Arval Mobility Observatory

The annual Consumer Electronics Show took place mid of January as an all-digital version for the first time in its history. No need to precise that this was due to the covid 19 pandemic.
During this event, the key trends highlighted were the following: digital transformation and digital health, robotics and drones, 5 G connectivity, vehicle technology (electrification, self-driving vehicle) and smart cities.
Our focus will be on vehicle technology, transportation, the megatrend of electrification remaining but having seen an acceleration during the pandemic in 2020.

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Innovations like the airbag, anti-lock braking and traction control have been developed to protect drivers, the passengers and pedestrians on our roads, but is this enough? As the drop in European road-users fatalities plateaus, governments and industry are breaking the mould to save lives.

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During this year, we will discover how municipalities are managing the mobility topic in their cities. What is key for them, what kind of infrastructures are developed and how they support all their changes.

We will start our World Mobility Tour with the city of Tel Aviv, the “start-up city”, which leverages its high-tech ecosystem to support its transformation. Our discussion with Meital Lehavi, the Deputy Major with responsibility for Transportation will enable us to discover all these mobility aspects and the vision of this city regarding the mobility topic.

What is a Smart City?

You will find different definitions of the concept, various Smart City indexes, and different rankings.
From a mobility perspective, a possible definition could be the following:
Thanks to data, infrastructures, connectivity and new technology, Smart Cities want to improve their residents’ quality of life (safety, security, air quality, health are examples) in a sustainable environment, offering efficient public transports, multi modal mobility and working closely with the private sector. Of course, regulations and policies are implemented in order to accommodate these changes. In France, the city of Lyon wants to exclude diesel car by 2026. In the UK, cities will ban ICE vehicles from 2030 and hybrid from 2035. All these decisions will have an impact on mobility modes in the city centers and city dwellers will have to change their habits.

The idea of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) is as old as the Industrial Revolution. It describes how humans interact with tools, either through switches, voice commands or any other interactive means. The automobile has seen many iterations of HMI throughout the years. Today, AI assistants and near-holographic displays cohabitate with the traditional pedals, steering wheel and gear-lever that have been present since the first car.

Discover more about the barriers, the challenges and the promises related to these various interfaces in this publication.

The idea of the Human Machine Interface (HMI) is as old as the Industrial Revolution. It describes how humans interact with machines, either through switches, voice commands or any other interactive means. The automobile has seen many iterations of HMI throughout the years. Today, AI assistants and near-holographic displays cohabitate with the traditional pedals, steering wheel and gear-lever that have been present since the first car.

Discover more in our article

Data is a key component of Smart Cities; indeed data help cities to improve air quality, safety, security, sustainability and mobility amongst others.

Does the increasing diversity and volume of data available about urban systems open the possibility of  constructing a quantitative 'science of cities', with the aim of identifying and modelling essential phenomena?

That is the question we asked to Marc Barthelemy Research Director at the Institut de Physique Théorique (CEA-Saclay) and Associate member of the Centre d’Analyse et de Mathématique Sociales (EHESS, Paris), about the Science of Cities.

Hydrogen is one of the Universe's most abundant elements. It is also potentially a way to store clean, renewable energy.
Although Hydrogen Fuel Cell technology has existed since 1839, hydrogen still has not achieved widespread popularity.
That may change.

During the crisis, visible positive environmental changes have been highlighted: decrease of greenhouse gas emissions, reduced congestion, and reduction of noise pollution among others.

However, this important crisis has also had an impact on city dwellers’ behaviors and expectations: people clearly expressed their wish for healthier lifestyles, one of them being an interest in active mobility and in particular cycling.
Public actors express this important interest in a more sustainable and greener future too, at different levels: European Commission, Governments and Municipalities.

Governments in the EU and in the UK combine economic stimuli with green policies. Beyond these economic stimuli, it is also a question of infrastructures to ensure dwellers safety.

Discover more in this article.