Mobility of people and goods will change dramatically in the next ten to twenty years like what the human population witnessed when trains and self-propelling cars were introduced. The transport means will be less owned but used as a service instead. MaaS is a concept which makes it possible for travellers to organize their travel itinerary by means of easy to use mobile applications. The future travellers will be brought to their destinations by multiple modes of transport systems including shared bikes, public transport, shared cars and the innovative automated transport systems to come. The MaaS Alliance organized its last plenary meeting on the 14th of November at the RACC headquarters in Barcelona. The day after, the three MaaS Alliance workgroups organized their face to face meetings. Both meeting days were organized at the RACC premises in Barcelona. The plenary meeting was well attended, and some very good progress was made in the work of the MaaS Alliance. Mr. Josep Mateu Negre, president of RACC opened the meeting with an inspiring keynote where after Mr. Jacob Bangsgaard president of the MaaS Alliance and CEO of ERTICO – ITS Europe presided the meeting. More and more transport operators, service providers and public authorities find their way to the MaaS Alliance which clearly indicates the value and need for an organization such as the MaaS Alliance. Also, the MaaS Alliance attracts a global interest with a participation from Sony, Japan.
As a leader of the Technology and Standardization workgroup it was a please to lead an enthusiastic team in the discussion of the workgroup’s next work topics. The final goal of the workgroup is to realize and support a harmonized API specification which will remove the main blocking points preventing MaaS from thriving today. The workgroup wants to be a real “Do” team focussing on the specification of a well specified MaaS API which makes a seamless connection between the different players in the MaaS ecosystem possible.
To demonstrate the necessity and value of this API the group will develop demo’s, proof of concepts and reference implementations of the API specification. Instead of saving the world in one big stroke the technology and standardization workgroup will apply an iterative, step by step development approach which will lead to tangible results very early in the work process. By intensely collaborating with other initiatives and MaaS efforts the result should be a global accepted specification which evolves into a global MaaS standard in the long run. The technology and standardization workgroup applies a bottom-up approach which takes the current and existing efforts and realizations as a basis for the specification work.
Should you be interested in the work of the Technology and Standardization workgroup or the MaaS Alliance in general, do not hesitate the MaaS Alliance secretariat at ERTICO. With this occasion I wish to thank RACC for their kind hospitality and great support to this event.
