Self Driving Cars, Maas and IoT: technologies that change mobility

The exponential growth of technologies such as our smartphones, the IoT world (Internet of Things) and the use of GPS (Global Position System) for civilian and not only military purposes, has revolutionized the way we move, travel and send goods from one point to another on the world.

It seems trivial but I think it is appropriate to reflect on the scenarios that were generated as a result of the use of GPS by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and end users: we are not just talking about maps and navigation but also a series of services strictly connected to the infrastructure in which they are developed.

It was 2000 when Bill Clinton decided to allow the integration of the geolocation system within our smartphones, perhaps to improve our experience of digital services, perhaps for other reasons.

In addition to this, the IoT technologies have spread and we hear more and more often about them in contexts such as Smart Cities and Industry 4.0: a real digital nervous system for our planet which plans to connect more than 50 billion objects to the network before the year 2020 (source: IoT Observatory).

Through the use of new services derived from the use of GPS and data collected and processed by the IoT networks, we now have a multitude of services available that allow us to monitor a package containing a product just purchased on Amazon, or we can move from point A to a point B by different means of transport, without the need to go to a ticket office to buy a physical ticket.

For some time now new urban mobility models have been experimenting, including the MaaS, (mobility as a service).

A simple comparison with the world of telephony can immediately explain the concept of Mobility as a service: if in the past we used to pay for every phone call and every message sent, with the advent of smartphones, the tariff plans for consumption were transformed into monthly flat subscriptions.

This is possible by combining public and private transport services through a unified gateway that creates and manages the journey that users can pay with a single account.

Users can pay for each trip or a monthly fee for a limited distance. The key concept behind the MaaS is to offer mobility solutions based on travel needs.

MaaS is not limited to individual mobility: the approach can also be applied to the transport of goods, particularly in urban areas.

The monthly subscription model assumes that a sufficient number of users consume public transport services on a monthly basis to offer a combined transit service.

Users pay a monthly fee and receive bundled transit services, such as unlimited travel on urban public transport, as well as a fixed number of taxi kilometers.
The Pay-as-you-go model (model based on a prepaid card) works well in environments characterized by a high number of “one off” riders or tourists and occasional needs that are repeated with low frequency.

The Maas are not the only evolution in the context of mobility and, probably, the term Self Driving Car sounds more common and familiar when we talk about new technologies applied to transport.

Self driving cars are vehicles that can detect the environment and manage navigation through it without human intervention: these cars detect the details and characteristics of the environment through radar, GPS and artificial vision and are able to update their maps independently, sharing this information in the cloud and making it available to other cars.

One can well imagine which market players come into play in a context such as this where we do not speak only of automotive but also and especially of Information and Communication Technology: companies such as Google and Apple have already tested their prototypes and the real challenge is not only about the production and navigation aspects but rather the ethical and moral paradigm that lies behind every new technological progress.

We started wondering if in the future we will buy cars from Google rather than Mercedes but, the real question, should be referred to who is responsible in case of an accident: the developer of the code that governs the vehicle and takes decisions? The provider of the infrastructure that governs the connection of the car on the network?

The real challenge has ethical and moral implications and a variety of questions to which we do not yet have all the answers: for this reason projects like “The Moral Machine” were born: a platform to gather the opinion towards these technologies from the point of view of the human being.

Through a series of extreme scenarios, the MIT of Boston tries to respond to various dilemmas, just as some hypothesize that the algorithm that will manage the autonomous vehicle will change according to our morals, our ethical principles and other personal values.

One thing is certain: today these algorithms have not yet developed what we humans call “common sense”. A human being will not think twice about crossing the continuous line, finding himself an obstacle in front of him, but what should a self-driving car do? Break the road code for a few moments or collide with the obstacle by respecting the rules?