by traffic accidents every year. 95% of those are due to human error,” said Professor Maarten Steinbuch at TU Eindhoven University during a demonstration at the Automotive Engineering Science (AES) Laboratory.

At the Research Automated Driving Delft RADD – a facility enabled by cooperation between governments, knowledge institutions, and small and mid-size business entrepreneurs – I saw what that might look like in practice. The WEpod has been operational since early 2016 is one of the first real-life projects on automated driving in the Netherlands, the first of its kind to be allowed to operate on public roads among normal traffic. The next phase of the project will now cross the border towards Germany, explains Project Leader Jan Willem van der Wiel.

The Netherlands employs an approach of learning by doing
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One key strategic advantage the Netherlands has is that it is small enough so that looking at holistically implementing innovations over the entire country’s infrastructure is a much more practical proposition than in countries like the US, where you’re dealing with much broader territories and regulatory variations.

This, together with the fact that Dutch infrastructure is among the best in Europe (the entire country has 4G coverage) makes it an ideal test bed for piloting ambitious mobility tech. A sort of controlled “living lab” microcosm that allows for reliable real-world data capture.

According to Edwin Nas from the Netherlands Ministry of Infrastructure and The Environment, the belief is that the Dutch “learning by doing” approach gives the country an edge by allowing them to iterate and adjust systems, adapting both domestic and international legislation to the landscape as it evolves.

There is also, he adds, a culture of collaboration both within Holland and at a European and Global level. A coordinated approach at a European level and closer cooperation between governments and stakeholders is needed for these innovative systems to reach market, he concludes.

The Research pipeline is closely integrated into the broader strategic vision too, with many independent and industry-backed R&D hubs such as the Holst Centre developing wireless sensor technologies, and an impressive crop of students achieving remarkable success in international competitions that push experimental and bleeding-edge technologies.

The Research pipeline is closely integrated into the broader strategic vision
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Zuyd University’s Project Fuze, for example, are engineering a 3D-printed race car for Formula Student races in order to demonstrate how it is possible to build lighter and sustainable vehicles without compromising safety, while the Delft Hyperloop team won Elon Musk’s global competition to develop a prototype for an ultra high-speed train system that will in theory allow travellers to go from London to Edinburgh in under 30 minutes. Now the Hardt Hyperloop is working with some of Holland’s largest corporations to develop what they hope will be the world’s first commercial Hyperloop route.

Sustainability is also a big part of the Dutch mobility equation
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Sustainability is also a big part of that overall equation, and various companies are working on the problem of lowering emissions from different angles. Solliance is developing next-generation solar cells, for example, and Eurocarbon produces composite materials from fibres such as glass, aramid carbon and thermoplastics which are up to 50% lighter than steel, and provide up to 40% saving in energy consumption, again without compromising on strength and safety.

This agenda of connecting expertise to improve mobility in a sustainable and socially responsible way is supported by several organisations at a national and local level. Connekt is an independent network which brings together members from across the private sector, academia, public interest groups and government to promote smart, sustainable and social mobility, while the last stop on our tour – Amsterdam Smart City connects communities to share expertise and kick-start projects that futureproof the country’s capital.

And it’s in Amsterdam that some of the most interesting experiments in integrating different solutions into a holistic framework are being rolled out. The idea of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) essentially involves the use of a unified software platform to manage resources so that both individual and collective transport needs are met seamlessly, and with little or no waste of resources.

Mobility as a Service could become a widespread model for city mobility
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Companies like Next Urban Mobility want to create hubs which integrate use of cars, bikes, public transport and delivery services in intelligent and data-driven ways. Their ambition is to be a sort of “Netflix for transportation” providing on-demand services as and when users want it. The reasoning behind this is that – just as most of us would now rather stream content rather than having hundreds of DVD and Blu-rays gathering dust on our shelves – the next generation will probably wonder how anybody could ever justify having a car that’s only used every two weeks or so, as is the case with the average Amsterdam car owner.

As I flew back to the UK – once again thinking glumly of Brexit as I glanced at the “EU passport holders” sign at the airport – my head was spinning from information overload, and I couldn’t quite decide whether this all made perfect sense or if the vision Holland is aiming for was a crazily ambitious pipe dream.

Wasn’t this a case of – to again borrow a popular Brexit analogy – “having your cake and eating it?” Pulling off such a nationwide smart mobility plan would, according to most people I spoke to, eventually deliver an infrastructure where all their citizen’s transportation needs would be met much more quickly, cheaply and safely – all the while advancing science and technology, protecting the environment and contributing to boosting the domestic, regional and global economy.

But I suppose for a country that has more than its fair share of tall good-looking people that speak four or five languages fluently, that might not seem like such a strange thing after all. The Dutch personality combines the practical bend of the Germans with a dose of daredevil craziness, which means they’re often game for experimenting with new things. And since leaps of innovation rarely happen without some degree of risk, they might be onto something.

This article was originally published on The Next Web

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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

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