Hajime Amano |
eVTOLs in Singapore
will learn from experiences of established
ones. On the other hand, seemingly
matured countries are struggling with
legacy systems and conservative attitudes
and they can learn from successes and
failures of ambitious projects conducted by
emerging countries.
“For technology providers, both types
of nation give important opportunities to
capture and expand business operations in
a new arena of ITS.”
New mobility
Indeed, ITS is expanding, and has come to
mean so much more than smart roadside
infrastructure. More and more automotive
developers are being brought into the fold,
with connected, autonomous, electric
vehicles increasingly a mainstream vision of
the future. The challenge is to help this
vision to become a reality, while minimizing
unintended consequences.
“I believe majority of small sized road
vehicles will be driven by electric motors in
very near future, for efficiency,
controllability and compatibility with
diversifying primary energy sources,” says
Amano. “The big question is how electricity
is generated. We have to consider ‘well-towheel’.
If electricity is generated by burning
fossil fuels, a large volume of CO2 will be
released, even though we are driving ‘zeroemission’
approach on energy. Simply driving electric
cars won’t be a solution.”
And what about the outlook for
autonomous vehicles? How soon might they
become a reality? “It depends on the level of
automation and restriction of operating
areas,” says Amano. “Fully autonomous
road vehicles without any restriction in
mixed traffic are still far away from reality.
However, we already know the limitation of
technologies and the challenges quite well.”
Looking to the future
The next time the ITS World Congress visits
the Asia-Pacific region, it will land in Suzhou,
China, in 2022. What does Amano hope
might be achieved between now and then?
“All we can possibly deploy in three
years should have already been
020 Traffic Technology International September/October 2019
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technologically validated and accepted by
the society,” he says. But he also believes we
must look further into the future.
“In order to reach our full potential in
five to 10 years, it is very important for us to
share goals and build consensus on the
direction we wish to pursue well ahead of
time,” he says. “I hope we will fully assess
both positive and negative impacts of new
technologies to our society, such as AI, AVs
and MaaS and become ready for in depth
discussion with all the stakeholders,
especially the general public.”
And it is this last point – communication
with the public – that Amano believes is
particularly key. “For MaaS it is essential for
the individuals to change their perception
and behaviors, balancing personal and
public interests,” he says. “Experts and
public authorities have to make more efforts
to share the societal goals and implications
of behaviors of individuals for the general
public to make educated decisions.”
And therein lies perhaps the most
important mantra for ITS today –in order to
evolve we must communicate.
vehicles. We must take a holistic
For what we might achieve in five to 10
years, it is very important for us to share
goals and build consensus on the direction we wish to
pursue well ahead of time
IMAGE: VOLOCOPTER
German urban air taxi
company Volocopter –
recently recognized by
The World Economic Forum
as a Technology Pioneer – has
plans to test its vehicles in
the skies above Singapore in
the ‘second half of 2019’.
“We are preparing to
implement the first fixed
routes in cities,” says Florian
Reuter CEO of Volocopter.
“Singapore is a logical
partner: The city is a true
pioneer in technology and city
development. This is another
exciting step to make air taxi
services a reality.”
Whether these tests will
be underway by the time the
ITS World Congress takes
place remains to be seen. But
the plans, nevertheless, are
beginning to focus attention
on the new kind of mobility
solution provided by eVTOLs
(electric vertical take off and
landing vehicles). Could such
short-distance, on-demand,
personal transport take
significant numbers into the
sky and become a solution to
ground-level congestion?
Hajime Amano isn’t yet
convinced: “Although a single
eVTOL flying in free threedimensional
space may be
achieved soon, we don’t know
anything about potential risks
posed by them, especially
when traffic density in the
air reaches the level which
makes sense as general
means of transportation.”
We may be waiting a while
longer, it seems, for the longawaited
dawn of the era of
the ‘flying car’.
Can we solve traffic congestion
by taking to the skies?
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