The main recommendations in the ‘White Paper on Artificial Intelligence applied to mobility’ to unlock uptake of this disruptive technology by industry businesses in Catalonia include running large pilot projects, fostering public-private innovation, SMEs fast-tracking an Artificial Intelligence strategy and shaping data governance. The goal is to build a system which is smarter, more sustainable, efficient and most of all user-centred.
The report, presented by the Centre of Innovation for Data tech and Artificial Intelligence (CIDAI) in Barcelona, also calls for continuing to deliver specialised education and university qualifications in this field. In the longer term, it recommends addressing the complexity of mobility regulation to drive digitalisation of transport infrastructure and existing solutions and bolster the local provider ecosystem. It also advocates raising awareness in the region and setting up a change management plan for AI uptake alongside clearing up the legal uncertainty around baking this technology into the industry.
“The mobility industry is undertaking a far-reaching shift towards digitalised, decarbonised, shared, multimodal mobility which is above all tailored to each person’s needs,” says Dani Marco, Director General for Innovation and Digital Economy in the Catalan Government’s Ministry of the Vice-Presidency, Digital Policies and Territory. “Technology is a partner in achieving this, especially artificial intelligence which unlocks better management, safety and customer experience by tapping the data generated and bringing algorithms into play.”
“Drawing up industry white papers is one of CIDAI’s core roles,” notes Joan Mas, director of CIDAI and the Eurecat technology centre’s Digital Division. “That’s because it enables us to assess how far AI and data technologies have penetrated in strategic sectors for the Catalan economy such as mobility, and in particular to make recommendations to unleash technological innovation working for society.”
The report “underscores Artificial Intelligence’s potential in a changing mobility industry,” says Marco Orellana, the manager of CIDAI. “It has a particular impact on business strategy by crafting value propositions with other technologies and on more informed decision-making and enhancing the supplier and end-user experience.”
The study pinpoints four main areas in which Artificial Intelligence technologies have an obvious impact on mobility: making processes and services more efficient; unlocking new business opportunities in the industry; bringing overarching benefits to all players in the ecosystem, and adding synergies with other emerging technologies to deliver greater value.
The paper also unpacks the hurdles hindering uptake of this technology in mobility in Catalonia. They include the enormous complexity and patchiness of regulation; difficulties in developing and testing new solutions and services; the shortage of expert staff and problems in retaining talent, and barriers to getting hold of quality data.
The ‘White Paper on Artificial Intelligence applied to mobility’ has been drafted by a team made up of innovation consultants from the Eurecat technology centre and the CIDAI’s Technical Office. It has also drawn on input from experts at the BSC, the CVC, the i2Cat Foundation, IDEAl-UPC and CIDAI and advice from specialists at Microsoft, everis an NTT Data Company, the SDG Group, the Catalan Government and Barcelona City Council.
The paper’s approach and reach has been shaped by individual interviews and working sessions with prominent practitioners, experts and business, academic and administrative leaders in the mobility industry in Catalonia. They have shared their views on the challenges and priority actions to be undertaken to move towards mainstreaming AI in mobility.
The presentation included a talk by Lluis Puerto, Factory Director at EIT Urban Mobility, and a roundtable moderated by Laia Garriga, the Head of Rail Business Development and Logistics at Eurecat. It featured Albert Tortajada, Infrastructure Director at FGC; Lluis Alegre, Director of the ATM’s Mobility Unit; Oriol Mas, Team Lead at SEAT; Albert Fonseca, Director of the Innovation and Technology Division at the TMB; Jordi Ortuño, head of the Knowledge Society Office at Barcelona City Council’s Municipal Institute of Information Technology, and Eugeni Llagostera, a research and development engineer at Reby.
Mobility, transport and Artificial Intelligence in Catalonia
As reported by the Spanish National Statistics Institute in 2020, there are 42,000 businesses in the mobility and transport industry in Catalonia, up 9.86 percent on 2015. Around 12,000 of these firms are engaged in passenger transport, accounting for 10 percent of Catalan GDP. By mode of transport, 80 percent of the companies operate by land, 11 percent are engaged in postal and courier operations, 9 percent in ancillary transport activities and less than 1 percent in air and sea transport.
The ‘Artificial Intelligence in Catalonia’ report says that there are 179 companies in Catalonia operating in Artificial Intelligence technologies, 63 percent of which are small and medium-sized enterprises and start-ups. Their turnover comes to €1.34 billion a year and they employ 8,483 people.
