The concept of mobility as a service has been on the lips of automotive and transport public relations for many years now, and yet looking out your office window, little has happened.
It’s pitched as an evolution of transport that will make everything an efficiency utopia of Newton’s Laws of Motion, where nothing is wasted, no mistakes are made and everything moves in harmony.
For the majority who will use such a synchronised system for moving around, in sobering reality, even the chief executive of Intelligent Transport Systems Australia, Susan Harris, believes it will never be a blanketing ecosystem.
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“There will always be the people welded to their cars,” she acknowledges, “there’s a stickiness in people’s behaviour.”
“But there is a large majority who are time poor and looking for change, the regular commuters who sit in traffic, squeeze onto the tram and those who miss their train.
People who are open to change and look for a new way to get around.”
“There are also people reasonably happy with public transport but want it improved.
Then there are provincial areas which need significantly improved transport options.”
ITS has published its major research project findings that show, as Australia debates the implementation of road-user charging, consumers are twice as likely to prefer pay-as-you-go schemes than to have unlimited access akin to mobile phone plans.
According to their 4000-strong survey, 40% of people under 30 would take mobility services compared with 14% of over 65 year olds.
Bus and train remain the most popular form of transport and cycling the least.
Harris says there is a misconception that traditional vehicle ownership is under threat from the mobility as a service future, despite the fact 80% of those surveyed own one or two cars, of whom 60% estimate to spend less than $100 on transport costs.
“We’re looking at giving people an alternative to conventional ownership problems – like the costs,” she explains.
“A system which complements public transport but still provides an opportunity for personalisation.”
The latter is clearly a direction the automotive industry wants to exploit, with numerous OEMs readying themselves by having a suitable business model in play when the time comes.
Harris says the bus industry is ripe for change and predicts all modes will have to find a solution.
“We want rich competition and an ecosystem of varying types of transport,” she says.
“People don’t always want to share, and there’s an incentive to pay more for that premium service.
So carmakers will make sure they’re always selling something – Mercedes-Benz and BMW are looking at a certain type of MaaS for that reason.”
ITS’s survey found pay-as-you-go transport has a 30%-46% predicted adoption rate, indicating automakers could be on to something if they get their vehicles in front of users.
Harris says people are more likely to use personalised mobility from carmakers for social journeys such as eating out or having a night on the town, rather than for work-week commuting.
In May, the National Transport Commission released its Regulatory Impact Statement on the Safety Assurance of Automated Driving Systems, which looks to set legislation in place to tie responsibility of autonomous driving systems to the right parent company or individual.
Harris says we should expect to see more university and fixed-arena style autonomous shuttle trials in the immediate future before technology is at the capacity to handle the complexity of live traffic environments.
These and more similar projects are needed short-term to familiarise people with the idea of mobility services.
“The bus industry is ripe for change; the taxi industry has already begun to grow and adapt thanks to Uber, and the automotive industry will do the same because it has to.
We’re all losers in an inefficient and ineffective transport system,” she concludes.
The sixth Australian ITS Summit was at the Sydney Convention Centre on August 28-29.
