8 takeaways from the Smart Mobility Summit in Israel

In its sixth year, the Smart Mobility Summit in Tel Aviv managed to attract a selection of high-level speakers from the automotive and mobility industries, whom all agreed that we are living in a transformational time for mobility. Fleet Europe lists 8 thought-provoking ideas from the 2018 Smart Mobility Summit.

1. Together. Guenter Butschek, CEO and Managing Director at TATA Motors, wasn’t the only speaker to underline the importance of collaboration. Various other speakers reiterated this view and the mobility industry clearly reflects these sentiments in everyday practice. At the start of this year, to name but one example, BMW and Daimler decided to unite forces and merge their mobility services, a move they never considered since they started manufacturing cars about a century ago.
2. Standardisation. Working together is only possible if all partners agree on standards and harmonised procedures. This means developers have to build ecosystems that are open to others rather than closed proprietary systems so systems can be kept sustainable.
3. Legal framework. Not only will people need to change their transportation behaviour, the legal framework will have to nudge them in the right direction. + framework for new services
4. Artificial intelligence leads the fourth industrial revolution. Dinesh Paliwal, president and CEO, Harman, said: “If data is the new oil, then AI is the engine.” The essential element that makes data exploitable is computing power and artificial intelligence, upon which many new technologies are based. Amnon Shashua, chairman and CTO, MobilEye, cited one of the big challenges in this respect: AI systems need to learn to determine what constitutes safe and careful driving.
5. Data networks. For AI and ADAS applications to work, we rely on powerful mobile data networks. These can be provided by 5G mobile phone networks or by combining weaker signals from various networks and combining them into one that is essentially equally powerful.
6. Cybersecurity. There isn’t one provider of connected vehicles today that can claim his vehicles cannot be hacked, said Yoni Heilbronn, chief marketing officer, Argus. As connected applications become more powerful and might eventually take over control of a vehicle, it becomes of paramount importance to make sure that risk is rules out completely.
7. Safety. The number one cause of road accidents today is driver behaviour and driver error. Various companies focus on preventing such incidents, often by monitoring the driver through eye movement sensors and other systems that can detect a loss of attention, drowsiness or other potential dangers. Safety is also a key requirement for self-driving cars. To date, all research shows the average driver is highly sceptical of autonomous technology, making it all the more important to ensure systems that can be safer than human drivers.
8. Change attitudes. Launching new products and services is one thing, making sure people use them is quite another. Many people would rather sit in their own private vehicle than share a ride with people they don’t know. For the mobility shift to succeed, people will need to change their behaviour and expectations. Providing a reliable and comfortable service is essential to get there, legal or taxation measures may help.