Prof. Charles H Fine

Faster, Smarter, Greener: The Future of the Car and Urban Mobility

To support societal demands for mobility fluidity, co-existing with a sustainable planet, mobility systems for a digitally powered society must be efficient and innovation friendly. Efficiency requires intelligent use of assets and aggressive use of best technology, while consumers expect freedom in personal choices as well as fairness. Future society will demand Connected, Heterogeneous, Intelligent, and Personalized (CHIP) mobility. We propose a framework where Heterogeneous transportation modes are Connected both digitally and physically, and Intelligent apps can access data on usage, congestion, prices, and weather, for example, and enable real time and Personalized travel planning throughout a city, whether a traveler wants to optimize time, cost, carbon footprint or touristic aesthetics. This framework proposes that urban planners create policies to support such a vision and that the traditional auto industry is likely to enjoy a less dominant role in architecting mobility frameworks. Governments and city administrations will be joined by traditional auto industry players as well as a range of new-generation entrepreneurs and investors, technology startups, and app developers, all of which have contributions to make in redefining future mobility.

2017 MIT Research and Development Conference