As hosts of last week’s 25th ITS World Congress, ERTICO-ITS Europe is reflecting on the highlights of its participation in the event, including new partnerships and major developments for the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) concept.
ERTICO notes that the aim of the ITS World Congress is to see how travel can be made faster, easier, less time consuming and, this year especially, more environmentally friendly. In 2018 the ERTICO team not only organized the congress, but also prepared a great number of events and presentations for its partners and congress attendees.
The first important result of ERTICO’s international strategy was the start of a cooperation with ITS China and the creation of a Joint Innovation Centre. ERTICO then successfully brought together its partner organizations Volkswagen, Huawei, FIA, Here Technologies, Saphe, and representatives from the City of Copenhagen, in a discussion with the world’s media how smart mobility can improve the quality of life.
On the second day of the event, the high-level roundtable registered its highest attendance in 25 years of ITS World Congress with more than 110 high-end stakeholders from the smart mobility sector. More than 70 sessions were organized, collecting a number of attendees that went beyond ERTICO’s expectations, and for the first time the Congress welcomed 30 startups to showcase their latest developments, including the winners of the European Startup Prize for Mobility.
The organization also actively involved participants with presentations of its Innovation Platforms and European projects. On a daily basis, presentations were offered by the ERTICO experts and project partners on a variety of topics, from blockchain to the Internet of Things (IoT), Cooperative ITS (C-ITS), the European eCall emergency service, truck platooning, and other European research initiatives.
ERTICO also launched its Vision Paper on MaaS, which outlines the organization’s view for the concept’s development by 2030, focusing on the benefits of MaaS, the developments of a market for multimodal mobility on demand, and the challenges and policy recommendations to promote MaaS. In particular, the paper highlights the need for access to data for better mobility, the interoperability of services, a connected, automated, service-based and electric ecosystem and a public-private partnership to foster the development of MaaS.
During the Congress, the MaaS Alliance, which is hosted by ERTICO, achieved an important milestone by signing a partnership with ITS America, and held its fourth annual high-level event with the participation of: Anne Berner, the Finnish Minister of Transport and Communications; the European Commissioner for Mobility and Transport, Violeta Bulc; and the Secretary-General of the International Transport Forum (ITF), Young Tae Kim.
Jacob Bangsgaard, CEO of ERTICO and the president of the MaaS Alliance, noted, “Mobility as a Service has been such a success in Europe and beyond because people want smarter and more customized mobility solutions.”
ERTICO is now preparing for the next ITS European Congress, which is set to take place in June 2019 in Eindhoven (Netherlands), and the ITS World Congress in October 2019 in Singapore.
