The second volume of the ‘Connected Mobility 2025’ report was presented on September 16th during the second edition of the OCTO Connected Forum, Italy’s main event on Smart Mobility. The Forum aims to draw the Smart Mobility scenario, assess the value of ecosystems associated with it, involve the various players in the sector, and collaboratively design the Italian Way of Connected Mobility.
This Report gathers and summarises evidence from The European House – Ambrosetti’s Strategic Study “The Development of the Italian Way to Connected Mobility,” which was conducted in collaboration with OCTO Telematics. The Connected Mobility Initiative was launched by OCTO Telematics and The prestigious European House – Ambrosetti with the goal of identifying an “Italian Way” towards connected mobility.
ERTICO’s CIO, Dr Johanna Tzanidaki, presented the work of the ERTICO Partnership during the event, as well as the work ERTICO is carrying out with the MaaS Alliance towards ensuring the creation of a MaaS open ecosystem, which will lead to accessible and liveable cities. She explained that the membership of both organisations consists of public and private stakeholders and that cooperation and trust among all stakeholders involved serve as a guide to identifying priorities. According to Dr. Tzanidaki, the challenges in the deployment of MaaS are not technological but rather related to governance and how each country, through its regulations, supports or hinders the cooperation and open ecosystem that MaaS deployment requires. To the question about ERTICO’s vision for the future, Dr Tzanidaki replied, “The future is Multimodal and Smart, which means efficient, safe, and sustainable for all. Focusing on user needs does not have to come at the expense of public authorities’ sustainability goals, and this is what MaaS should ensure.” Dr. Tzanidaki also stated that MaaS has introduced a new paradigm and that things are no longer as they were. MaaS deployment requires trust, dialogue, and cooperation among all stakeholders. The term Dr Tzanidaki used was Co-opetition, a term that comes from the work of the TM 2.0 ERTICO Innovation Platform on interactive traffic Management, which works with the MaaS Alliance on defining the Mobility Network Management concept. She explained that co-opetition describes the “collaboration among competing stakeholders, working together to achieve common goals set by public authorities”. She emphasised that ERTICO partners such as TTS Italia performs an excellent job working on MaaS deployment in Italy also praising the work of PlusService, POLIBA, Swarco and the other Italian ERTICO partners.
Mr Joost Vantomme, Vice President of the Maas Alliance underlines that MaaS should have a catalysing effect on mobility with a seamless and interoperable one-stop-contracting multi-modal move from point A to point B, be it for people or goods. Physical and digital interconnection of transport modes (individual or shared/on demand) are at the heart of MaaS. MaaS can unlock the mobility landscape at a systemic level and has a disruptive effect on e.g. incumbent actors. MaaS new business models contribute to resource efficiency and environmental responsibility. MaaS is a true enabler of traffic management and of the “internet of mobility”.
Mr Roelof Hellemans, Secretary General of the MaaS Alliance says that the time is “NOW” to collaborate to make the change. We see many cities and regions struggling with the implementation and upscaling of MaaS to become major and reach the desired outputs. Working together in understanding the technique and standards, implementing the right business models, and working on the right tendering documents to align on the “License to Operate”. The next phase of MaaS will focus on the output, on the proposition towards Users. How can we influence users in the way we offer mobility? What drives users, what are the elements that drives them and how can we reach users to be sure they know what options there are and they choose wisely within their own needs: Economic-, Time-, Ease to Use- and environmental-options.
Within the Open MaaS Ecosystem, we connect the B2B, and we will make the connection to the C. We will gain knowledge of the output, we will share lessons learned from propositions, and we want to make the comparison available between cities to provide input on their daily responsibility of providing accessibility and liability for the users. The time is “NOW”.
To find out more about the second edition of the OCTO Connected Forum, please visit the event website.
