ERTICO interviewed five ERTICO participants at the ERTICO Forum
What will the most important ITS Service in the future be?
Martial Chevreuil: The most important ITS service will likely be the deployment of seamless travel information services across different transport modes in Europe.
Eric Sampson: I think it will be one single device that we choose individually to be our personal user interface to a wide range of services that work on various transport modes. This device and there will be many versions will be the interface/ gateway for relaying real time traffic and travel information services advice and guidance to the consumer the citizen. We already have on the market some “embryos” of these types of interfaces but I believe we will soon see a great deal of competitiveness in this field.
Malin Persson: At Volvo we believe that safety will be the most important driver to bring ITS systems into the market.
Stephane Dreher: Map based services of course! Seriously I believe that map based services constitute the future of ITS. Electrification of vehicles cooperative systems … all that will not happen without maps. The key is to gather quality information on maps.
Jacques Boussuge: I believe that eCall will be one of the drivers of ITS. In the coming years eCall will be sold as an integral part of the vehicles in Europe. Traffic information is also one of the most important ITS service that will take up in the coming years. It already exists but quality of the traffic and travel information services will improve dramatically.
What is the main challenge for ITS?
Martial Chevreuil: The main challenge is the organisation of all stakeholders in ITS. We need to define business models for ITS services. These services need to meet client expectations and satisfy socio-economic requirements.
Eric Sampson: I’ll not be popular for saying this but I see the main challenge for ITS deployment as persuading the vehicle industry to talk to other stakeholders. It is not very good at working with itself: Company A working with Company B; but it is even worse at working with infrastructure operators applications writers etc.. Basically the technology is there the standards are mostly defined but the state of mind in terms of cooperation across the sector needs to change.
Malin Persson: The main challenge for ITS will be to adopt a systems approach: we need to work together and include all stakeholders if we want to achieve our goals.
Stephane Dreher: The main challenge for ITS is standardisation to ensure interoperability in the highly competitive market as well as the establishment of partly open platforms. Many issues surrounding these ‘open platforms’ will however need to be resolved such as security and safety issues and last but not least establishing business models.
Jacques Boussuge: The improvement of real time traffic and travel information will be the biggest challenge of ITS in the near future. Quality and reliability of data is of utmost importance for the consumer. Once we will reach a certain degree of reliability ITS services will flourish. This will be achieved by the fusion and integration of all sources and types of data coming from various sources and channels. I believe that the role of traffic information platforms will play an essential role in this perspective.
What is the essence of the ERTICO Partnership?
Martial Chevreuil: The name says it all – “Partnership”. The ERTICO Partnership is a platform for cooperation built on and building alliances with different actors in the field of ITS.
Eric Sampson: There’s an old saying that it is easy to break one stick but much much harder to break a bundle of sticks. That to me is ERTICO – each Partner a single ‘stick’ gets strength wisdom and support from all the other partners. ERTICO is the way in which we can strengthen transfer of knowledge in the field of ITS. ERTICO enables organisations to shift know-how and opportunities from big to small and from small to large. People often say “nobody is perfect” which I think is true – but I believe a team can be perfect! That to me is the essence of the Partnership
Malin Persson: ERTICO enables ITS stakeholders to have on common voice towards EU institutions. ERTICO provides invaluable networking opportunities with other stakeholders. The power of ERTICO is that by working all together we can make ITS happen.
Stephane Dreher: ERTICO plays an essential role in bringing all stakeholders together through industry fora developing and managing leading collaborative R&D projects in the field of ITS.
Jacques Boussuge: The essence of ERTICO is… working together! We are proud to be part of this network where motivated partners and competitors work together in a common framework to achieve common goals.
Link to original Article
http://www.ertico.com/the-ertico-june-interview/
Original Publication Date: Sat 24 Jul 2010
