Smart Mobility on Decentralised Systems

Published in

Acyclic Labs

13 min readAug 9, 2018

If you had ever suffered congestion of traffic and thought for its solution, this article is for you. Every hour we’re stepping into the world where smart mobility is incalculably useful to us. We had seen a great shift of development in mobility from bullock-cart to an airplane, and the day is not so far when we will witness other modes of decentralised mobility such as hyperloop.

We need to develop an ‘altruistic transportation’ which will maintain an exact balance with the sustainable environment and also meets the comfort level needed by citizens today. It’ll be bit easy to understand through an example- According to the current aspect of mobilisation in India, everyone prefers to use self-owned car, vehicles, and bikes rather than congested public transportation due to the decentralised nature of privately owned vehicles i.e. more comfort and strong grip over its movement & schedule as well.

Problems aroused

In this section, I’ll dive into the problems that aroused with the current situation of transportation.

Low comfort & high rush — This is the most prominent cause for the adverse condition of current transportation. Public transport offers a very low level of comfort & high congestion as well. This is also responsible for the shift of mindset towards a decentralized mode of transport.
Always behind the clock — In India, one extensive cause for non-preference of public transport is its unpunctual nature. For a while, imagine you’ve to go Varanasi from Delhi and options available are a train or Volvo bus or personal car. You’ll first knock your own car followed by Volvo bus and train. Most of the people will pick train at last because of the late running status of all the trains in India.
Bound to their schedule — Everybody enjoys freedom nobody loves to be bound for his or her arrivals. For e.g. Boss at your office wants you to reach always on time i.e. at 8:00 am but the bus from your home leaves at 7:00 am and it takes more than 1 hrs to reach office. Since bus or any other current public transportation will run accordingly so as to make it helpful for the majority. At this point, most of the people will prefer alternate smart mobility.
Housing of Cars in Town — In Chicago, parking in general is very expensive to park outside that can cause lot of issues. Chicago is considered as worst city in the world to park a car.

Smart Transportation Systems

Are you ready for the next generation of transportation-? Well, it’s not just getting from point A to point B but getting there in safer, greener, and more convenient way. By connecting and distributing intelligent processors inside vehicles and throughout the transportation infrastructure. We can transform transportation in profound and an unimaginable way to Smart Transportation.

Intelligent Transportation System(ITS) — Intelligent form of transportation will enhance all forms of transportation whether by car, rail, or air. Travelers will be able to remain seamlessly connected across every means of travel.

What is Smart Mobility?

In this article, we narrow the focus to innovations related to travel and transport. We see some fascinating developments in this sector, such as driver-less cars, electric vehicles, increased information, new forms of transport, services based on apps and platforms and shared mobility Smart Mobility allows seamless, efficient, and flexible travel across various modes. It deals in which way, how much and when we move. It helps the children to get safely to school. It provides us with the tools to comprehend in our everyday life. By implementing Smart Mobility measures, we are able to raise awareness of alternative ways to move around the city. It helps us to generate urban life and supports the livable city.

Smart Mobility: Few real-life Models

Tesla Motors — founded in 2003, is an American MNC with specialisation in Electric cars, lithium ion, and solar panel manufacturing.

Elon Musk, co-founder, and CEO of Tesla believes in a revolutionary change in mobilisation that nobody would have ever imagined. He triggered electric mobilisation technique. This man has the vision to create a best electric car ever seen. Tesla Motors is something really revolutionary. They are changing the face of motoring forever. They made a first electric car which is powered purely by electricity. Tesla’s vision is to kill off the combustible engines and support to pollution-free transportation.

Now, they had come across with new models such as Model S, Model X, Model 3 etc. Designed to have speed, comfort, safety, and range, and not a drop of gas which perfectly balances smart and sustainable mobility. In the row of developing electrified cars they also designed them with new technology such as autopilot, electric battery charging stations, and glasses with solar cells embedded in it.

2. Autonomous Shuttle Buses — Traffic congestion is an increasing problem in metropolitan and urban environments across the world, as cities struggle with the need to free up more space for people. On-demand mobility services and last minute mile solutions are needed, such as the first 5G enable autonomous shuttle buses which are being tested in a real-world environment in Kista, Sweden.

During the six month trial, the minibus will shuttle the passengers up and down with no steering wheel and no dashboard, the bus only has a ‘host’ to start and stop the vehicle for the passengers. It uses an array of sensors to what is around it and safely navigates roads. This will help us travel together in a better way, from door to door, from your bus stop, to your office or from the bus stop to your home.

3. Autonomous Trailers — Outside the city, vehicles and autonomous trailers are operating with safe and in confined area. Electric trailers are charged while vehicles are loaded. A driver enters to lead the connected convoy on to the public roads, where dedicated bus lanes should be used, if possible. Autonomous connected trailers create safe, modular, flexible vehicle convoys adapting to transportation needs.

Adjusting to schedule updates the flexible convoy, switching goods along the way — a mobile consolidation center. A transport system is enabled through an integrated cloud platform, connecting vehicles, people, infrastructure, and logistic partners.

4. TATA Hybrid Buses — A fully indigenous vehicle designed & developed by TATA Motors. On March 17, 2018 TATA formally launched this series of buses and formally handed over to Maharashtra Government at the launch ceremony in Mumbai.

This electric series hybrid bus is a boom to the new age urban transportation which ensures -

Clean Green Enviroment
Fuel Efficiency
Superior & Smart Technology
Comfort & Accessibility for both drivers and passengers.
Enhanced Safety
These generation of buses are fully compatible with Intelligent Transport System (ITS). The primary component of this ITS are -
On Bus Intelligent Transport System — It is designed with features that supports emergency voice calling, image/video transfer using GPRS network, in-vehicle passenger information system, and external surveillance as well.
Passenger Information System at Bus Stops & Mobile Applications.
Command centre that control its movement and activity.

5. Mobike — It’s is an organisation which aims to develop a world where you can pick and drop out a bike at your own convenience.

It provides an affordable means of transportation for convenient short urban trips. It also plays role in reducing traffic congestion which is very frequent in urban populated area.

6. BlaBlaCar — Frédéric Mazzella, Founder and President started BlaBlaCar with a goal of connecting drivers having empty seats to the co-travellers indeed of a trip. They have a community today of 45 million members in more than 20 countries. It gives some sense of scale i.e. 10 millions people per quarter are travelling in BlaBlaCar.

In recent years, they also came across with the launching of BlaBlaLines, which is for shorter distances. So commute trips basically, the trips you do in the morning or at night to go to work. The goal is to get more frequency and the usage which is more casual.

7. Chariot — They are aiming to create a conveyance solution that relieves congestion in traffic, more comfortable, and an affordable as well. It is the first ride sharing and coupling application. By making the use of space seats, you have to choose the number of cars on the road and save money for the stuffs that really matters. As a driver, all ride request in your area all creates a listing of way you’re already going. If you’re looking for a ride, just send a request or browse existing drivers listing.

Earlier they impose parties that are happy with the details riders confirmed can catch the payment either with debit or credit card ensuring cancellation policy as well. It’ll even remind you when it gets closer to the departure time.

8. Scoot Networks — The ‘Scoot Networks’ is an electric vesper style scooter sharing company and the idea is to provide urban transportation solutions that’s fast, cheap, and convenient. The riders can usually start by downloading the application or by signing up online.

It’s cheaper than taking a taxi, faster than taking a bus, and much easier to park. The scooters used are technically classified as ‘Mopeds’ . You don’t need motorcycle license to ride them. They only go 25 miles in an hour which is enough to keep up with traffic and all basically entire city. They all are electric so there is no gas instead they’ve a battery that lasts about 25 miles.

Smart Mobility using IOTA

Before we go deep into the use of IOTA in making mobilisation smart, we must know about what is IOTA? Then we could talk into the role of it in smart mobility.

IOTA — It is permissionless, open-source distributed ledger technology for micro-transactions(transactions are done for the small amount of money). It is built to trigger out the future of the Internet of Things with frictionless no cost transactions.

Using IOTA, will not just make mobilisation smart but it’ll make mobilisation autonomous as well. Eventually, they could have their own economic wallets and money. Using IOTA, smart cars will now be able to pay autonomously for parking, for charging, tolls, fuel, and for any services anyone could imagine. In order to add money to their wallets, they could earn by delivering different items.

Let’s take a closure look, your future vehicle will be equipped with processors and IOT’s delivering the process head-rule to perform many tasks simultaneously. Such as improving navigation, communication, and passenger entertainment. All while enabling safer and more efficient travel. Your car will be able to connect over a wide area of wireless standards to the internet, intelligent traffic systems, and even to other vehicles. Essentially, your car becomes just another extension of your digital lifestyle.

IOTA is Partnering with International Transportation Innovation Center (ITIC)

ITIC aims at developing both open and close autonomous testbeds globally.

After getting Joachim Taiber as advisor to the IOTA Foundation, IOTA officially announces its partnership with ITIC to build a global alliance of smart mobility. IOTA will also collaborate with ITIC with an aim of simulating certain IOTA applications and business models, to determine their feasibility and other improve upon concepts.

IOTA Co-Founder Dominik Schiener said the alliance will be the wide platform to convert imaginative business models to reality. This alliance will prove how IOTA-based transportation system collaborating with ITIC can really change the world of transportation.

“We look forward to showing how IOTA-based mobility services can dramatically improve the efficiency and scalability on the transactional level and how the IOTA Data Marketplace can be leveraged to buy and sell vehicle and infrastructure test data across participating testbeds.”

Decentralisation in Mobility

For our comfort and to make our city more livable & sustainable; we need is to shift today’s centralised mobility to decentralised mobility. Decentralisation: Evenly distributed authorities at all level of management. This form of control is known as distributed control, the individual holds right to have their own decision. This initiative in transportation offered people a different level Decentralised modes — walking, biking, cars — where you have more control and more free time (in the case of self-driving cars) is a much better experience — less hassle, more personal autonomy.

Smart Mobility & its Decentralisation: Is Good or Bad?

Now, a simple question arises how decentralization will help in Smart Mobility-? In this section I’ll explain how decentralization proved to be a key for successful innovation in transportation :

Enabling Comfort Mobilization- Self-owned cars, bikes and other modes of transport provide both efficiency and luxury across a wide range of distances. You are free to stop anywhere you want. You can leave at a favorable time from home or from anywhere you wanna go. There is no need of dependency as we are bound to be on time in centralized for of transports such as buses, trains, and flights. Therefore, we should stop investing in centralized systems and shift our investments in self-driving infrastructure.
Owning your own car gives you a lot of freedom — Go where you want when you want. Taking either a train or a taxi is anon-convenient (although they are coming with improved apps), versus using a modern ride-sharing service where you have more control and freedom (on-demand ordering, rating drivers, etc.). Buses, trains, and air travel all have significant centralized components: stations, scheduling, security, etc. In the centralized system, you are bound to plan schedule accordingly their timetable. We can’t enjoy the freedom as in the decentralized mode of transportation.
Supports travel of Golden Oldies- It is never been a good and convenient idea to plan the journey of older people through the centralized mode of transportation. This mode of transportation can’t move or stop in accordance with someone whereas decentralized mode of transport such as personal cars offers another level of comfort and easiness for old people. They can stop personally owned vehicles if they feel restless or for any other issue, which is not allowable in the centralized mode of mobilization; no power of planning schedule, movement in accordance with the timetable of centralized transport. This mode of transportation dedicates its services for the benefit of the majority of people.
Promotes Smart City Fundamentals- One fundamental feature of Smart City also includes promotion of Smart Mobility & its decentralization. This mode offers increased people safety, improving transfer speed, and reducing transfer cost.

As said, it ‘s not possible to achieve 100% accuracy i.e. it is nearly impossible for any project to bring happiness to the life of each and every citizen. Exceptions need to be avoided: Projects to reduce Globalization will benefit every citizen on this Earth.

“In every seed of good, there is always a piece of bad.”

- Marian Wright Edelman

So, we cannot deny that complete decentralisation has some bad aspects also. In this section of an article, I’ll try to bring attention to bad aspects of this growing concept. So, is it the time to re-think for decentralisation of mobilisation?

Lost Lifeline- The public transportation system is the lifeline of a smart city. It fills the city with life through a continuous and controlled flow of people and products and carries everybody to his or her destination.
Doesn’t support the sustainable smart mobility-The environmental impact of decentralised transport is significant because transport is a major user of fuel, and burns most of the world’s petroleum. The primary issue is that decentralisation in transportation though increases level of comfort in traveling somewhere it also increases congestion in traffic causes pollution and wastes fuel which is not a feature of Smart Mobility & Smart City as well.

How Smart Mobility & Decentralisation can be solved?

In this section, I’ll try to explain solutions to the sustainability of mobilisation. Smart mobility systems, which include Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) and smart energy ones, become more important.

Environmentally Sustainable Smart Mobility- This concept aims to develop decentralized smart mobility management to minimize the pollution, environmental impact, improve the service provided to the users in terms of comfort and easiness offered.
Automatic Public Transport operation- If we consider, Rail has the chance to be the future’s most efficient form of transport. This will be possible if trains become more frequent, and if they regularly run on time with shorter headways and the highest safety standards, also when operating across borders. This will ultimately offer people the same luxury as offered in centralized forms of transport.
Parqex — It is a technology platform for orders of parking spaces to rent out the parking spots. So, if you have the parking space and you’re not using it for 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, nights or weekends. You can just download the application and list the parking space and rent it out. It’s so easy to use — It comes with two options one is to rent out the parking space and another is to park a car at nearby available places.

The Future of Mobility

As discussed, innovative technologies are shaping the future of automotive industries every hour. High-tech automotive companies are working to arrive at something radically different than today’s aspect. The different light-weighted material is now used so as to reduce the weight of car’s body without a percent compromise in safety of drivers.

The day is not so far when we will witness automotive cars(cars that do not need drivers to move) will replace today’s car. Modification of sensors which are used in the present that notifies the presence of wall, cars nearby it, so as to avoid damage to car while parking it. Traffic congestion will be rare, thanks to sensors allowing for less space between vehicles and guidance systems with real-time awareness of congestion.

The reform of decentralisation in urban mobility remains one of the biggest challenges confronting developers around the world. This article has described the concept of Smart Mobility & its decentralisation.

For Mobility in future, I believe seamless coordination of different transportation companies has an important role to play in balancing people’s desire to be able to move about smoothly with an emphasis on comfort and to operate sustainably for reasons of safety, reliability, and continuity.