SMARTA 2 attends the 5th Annual Future of Transport Conference!
In the 5th Annual Future of Transport Conference held on the 3rd of March in Brussels, stakeholders from the public sector, industry and academia came together in a vivid discussion about the future of mobility in Europe and beyond. SMARTA 2 was there and in what follows, gives you a snapshot of the highlights.
What was discussed?
The conference focused on the critical pillars of the EU’s transport policy, the role of technology in the future of mobility and the forthcoming steps of EU policymaking in light of the new Commission’s leadership.
The first session focused on the role of connected and automated mobility (CAM). CAM has the potential to create safer, more efficient transportation and generate billions of euros in revenues for multiple stakeholders. Will providing pan-European 5G corridors on major trunk roads and motorways help Europe to keep up with US and China?
The second session focused on transport safety, and in particular on the vision zero, the Commission’s plan to bring the roughly 25,000 deaths in road incidents in Europe to a stall. Piere-Olivier Millete, Associate Director of Automated Driving Technical Policy at Intel Corporation states that technologies are under way, while Fotini Ioannidou, Head of Unit of Road Safety, DG MOVE highlights that it is crucial to ensure that these technologies operate smoothly and are safe, before decisions to scale them up can be made.
Finally, the third session focused on the role of transport in decarbonization. When GHG emissions are considered, transport is usually the one to blame. But are electric cars the silver bullet? They could be. Nonetheless, the discussion about electric cars should not neglect issues of infrastructure and affordability, in order to leave no citizen behind.
The topic of rural mobility was not discussed in the conference. At SMARTA 2, we believe rural mobility should be discussed more at national and at European level. You can start from this website, reading about how the project’s demonstrators raise awareness on smart rural mobility and following the progress of SMARTA 2. At the same time, keep an eye of the European Commission’s pages: the new transport strategy is to be expected soon!