Note: This post was written for Bridgestone EMEA in January 2019.
2019 promises to be an exciting year for the world of mobility. The continued growth of urban populations, the increasing scarcity of natural resources and the rising pollution levels challenge us more than ever to reinvent the way we move around in our global cities. In recent years, we have witnessed the emergence of many new business models and technologies, commonly referred to as CASE (Connected, Autonomous, Shared and Electrified), that can help us to overcome these challenges. However, so far, they failed to reach the necessary scale and level of integration to unfold their true potential. Now, with the arrival of Artificial Intelligence and 5G Connectivity, that is about to change.
2019 is also expected to be the year in which mobility is no longer considered in isolation but will become part of a larger vision for truly smart cities. Indeed, there is a growing consensus amongst policy makers and industry experts that urban planning, mobility, energy supply, waste and water treatment, and infrastructure can no longer be optimized separately. Only by tackling all these aspects at the same time with a fully integrated plan, we will be able to build cities in which global citizens get the quality of life they demand and deserve. This year will tell if cities and governments will come to the forefront to orchestrate these urban ecosystems and drive this change forward.
Of course, all these changes will not happen overnight. At Bridgestone, however, we profoundly believe that 2019 is the year in which the rubber will hit the road and our mobility ecosystem will gear up to reach its next maturity level. Here’s what we believe you can expect to see in 2019:
Connectivity will bring more joy, peace of mind and increased productivity.
People are ever more demanding when it comes to their user experience both in- and outside of the vehicle. When inside a car, the modern consumer expects to get a highly personalized experience and be able to access the content of his or her choice, ranging from music over videos to POIs on a 3D map – the kind of experience you currently only get in high-end vehicles from luxury car makers. People also seek for more convenience when consuming mobility services on-the-go, enabled by in-car payment systems as recently introduced by car manufacturers like Volkswagen and General Motors. In 2019, and with the arrival of 5G Connectivity, we believe the scope of these solutions will grow and they will become a reality for ever more drivers and passengers.
When outside their car, drivers want to be reassured that their car is safe and in good working condition. In 2019, we expect to see a further uptake in the number of consumer telematics solutions that enable vehicle owners to monitor their car remotely and benefit from an enhanced repair and maintenance experience. Advancements in Machine Learning will make these solutions also ever smarter, with predictive maintenance becoming slowly but surely an industry standard. At Bridgestone, we also bet on consumer telematics to bring more peace of mind and convenience to our tire and retail customers – see the launch of My Speedy at the Paris Motor Show 2018.
Fleet professionals, on the other hand, are considering vehicle connectivity today primarily as a source to monitor their trucks, vans and/or cars remotely and to lower their fleet’s total cost of ownership. In the future, however, we believe that the abundance of (real-time) vehicle data will help them to shift their focus from managing costs to also managing productivity or, put differently, to doing more with less. In recent years, we already saw some movement in this direction with the launch of load sharing platforms such as Loadfox. In 2019, we expect that this trend will further mature and pave the way for the emergence of real virtual forwarders. Such solutions may not only help fleets to enhance their vehicle utilization rates and profitability, but they will indirectly also contribute to less congestion on the road. At Bridgestone, we are passionate about helping fleets to streamline their operations as well – see the launch of Fleetpulse at IAA 2018.
Autonomous vehicles are still far out, but fit-for-purpose applications are here.
Real autonomous consumer-ready vehicles will unfortunately not yet be a reality in 2019. Even though vehicle manufacturers seem to have overcome some major technology hurdles in 2018, they are all still working hard to ensure all safety requirements are met, especially for when driving in a fully uncontrolled environment. So-called geo-fenced applications of autonomous vehicles, however, will increasingly see the light of day in the coming 12 months. Some concrete examples of such geo-fenced solutions include 2GetThere’s autonomous bus shuttles in Dubai Blue Waters or at Brussels Airport.
Now, while most technology challenges seem to be overcome in previous years, the societal challenge remains. Indeed, Deloitte’s latest Global Automotive Consumer Study finds that more than 40% of Europeans still think that fully self-driving cars will not be safe. At Bridgestone, we want to help vehicle makers overcome this challenge. Therefore, our Digital Garage in Rome continues to research and develop leading-edge tire sensors and analytics models that will help cars to see what cannot be seen today, so that the latter can adjust their safety systems, such as ABS or ESP, accordingly. Because, let’s not forget that the tire is and will remain the car’s only safety system to actually touch the road …
Shared mobility shifts up a gear and becomes smart – multimodality is here.
The demand for new mobility models keeps growing. A recent Ptolemeus’ study says that shared mobility will add another 60 billion passenger kilometers into global traffic by 2030. Most of that is still expected to come from cars though. Nevertheless, 2018 will go into the history books as the year in which the urban population of shared bikes and electric scooters soared across the globe. Unfortunately, these new micro-mobility ventures are far too often not well integrated with other transport options, leaving our global citizens opting for car-centric models as their preferred choice and limiting the true potential of these new ventures. In 2019, we expect this to change. Multi-modal integrators, such as MAAS.Global, alongside city governments will come ever more to the forefront to orchestrate our new urban ecosystems and drive this multimodal (r)evolution forward.
It must be said that this new urban mobility is far from sustainable though – at least from a business point of view. Indeed, profitability remains a key challenge for this industry and is likely to result in further consolidation this year. We also expect most players to (further) narrow their geographical focus and lobby more strongly with local city governments in an effort to reach a certain critical mass and realize some minimum economies of (local) scale. At Bridgestone, we are happy to support the shared and multimodal (r)evolution and, therefore, we are increasingly exploring how we can redeploy our retail networks in urban centers to better serve the needs of these new mobility fleets and become the service hub they need to be successful.
Electric vehicles are gaining traction, but where are the chargers?
While mainstream electric vehicles were almost science-fiction until a few years ago, things are looking much different nowadays. In 2018 multiple vehicle manufacturers treated us well with the launch of several new EV models and 2019 promises to be at least as exciting with the launch of more than 25 new models, including the highly-anticipated Porsche Taycan. The electric car is finally gaining real traction, with volumes expected to grow 35% per annum to reach 90 million vehicles globally by 2030 – according to a recent study from Ptolemeus Consulting. This growth is also witnessed in the commercial segment, with ever more electric vans, busses and trucks becoming available. However, with a growing vehicle park comes the growing need for sufficient charging infrastructure. McKinsey estimates that an additional 40 million chargers will be needed by 2030 to satisfy global demand. Needless to say that we expect new public, private and/or mixed alliances to emerge in the next 12 months to deliver such works.
Now, irrespective of the available charging infrastructure, consumers have always been clear: they do not want to sacrifice on driving range when migrating from a fuel-powered to an electric vehicle. We, at Bridgestone, understand that and we are happy to help vehicle makers further address this challenge as much as we can. Building on our experience from developing unique tires for the BMW i3 and i8 series, we are looking forward to teaming up with OEMs in the coming months and years to deliver a new generation of our EV-focused ologic tires to the market.
So, buckle up – the rubber is about to hit the road, and 2019 promises to be an exciting ride!