2nd IBA European Automotive and Mobility Services Conference takeaways

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Chris Owen
Co-Chair, IBA European Regional Forum
chris.owen@penningtonslaw.com

At the 2nd IBA European Automotive and Mobility Services Conference held last week we heard from Professor Nick Reed, our keynote speaker, on the need for a radical transformation of mobility services, based on a coherent vision that embraces safety, sustainability, prosperity, equality, and inclusion. To Professor Reed, the 2020s are likely to be the decade of transport data, which we need to aggregate and analyse to inform that vision.

Some of the key points from his talk included:

• It is now more than ten years since Google's self-driving car project became public but progress across the industry has been slower than many predicted. However, it does feel like we are past the 'trough of disillusionment' and heading towards commercial viability, with Waymo starting automated vehicle services in Arizona and others likely to follow suit soon after
• There are still issues around public perception, regulation and safety assurance that need to be addressed for autonomous vehicles
• Safety statistics for Europe and the United States have plateaued over the last ten years, despite this being the first United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety. Possible effects of this trend include larger vehicle size (SUVs) and distraction from smartphones. Much more work needs to be done to halve road deaths by 2030, which is the headline target for the UN Second Decade of Action (2021-2030)
• Climate breakdown and Covid-19 will have significant and lasting effects on mobility. Lockdowns saw massive reductions in car, train and bus use, but, particular over the warmer months, there has been a massive increase in cycling. In the interests of health, air quality and sustainability, can we keep people using active modes of travel once the Covid threat recedes?
• Nations are committing to banning internal combustion engine vehicles (including the United Kingdom by 2030), but more needs to be done to facilitate this trend – particularly around charging infrastructure and commercial models (with a need to switch away from government incentives to encourage electric vehicle purchases).
• Air quality issue needs to be addressed. Terrible evidence has mounted over the effect of transport pollution on vital organs, especially for the most vulnerable (children and elderly). The Ella Kissa-Debrah case in the UK – a nine-year old girl who lived in London near a busy road and had air pollution listed as the cause of her death
• Ride-hailing services are now very popular and familiar in many cities. The initial promise was to get people out of personal cars and into private and shared ride-hailing vehicles. Evidence is now emerging that the tendency is more towards private rather than shared, and that ride-hailing has also significantly reduced trips using public transit, cycling and walking. As a result, US cities have seen massive increases in vehicle miles travelled
• There is a tendency for use of a resource to increase if that resource can be used more efficiently - it is possible that access to low-cost mobility through ride-hailing and automated vehicle services may increase mobility in ways that have a negative impact on lives and livelihoods (congestion, pollution)
• A new ecosystem of mobility platforms is emerging through low-cost batteries and motors – e-scooters, e-bikes, e-cargo bikes, electric skateboards, and so on. This is currently a small contributor to urban mobility, but with careful infrastructure design, it could become much more significant and support aims around lower impact, low polluting transport
• By contrast more exotic modes, such as hyperloop and electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL), are likely to offer options to those who already have many but are of limited value to wider society
• Potential issues around payment – a rapid switch away from cash and towards digital payments is taking place; but we need to be careful about those who don't have access to digital payments (unbanked, underbanked, lack of access to smartphone/data) and make sure that mitigations are put in place that support their mobility needs
• Transportation is emerging as a spectrum of options – we may need to prioritise the modes of transportation that best support mobility in different contexts (eg, urban v suburban v rural)

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