MaaS
The rise of autonomy in automobile and penetration of mobile in automobile could possibly trigger the kill switch for the auto mobile sector. The advent of the new industry model popular as MaaS (Mobility As A Service) is probably all about this, perhaps the whole idea of buying a car is about to hit a pause and become obsolete in coming years.
The urban centers across the world are getting more densely populated with people migrating to these cities in search of better opportunities and lifestyle. The existing infrastructures are already overburdened and population outpaces possible solutions. Experts are still trying to solve the same age old problems of gridlocks and congestion through newer highways, expressways but all this can only extend to a certain limit. The urban mobility has to think way beyond infrastructural requirement.
The Indian connection with MaaS is an essential checkbox for the urban cities which are overcrowded and infrastructure overburdened. The average speed is 15-16km/hr in India the avg. distance commuted approximately in the range of 40-45km/day and the commuting time is a whopping 160mins. The more time on road the more fuel we burn, the avg. fuel consumption is 4.5litres per 100km approximately 22.2km/ltr. The volume of vehicles predicted till 2030 is humongous and this would bring down the efficiency in the range of 6litres per 100km approx.15-16km/ltr. Without any augmentation or new corridors this avg. may just go beyond 10litres per 100km.
The Indian sentiment of owning a car isn’t simply about the car but it’s more of a status symbol. Probably a culture we might have to let go to help our own cause. The cases of road rage, parking fights and deaths over trifle issues has only risen all these years. The public transport has only deteriorated and last mile connectivity is till date another major hurdle. The regulatory bodies need to intervene to save the future, may be put a cap on the vehicular fuel consumption on an annual basis, devising an alternative is a must we ought to reverse the culture from vehicle ownership to maximizing vehicle user-ship.
The mobile penetration is already significant and mapping mobile to mobility is the need of the hour. Mobility as a service has some infrastructural requirement prime among them is mobile penetration and cellular services on 4G/5G networks. It is only a matter of time till we bring in all modes of transport ranging from public mass transport services to private mass transport services and personal transport services to corporate transport services all under one roof. The planning of routes and services shall be done on the basis of point to point services and we start paying for the mobility as we pay for our broadband connections.
The concept of e-mobility further helps this cause as the high cost of the car could be leveraged distributed across several users who don’t plan to own it but are willing to pay for the services they would like to avail. Finland is a country that could be possibly looked at where this model exists. The global avg. price of a car is USD 20k but in India it is under 10k. The adoption of Electric Vehicles in India would be a costly affair at least for another good 4-5 years. The average age of majority vehicles on Indian roads is 4-5 years old. So it becomes more pertinent to blend MaaS with the adoption of E-Mobility at the same time forging an urban and smart mobility in true sense. The initiative has to be come from regulations and the govt. needs to step in to help build this platform together with the technologists and automobile makers.
The artificial intelligence & machine coding will only further the use of MaaS and make it more convenient for people to use the mobility service as per their convenience and usage patterns. The more predictive the system is the more efficient shall be the user’s mobility experience. Transporting consumers across the shortest and the most efficient modes, all this at a nominal price tag. Do we still need to buy new cars to get stuck in the traffic for long hours and let the fuel costs burn a hole in the pocket???
“Re-think, Re-energize & Re-aligning goals” is probably all about MaaS.
