Entry Date:
August 19, 2015

The Road Ahead: The Future of Transportation and Mobility

Principal Investigator Carlo Ratti


Self-driving vehicles. Drivers on demand. Data-driven infrastructure. Vehicles that respond to passengers and to the environment… A sea change is happening in transportation, and mobility of the (near) future will be radically different than today — greener, more comfortable and more efficient. Innovations are rolling out of laboratories, businesses and city halls on four, two, (or zero) wheels at an accelerating pace, exploring the future of urban mobility.

The spotlight is focused on transportation technology and design — the machines that move people -- yet there are a host of unanswered questions as transitions are made. This year, California began issuing drivers licenses to self-driving cars, but insurance companies still can't find who is at fault when something goes wrong. Cities are debating whether ride sharing systems should be banned from their streets, while taxi companies organize strikes around the world to protest citizen-driver services like Lyft and Uber. Policy and innovation must go hand in hand for innovations to take hold.

The Road Ahead is not just about emerging technologies — it will be a forum on all dimensions of future urban mobility, bringing leading theorists, dreamers, and practitioners into conversation and debate — from designers to financiers, from policy makers to provocateurs. Conversation and presentations will seek to showcase innovations, address challenges, and holistically explore the future of moving from A to B. Sessions will focus on key topics in mobility: self-driving, sharing, policy, legality and risk and society at large among others.