Business models for the operation of Mobility-as-a-Service solutions

Digitalization is reshaping the conventional transportation industry boundaries and it is important to understand which disruptive opportunities emerge. In this study, it is explained an alternative service than the current mobility offer, a concept named as Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). It consists on transportation from A to B through a subscription plan in which the user plans, books, manages and pays in one single platform, that integrates diverse mobility partners. The empirical purpose of this research is to understand the distinct business models to implement MaaS based on common characteristics of current MaaS projects, implemented in different cities. To address the research problem, the following questions are asked: What are different business models already on the market to operate MaaS? Is it possible to identify different types? Which factors seems to influence the choice of a certain type? In order to answer these research questions, I use a multiple case study methodology. First by analyzing various scientific articles and MaaS projects presentations, specific to each city. Secondly, by collecting empirical data through semi-structured interviews from Mobility-as-a- Service Industry experts. My research determines that MaaS implementation is tailored to the city and a combination of challenges influences its operation. It concludes that the most influential factor for operating MaaS is the level of government support. This thesis finalizes providing a checklist for MaaS implementation.A digitalização está a reformular os limites do setor do transporte convencional e é importante entender quais as oportunidades disruptivas que surgem com ela. Nesta dissertação, é introduzida uma alternativa ao atual serviço de mobilidade, conceito denominado como Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS). Consiste na mobilidade de A para B, através de um plano de subscrição no qual o usuário planeia, reserva, gere e paga numa única plataforma, que integra diversos parceiros de mobilidade. O objetivo empírico desta pesquisa é entender os diferentes modelos de negócios para implementar MaaS, com base em características comuns dos projetos atuais, implementados em diferentes cidades. Para responder às questões de investigação, são colocadas as seguintes perguntas: Quais são os diferentes modelos de negócios já existentes no mercado para operar MaaS? É possível identificar diferentes tipos? Quais os fatores que parecem influenciar a escolha e aptidão de um determinado tipo? Para responder às questões anteriormente mencionadas, utilizei uma metodologia adequada para estudar múltiplos casos. Primeiro, analisando vários artigos científicos e apresentações de projetos relativos a MaaS, específicos para cada cidade. Em segundo lugar, recolhendo dados por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas, feitas a especialistas do setor de Mobility-as-a- Service. Através da minha pesquisa, determina-se que não só a implementação de MaaS é personalizada a cada cidade, mas há também diversos desafios que influenciam a sua implementação. Conclui-se que o nível de apoio do governo é o fator mais influente para a operação e implementação de MaaS numa cidade. Esta tese finaliza ao proporcionar uma checklist para implementação de MaaS

Action Research on Development and Application of AIoT Traffic Solution

AIoT solution based on the AI (Artificial Intelligent) and IoT (Internet of Things) is considered state-of-the-art technology and has emerged in various business environments. To enhance intelligent traffic quality, maximize energy saving and reduce carbon emission, this study applied an AIoT technology based on traffic counting modules and people behavior modules as traffic inference systems. Applications of the IoT technology based on WiFi, 3G/4G and NB-IoT (Narrowband IoT) was conducted gradually in key demonstration roads and cities worldwide, and the development and evaluation results were aligned to an action research framework. The five phases in the action research included designing, collecting data, analyzing data, communicating outcome, and acting phases. During the first two phases, problems of functional operations in traffic were verified and designed for network services by ICT (Information and Communication Technology) and IoT technologies to collection traffic big data. In the third phase, stakeholders may use basic statistic or further deep learning methods to solve traffic scheduling, order and road safety issues. During the fourth and fifth phases, the roles and benefits of stakeholders participating in the service models were evaluated, and issues and knowledge of the whole application process were respectively derived and summarized from technological, economic, social and legal perspectives. From an action research approach, AIoT-based intelligent traffic solutions were developed and verified and it enables MOTC (Ministry of Transportation and Communications) and stakeholders to acquire traffic big data for optimizing traffic condition in technology enforcement. With its implementation, it will ultimately be able to go one step closer to smart city vision. The derived service models could provide stakeholders, drivers and citizens more enhanced traffic services and improve policies’ work more efficiency and effectiveness

Thai Voice-Controlled Analysis for Car Parking Assistance in System-on-Chip Architecture

This paper introduces an analysis of Thai speech recognition for controlled car parking assist in the system-on-chip architecture. The objective is to investigate the male and female voice command signals, including Thai and English words, issued by the native Thai users. Hardware and software co-design by the Xilinx VIVADO are designed on an ARM multicore processor and a reconfigurable system on a ZYBO board. The experiments for Thai and English word recognition are conducted by using the Mel-frequency cepstral coefficient approach and presented in the form of spectrograms. The comparison of a voice command via Bluetooth and a reference command stored on an SD card and the ZYBO embedded board on a miniature electric vehicle is verified with the Pearson’s correlation coefficient (PCC). The experimental results show the accuracies of the received Thai/English, male/female, and indoor/outdoor voice commands as compared with the reference voice commands in the noisy surroundings. Hence, our system can support Thai/English and male/female voice commands to perform a set of actions for maneuvering a car by the PCC

Advances on Smart Cities and Smart Buildings

Modern cities are facing the challenge of combining competitiveness at the global city scale and sustainable urban development to become smart cities. A smart city is a high-tech, intensive and advanced city that connects people, information, and city elements using new technologies in order to create a sustainable, greener city; competitive and innovative commerce; and an increased quality of life. This Special Issue collects the recent advancements in smart cities and covers different topics and aspects

Evaluation of Metaverse Traffic Safety Implementations using fuzzy Einstein based logarithmic methodology of additive weights and TOPSIS method

As the Metaverse’s popularity grows, its effect on everyday problems is beginning to be discussed. The upcoming Metaverse world will influence the transportation system as cross-border lines blur due to rapid globalization. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the capabilities of the Metaverse and its alternatives to traffic safety, as well as to prioritize its advantages. The case study is based on a densely populated metropolis with an extensive education system. The city’s decision-makers will have to weigh the pros and cons of the Metaverse’s effect on traffic safety. To illustrate the complex forces that drive the decision-making process in traffic safety, we create a case study with four alternatives to Metaverse’s integration into the traffic system. Alternatives are evaluated using twelve criteria that reflect the decision problem’s rules and regulations, technology, socioeconomic, and traffic aspects. In this study, fuzzy Einstein based logarithmic methodology of additive weights (LMAW) is applied to calculate the weights of the criteria. We present a new framework that combines Einstein norms and the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method to rank the alternatives. The findings of this study show that public transportation is the most appropriate area for implementing the Metaverse into traffic safety because of its practical opportunities and broad usage area

From a Competition for Self-Driving Miniature Cars to a Standardized Experimental Platform: Concept, Models, Architecture, and Evaluation

Context: Competitions for self-driving cars facilitated the development and research in the domain of autonomous vehicles towards potential solutions for the future mobility. Objective: Miniature vehicles can bridge the gap between simulation-based evaluations of algorithms relying on simplified models, and those time-consuming vehicle tests on real-scale proving grounds. Method: This article combines findings from a systematic literature review, an in-depth analysis of results and technical concepts from contestants in a competition for self-driving miniature cars, and experiences of participating in the 2013 competition for self-driving cars. Results: A simulation-based development platform for real-scale vehicles has been adapted to support the development of a self-driving miniature car. Furthermore, a standardized platform was designed and realized to enable research and experiments in the context of future mobility solutions. Conclusion: A clear separation between algorithm conceptualization and validation in a model-based simulation environment enabled efficient and riskless experiments and validation. The design of a reusable, low-cost, and energy-efficient hardware architecture utilizing a standardized software/hardware interface enables experiments, which would otherwise require resources like a large real-scale test track.Comment: 17 pages, 19 figues, 2 table

Ethical Issues in the New Digital Era: The Case of Assisting Driving

Mobility is associated with driving a vehicle. Age-related declines in the abilities of older persons present certain obstacles to safe driving. The negative effects of driving cessation on older adults’ physical, mental, cognitive, and social functioning are well reported. Automated driving solutions represent a potential solution to promoting driver persistence and the management of fitness to drive issues in older adults. Technology innovation influences societal values and raises ethical questions. The advancement of new driving solutions raises overarching questions in relation to the values of society and how we design technology (a) to promote positive values around ageing, (b) to enhance ageing experience, (c) to protect human rights, (d) to ensure human benefit and (e) to prioritise human well-being. To this end, this chapter reviews the relevant ethical considerations in relation to assisted driving solutions. Further, it presents a new ethically aligned system concept for assisted driving. It is argued that human benefit, well-being and respect for human identity and rights are important goals for new automated driving technologies. Enabling driver persistence is an issue for all of society and not just older adult

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS): A Survey Of What It Is, What It Does, Where It Faulters, And Where To Go With It

The world of technology continues to find itself incorporated into an ever-expanding number of fields with a rapidly increasing number of applications. One of these is transportation, under the umbrella of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). The intention of this application at a macro scale is to increase the surface transport safety, efficiency, and convenience. As technological improvements continue to be made, ITS grows in popularity and implementation, and is now found in many cities across the United States. Correct implementation of ITS could have huge benefits in the transportation sector, but without thinking about its implications now, there is a risk of worsening already existing issues. Much of the information regarding ITS is scattered through various research publications making it difficult to understand what it is and what effects it has on the places it is implemented in. The purpose of this paper is to provide an easily accessible reference document that gives a general overview of these factors, allowing decision makers to gain a quick understanding of the topic and thus make better informed choices. Some directions for further research are also given to illustrate what is currently unknown about ITS and where potential improvements could be made

Safe Intelligent Driver Assistance System in V2X Communication Environments based on IoT

In the modern world, power and speed of cars have increased steadily, as traffic continued to increase. At the same time highway-related fatalities and injuries due to road incidents are constantly growing and safety problems come first. Therefore, the development of Driver Assistance Systems (DAS) has become a major issue. Numerous innovations, systems and technologies have been developed in order to improve road transportation and safety. Modern computer vision algorithms enable cars to understand the road environment with low miss rates. A number of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITSs), Vehicle Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs) have been applied in the different cities over the world. Recently, a new global paradigm, known as the Internet of Things (IoT) brings new idea to update the existing solutions. Vehicle-to-Infrastructure communication based on IoT technologies would be a next step in intelligent transportation for the future Internet-of-Vehicles (IoV). The overall purpose of this research was to come up with a scalable IoT solution for driver assistance, which allows to combine safety relevant information for a driver from different types of in-vehicle sensors, in-vehicle DAS, vehicle networks and driver`s gadgets. This study brushed up on the evolution and state-of-the-art of Vehicle Systems. Existing ITSs, VANETs and DASs were evaluated in the research. The study proposed a design approach for the future development of transport systems applying IoT paradigm to the transport safety applications in order to enable driver assistance become part of Internet of Vehicles (IoV). The research proposed the architecture of the Safe Intelligent DAS (SiDAS) based on IoT V2X communications in order to combine different types of data from different available devices and vehicle systems. The research proposed IoT ARM structure for SiDAS, data flow diagrams, protocols. The study proposes several IoT system structures for the vehicle-pedestrian and vehicle-vehicle collision prediction as case studies for the flexible SiDAS framework architecture. The research has demonstrated the significant increase in driver situation awareness by using IoT SiDAS, especially in NLOS conditions. Moreover, the time analysis, taking into account IoT, Cloud, LTE and DSRS latency, has been provided for different collision scenarios, in order to evaluate the overall system latency and ensure applicability for real-time driver emergency notification. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SiDAS improves traffic safety

BigraphTalk: verified design of IoT applications

Graphical IoT device management platforms, such as IoTtalk, make it easy to describe interactions between IoT devices. Applications are defined by dragging-and-dropping devices and specifying how they are connected, e.g. a door sensor controlling a light. While this allows simple and rapid development, it remains possible to specify unwanted device configurations – such as using the same device to drive a motor up and down simultaneously, risking damaging the motor. We propose , a verification framework for IoTtalk that utilizes formal techniques, based on bigraphs, to statically guarantee that unwanted configurations do not arise. In particular, we check for invalid connections between devices, as well as type errors, e.g. passing a float to a boolean switch. To the best of our knowledge, is the first platform to support the graphical specification of correct-by-design IoT applications. provides fully automated verification and feedback without end-users ever needing to specify a bigraph. This means any application, specifiable in IoTtalk, is guaranteed, so long as verification succeeds, not to violate the given configuration constraints when deployed; with no extra cost to the user