Intertraffic 2022 Event and Trends Summary

The 50th Anniversary of the Intertraffic event, and the first in-person since 2018, saw more than 800 exhibitors and over 120 sessions during the 3 days, featuring Parkopedia’s Head of EV, Adam Woolway. The overall themes across the event covered:

1. Data - specifically, increasing digitisation and the importance of real-time data exchange for traffic management and security. 
2. Safety and mobility - covering the acceleration of CAVs, EVs, smart mobility solutions and networking between providers (including those from outside the traditional transportation industry) to produce sustainable business models and end-to-end mobility as a service (MaaS) solutions of the future. 

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused a behavioural shift in commuters away from shared mobility and back into their private vehicles for health, safety and hygiene concerns - accelerating the appetite and adoption for automated and autonomous driving systems. As a result, the eco-friendly roadmap for transport solutions put in place prior to the pandemic to address pressing climate issues has shifted significantly, and the need for data-driven services for sustainable and responsible mobility, such as on-demand and multimodal mobility solutions, has now accelerated.

The introduction of players from IT, data and telecoms to the transportation sector will drive new business models and collaborations for next-generation mobility solutions. Diversity and growth in new markets, as well as a focus on quality data collection and analysis, will be key for the longevity of all transportation stakeholders and seamless user experiences for commuters. 

Data 

Exhibitors and speakers at Intertraffic 2022 explored smarter ways to both collect and analyse data to one day realise its full potential. Data collection allows providers to rapidly build up richer pictures of transportation demands and network bottlenecks, ultimately leading to the goal of seamless traffic flow and parking experiences, but only if quality and accuracy can be guaranteed.

Carlo van der Weijer, general manager of the Eindhoven AI Systems Institute at Eindhoven University and member of the Advisory Board for Intertraffic, said: “If you looked at Intertraffic 20 years ago, it was all hardware for making roads safer…just 15 years ago, when [driver’s left their] house, [they] wouldn’t be able to get an accurate arrival time for [their] trip because there was no such thing as navigation systems with live traffic information. We have already achieved a lot, but we can go even further with data. Data can show us exactly what’s happening, so we can control it.”

Connection of roadside devices with vehicles to improve traffic safety and traffic flow traffic monitoring or to make more seamless travel experiences, real-time data flows will be at the heart of every mobility service.

Networking events such as Intertraffic, allow Tier-1 automaker suppliers to connect with new industries and partners to better understand and manage the huge amount of data created by CAVs. The rapid growth of connected vehicle technology has dramatically changed the way vehicles are designed, developed and manufactured, with code and computing power now becoming the fundamental focus of next-generation vehicles and their software. How vehicles interact with drivers’ lives has also changed, with automakers needing to provide the technology necessary to ensure positive future user experiences across drivers’ daily lives, such as mobility and parking hubs, created to utilise space more effectively, while delivering heightened experiences to users. Examples of these hubs include:

• Driver convenience hubs e.g. Find-my-car applications, direct to trunk delivery services, and dedicated spaces - such as those with available EV chargers, reservable, valet, commerce and car wash/maintenance sections.
• MaaS, logistics, E-commerce applications, e.g. car-sharing hubs, parcel delivery or micro-mobility lockers and ghost kitchens.
• Autonomous zones for Automated Valet Parking (AVP) services, and multi-modal route planning.

Through enhanced functionality and integration through their vehicle infotainment systems, automakers can recognise which of these features and services drivers want and convert these into potential additional revenue streams. 

Find out more about how Parkopedia’s data collection and analysis makes us the leading parking data provider in the world, and how our data has been independently tested and ranked the most accurate and complete by studies this year in both the US and China. 

Green mobility solutions 

EVs are the future of the majority of mobility use cases, however, current driver pain points are a limiting factor to mass adoption. Adam’s presentation at the event, discussed the need for accurate and complete POI data, as well as investment in EV Charger infrastructure and connected services, to overcome current EV driver pain points and barriers to entry for prospective owners. 

Globally, as many as one-third of potential EV owners do not have the ability to charge their vehicles at home and would be solely reliant on their country’s public charging network. However, poor quality existing data is leaving automakers unable to confidently provide drivers with accurate information, and is compounding public charging issues. Parkopedia’s Park and Charge is a deeply integrated system that leverages our industry-leading POI data to ensure positive charging experiences for drivers and alleviates these issues. 

Existing external solutions including ‘screen mirroring’ through smartphones, offer a limited market to services, require multiple apps to cover driver needs, and have raised critical safety concerns by distracting drivers while at the wheel. Deep integration of the in-car commerce element of charging solves these issues and offers unparalleled driver convenience services while driving. Park and Charge utilises Parkopedia’s fully integrated, PCI compliant payment platform with single sign-on capabilities, providing automakers with a comprehensive EV charging payment solution across major providers, allowing them to securely handle payment details and saves time for drivers around the world by removing the need to maintain multiple accounts and apps to deliver a premium and efficient charging experience.

By aggregating the multitude of merchants involved in EV charging, Parkopedia saves automakers a costly and time-consuming exercise, while single sign-on capability eliminates the existing barriers to entry, such as the need to swipe a card to unlock a charging station, delivering a heightened level of connected service to drivers and simplifying management for automakers. The more seamless and automated in-car transactions are, the higher the benefits for the user, car manufacturers and merchants in delivering more convenient experiences in the future. 

Find out more about Parkopedia’s Park and Charge product, which allows drivers to find, activate and pay for chargers, along with our launch press release. Our indoor mapping service, which allows for vehicle localisation where GPS is not available, enables navigation to ‘hidden’ EV chargers, housed within indoor parking facilities, and opens up a plethora of mobility use cases within indoor facilities.

Mobility as a Service 

The event saw various sessions from providers who seek to remove user stress from multimodal travel, while limiting car use and increasing transit ridership in congested towns and cities. Solutions included those which can plan a user journey according to preference, such as the quickest mobility mix, the most convenient, the lowest emissions and the lowest number of transfers, however, knowing the locations of available, valid parking spots, which allows intelligent staging of vehicles and minimises congestion caused by drivers circling the streets in between trips, is essential for these new mobility services. Parking behaviour and real-time awareness of parking utilisation can help anticipate demand and balance driver networks during spikes, and by mapping the curb, mobility providers can optimise passenger pick-up and drop-off locations for both safety and efficiency. 

Driver convenience is a top priority for Parkopedia. We continue to transform the industry with seamless end-to-end solutions, including new product launches and many large-scale partnerships across the connected car industries, offering automakers innovative and compelling integrated products that enable convenient in-car solutions every day for millions of drivers worldwide. We gather data purely on the basis that it is used to improve the future user experience, either through our own services or as part of shared mobility or multi-modal routes for mobility services. For example, every time a vehicle parks in, or leaves a parking space, a parking event is generated. These events are then shared with Parkopedia and the data is used to increase the coverage and accuracy of our dynamic parking space availability predictions, which are provided to millions of drivers, helping them ensure a space is available when they need it.

Find out more about Parkopedia’s industry-leading on-street parking data, including static information and dynamic, predictive availability, and how we are driving a new era of intelligent parking, via shared mobility, and MaaS solutions.

Safety

Parking is often neglected in city planning. The COVID-19 pandemic has also changed work patterns - prior to the pandemic, city traffic flows were fairly predictable, with peaks during the morning and evening commute periods and traffic more stable throughout the rest of the day. As such, the way in which cities manage public spaces and traffic flow has also changed, with the removal of street parking and charging, to make way for last-mile delivery services and improve the quality of life for urban inhabitants with the inclusion of pedestrian-only zones. 

The shift to low emission mobility is needed to improve air quality, reduce noise levels and lower congestion for those living in urban areas, which is estimated to be home to more than two-thirds of the world’s population by 2050. Municipalities are already removing vehicles and parking from inner-city areas as a method to improve the quality of life for residents. Milan, was used as an example at the event, where the city removed a tax related to overall footprint to enable businesses to expand their outdoor facilities allowing them to continue to trade under social distancing restrictions, however, this resulted in the loss of around 3,000 parking spaces, and any associated on-street EV charging locations. 

The most obvious solution will be to house the majority of the additional EV chargers necessary to facilitate demand within existing off-street parking facilities, as cars need to be parked to charge, however indoor and underground parking facilities block the line of sight to satellites and prevent end-to-end navigation via GPS. Parkopedia’s Indoor Mapping service uses natural landmarks, allowing for vehicle localisation without the need for GPS. Delivering features drivers are accustomed to having on the road, from inside facilities where they were previously unavailable, providing vital relief to residents in a similar situation to Milan above so they can still conveniently park and charge their vehicles.

Find out more about the many benefits of our indoor mapping service.