Day two’s opening seminar saw delegates discover how urban centres are managing the integration of connected technologies with transport to deliver improved mobility and a better quality of life.

“The essence of the session was to talk about new technology in the context of how cities are changing,” said seminar facilitator Rasmus Lindholm, an Intelligent Transport Systems expert working with the ERTICO Partnership of 115 companies.

“The delegates learned about advances in car connectivity and also about the amount of data that comes out of those systems and what that data can be used for.”

“That led to a good discussion on data privacy,” he added. “There was some scepticism about privacy in cars when we’re all connected by our smartphones and as to who will own the data from cars, which was interesting. Delegates were curious about whether services exist that are only available if you provide data and whether there may be options for the consumer to switch off data provision and whether that has been taken into account in the design of new technologies.”

With presentations from Mika Rytkönen, Head of Business Development, Connected Driving at HERE and Richard Harris from Xerox Transportation, the session also covered the area of mobility as a service – as exemplified by car and ride-sharing companies.

“There was a good discussion as to how it is organised in terms of governance, who will be the future mobility operators and whether there exists the possibility for automobile clubs to get into that space as there is a direct connection to the consumers – their members. They wanted to find out if there is the opportunity for them to say ‘hey, we can provide this service, we are the ones who can integrate public transport, taxis, etc’, as that space is not taken yet.”