Cars and Cities on Speaking Terms

Point B co-host Michael Kara is joined by the 1^st Vice Chair of the City of Gothenburg Transport Board, Hans Arby to discuss the importance of getting connected cars on speaking terms with cities and the role of data in the impending technological transportation transformation.

1:55 What does an intelligent city look like?

3:05 Ideating the city of the future and the role of vehicle data

4:03 Using data from e-scooters as a base for expanding data use

5:30 The next level of intelligent management of data

7:07 Clean air zone and congestion charges explained

8:37 How urban mobility business models are changing

10:26 Logistical and technical challenges of car sharing

12:23 Working together to create the cities of the future

Announcer:

Welcome back to another episode of Point B, a Sibros podcast where we interview industry experts about the latest innovations and trends in automotive technology and the connected vehicle industry. Tune in to learn about topics ranging from the next generation of electric vehicles to advances in connectivity and micro-mobility.

Michael Kara: 

Hello. My name is Michael Kara. I'm the Technical Solutions Manager here at Sibros, and introducing our Point B podcast today. I have a special guest. He has over 30 years of tech experience including an engineering background, and is the founder of UbiGo Innovations AB. Let me have the honor of introducing First Vice Chair of the City of Gothenburg Transportation Board and Senior Researcher at RISE, Hans Arby. Nice to meet you, Hans. How are you today?

Hans Arby:

I'm fine, thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Michael Kara: 

Could you speak a little bit about your experiences, and maybe give us an opportunity to learn a little bit more about you?

Hans Arby:

Yeah. I've been trying to cover all sides of mobility. So I have worked for city and regional traffic and city planning, city development. Worked as an entrepreneur with UbiGo. That was one of the mobility as a service pioneers. Now I also work as a researcher at RISE, which is the Research Institute of Sweden. We're about 3,000 employees, covering all the way from mobility to energy, housing, chemical, and so on. So it's a big national research institute, where I still work with mobility. Since two years ago, I'm also a part-time politician in Gothenburg, also working with mobility from that side.

Michael Kara: 

So your vested interest is to start building the city of the future. It seems like we hear a lot of terms about intelligent cities and things like that. What does that mean to our listeners today?

Hans Arby:

Yeah, well you talk about smart cities, intelligent cities is an overused term. That could mean, maybe, everything. But I think when we talk about intelligent city, we need to start talking about how we want our cities to look and the challenges we have there, and then see what kind of intelligence we need to make this happen. So we want cities to be more livable, safe to move as a pedestrian, bikers, passengers, drivers, attractive public spaces, and so on. We have problems with congestion, emission. We have limited public space that we need to share as good as possible. We have safety issues. And if you look at big cities, there is no space for new infrastructure. We can't build any more infrastructure. It's all about trying to utilize that space in the best way for everybody.

Michael Kara: 

So we're still in the ideation stage of looking at what the city of the future is?

Hans Arby:

Yeah. And there's a lot of pilots going on. We talk about cars and cities on speaking terms. So it goes both ways. There's a lot of data in modern cars that we, as a city, could have very good use of. That's everything from the traffic flow, we can see if it's slippery roads so we can send out warnings and everything. So I mean, the cars are really probes out in the reality, that data we need to access. Then, of course, we also have data that the city should communicate to the cars and the drivers with regulations, with speeds, accessibility. If we could have more dynamic congestion charging, we can set the fees and so on.

Michael Kara: 

Can you speak to some of the additional data points that, say, would be exchanged between vehicles as well as the city infrastructure?

Hans Arby:

Yeah. I think a very good example that we've seen the last few years is e-scooters, because an e-scooter, it's 50% software almost. I mean, they are working as probes out in reality, and it's also possible to guide the driver. Where he is allowed to park. Where he's allowed to drive. The maximum speeds and so on. So I think that e-scooters give us a glimpse of what you could actually do if you had cars talking to the city and sharing data, and also getting data back. 

So let's say, I mean, we, If we start with commercial vehicles used for traffic management for instance. Then we could have, we want the vehicles to share all the experiences that the vehicle and driver has. So it could be the flow, it could be congestion, different disturbances, travel time. We could have the road conditions, if it's a slippery road, for instance, air quality, detecting unprotected road users, and everything. So, if you are a traffic manager in a traffic management center somewhere, you really get a good understanding of how things are looking outside, and be prepared to do different actions.

Michael Kara: 

And it sounds to me that you're looking to take this to the next level, to where more intelligent management can be done to provide a safer, more efficient route through cities.

Hans Arby:

If you can make it safe and it's on an aggregated level and you protect personal data, I think that all the cars, at some point, will be able to share what's going out outside. So I think one thing, as I said, is traffic management to control the flow, being able to send out warnings and so on to cars, mainly managing speed, access to lanes, and so on. But then you also have the other dimensions. If you talk about mobility management for instance, that you learn from data, do we need to change some of the regulations maybe? Should we open up a lane or close a lane? All those things that are more on a weekly or monthly or yearly basis, that you can change the regulation, what you're allowed to do, speeds, and so on in the city. And the third level would be also for city planning. So you know where do we need to add or adapt infrastructure, can we remove infrastructure, and so on.

Michael Kara: 

On a recent trip to Europe, I was shocked to see a couple of fees that were implemented for things like congestion and for clean air zones, which is a new concept, I think, for Americans. Can you speak a little bit more about what those initiatives are and how they work?

Hans Arby:

In Gothenburg, Stockholm, London, you have congestion charging, which is a dump charge. That means that you still have different fees, different levels at different times of the day. So you pay more if you're using peak hours. But they are based on looking at the registration numbers, and you get the fees afterward. In Brussels, they are now starting tests with more intelligent and dynamic road charging. So it depends on where, when, and what car you are driving, how much you're going to pay per kilometer. And that today will be used based on an app on your phone. But of course that should be part of the car as well. So that's one thing of really steering people. So you actually pay, because space is also a limited resource, and you should set a price on that one so you get the better use of the roads. 

Another part is also done with the low-emission zones. Somewhere you more or less are allowed to just drive electrical vehicles we're starting to see. But the big ones, in some cities, they're looking at Paris and so on, that you should pay more fees the further in and the more strict the emission zone is. And, of course, that would be also much better, if the cars could actually talk to the city.

Michael Kara: 

Do you see any dramatic changes on the horizon of business models that we can expect to see in the future when we talk about some of this intelligence that's going from vehicle to infrastructure and back?

Hans Arby:

I think we'll see more sharing of cars because if you look at the electrical vehicle, that's a high investment but quite low running cost. It makes sense to use those cars more. A typical car today is parked 95, 96% of the time, so we should use them more, especially, if they're electrical. And also we will save on space. Today, typical private cars have access to about three parking spaces, if you look in total. But that also means that you would have fewer cars that are used much more. That also means that they will have a much shorter turnaround and quicker updates. We might have a much more updated vehicle fleet, which is also good because then you will have the new technology, would have the upgrades. Cars will be more intelligent, also, if we share. So I think sharing is one important part. 

And then, of course, we also will see, at some point, self-driving cars more, and that also will need a lot of data and communication between the cars and other cars and the city. And, hopefully, also these self-driving cars will be shared because if everybody owns their own self-driving car, we'll actually get more congestion because every car will leave their owner, and then go and park, and then go and pick up.

Michael Kara: 

Well I think there's additional challenges when it comes to that car-sharing model as well, that go far beyond just the vehicle and the manufacturer themselves. That likely is the legal aspects and the insurance aspects which, I think, still need a little bit of definition before we would see that opportunity scale.

Hans Arby:

I think that you can say that technology's easy now. There's a lot of challenges when it comes to technology with the network coverage standardization, how and where should the data go. So there's a lot of challenges. But when you look at the business model and legal aspects, it's also a big challenge. 

What is interesting is that you can, at least in some European countries, you can sign up for insurance today, and you pay depending on how you drive. So you have a small computer that you add to your car, and that measures how you drive, how hard you hit the brake, and so on. And you pay your insurance depending on how you drive the car. And that is something you can do today. But that's voluntary. So there are models, and we will see more of those, I think.

Michael Kara: 

And I think we'll start seeing that being more integrated in vehicles as the vehicles start to collect that information, and how that data sharing will occur.

Hans Arby:

Absolutely. I mean, even in an OEM's own car-sharing services, they add on new telematics instead of using their own. So, of course, you should have that. Should be just the programming, how the car, is it a shared car or not, and so on. So absolutely.

Michael Kara: 

Hans, so I'm curious. If you had a message that you wanted to share with our viewers and summarize some of the things that we've discussed today, what would you share with them?

Hans Arby:

I would say that from a city's perspective, we know that we need to be, so say, more agile, more data-driven when it comes to how we develop and manage the city. So we need help to get that data so we understand what's happening, and how we should build and change regulations and so on, and manage traffic based on that one. So we need that data in. But we also need help, in a way, to make sure that the regulations we have are used and followed, and if we want to create incentives, we need, so to speak, the channels to do that. I mean, we need the cars and city to be on speaking terms, both the cars and the city, but also the manufacturers and the city, as an organization and politicians to talk to each other because we have a very good chance to have a much better match between the cars and cities. 

Today, you can say you have a conflict with cars and the city, but it could be much better cooperation in between. We need the cars also in the cities, but they need to be there, so say, on the city's and the citizens' terms. And that is something we can do if we share data to get the data to manage the cities better, but also talking to the vehicles and the drivers.

Michael Kara: 

Well, thank you, Hans. It's been a pleasure speaking with you today about the future of the cities and how vehicles and drivers can all come together to create a harmonious vision of the future.

Hans Arby:

And thank you for having me. It was great. Thank you very much.

Announcer:

Thank you for tuning in to Point B. Join us next time for more auto tech innovations and trends. Point B is brought to you by Sibros.