Shared economy has been a buzzword over recent years, empowered by the thriving technological advancements in big data and cloud computing. From mobility industry (Uber, Didi, Ola, etc.) to hospitality industry (Airbnb and Couchsurfing), almost all major industries are being disrupted by the innovative digital business models. (Wallenstein and Shelat 2017) With the emergence of AI and IoT technologies, more profound disruptions can be foreseen that will completely change the industry competitive landscape.

The innovations with shared economy sound very exciting. However, more and more problems are starting to appear. Earlier this year, Didi, the biggest carpooling service who won over Uber in China has been wired with a fatal scandal related with its hitchhike service. A passenger who used the hitchhike service was found dead after being raped by the driver. Although the driver was arrested eventually, this tragedy has alarmed people in the country and they begin to rethink the operating mechanism of Didi’s carpooling service. (En.people.cn., 2018)

Shared economy is built upon trust. On the foundation of trust, people are able to better utilize resources and reach maximum efficiency in society. With the rapid technological advancements, and the enormous convenience that is brought by shared economy, we tend to focus solely on maximizing efficiency, and forget how to ensure the trust mechanism.

The field under discussion is completely new and loosely regulated. There are many unresolved questions left behind for us to ponder over. For example, when accidents occur, who is there to be blamed? Is it only the driver’s fault, or the platform’s fault? To what extent should the platform take the burden, and how can the government better regulate the online carpooling market? Is it possible to better incorporate technologies to identify potential mischievous users by analyzing their past data? I look forward to the solution to these questions and comments are very much welcomed.

Reference

Wallenstein, J. and Shelat, U. (2018). What’s Next for the Sharing Economy?. [online] https://www.bcg.com. Available at: https://www.bcg.com/en-nl/publications/2017/strategy-technology-digital-whats-next-for-sharing-economy.aspx [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].
En.people.cn. (2018). Didi’s fatal scandal leads to rethink of carpooling service – People’s Daily Online. [online] Available at: http://en.people.cn/n3/2018/0518/c90000-9461607.html [Accessed 11 Oct. 2018].

Are you coming from one of the those extremely populated cities, where you have to risk life squeezing yourself into the metro, or stuck in traffic jams for hours and desperately curse the stupid traffic? Even so, every year, tens of thousands of people still swarm into Tokyo, New York, and Shanghai, making these cities’ traffic congestion problem even worse. These cities, having a metropolitan population over 10 million, is what we call a megacity (Basulto, 2014).

With the rapid development of big data, computational technologies and sensing technologies, many countries and organizations around the globe are collaborating to develop an Intelligent Transportation System (ITS), aiming at solving the traffic problems in big modern cities.

ITS has many potential benefits. The most apparent benefit is that it reduces traffic congestions by optimizing the traffic routes that it recommends to the end users. Apart from this, it also ensures safer road transport and efficient infrastructure usage. One of the examples is the ITS system in Glasgow. The ITS system in the city provides regular information to the commuters about the real time location of the buses, the density of passengers on the bus, timings, and actual time it takes to reach the commuter’s next destination. (Choudhary, 2018) A more highly developed ITS should be comprised of a complete sensor network that exchanges all traffic-related information and cognitive management of the overall infrastructure. (Dimitrakopoulos and Demestichas, 2010)

Although there are many potentials of ITS, its development still faces some obstacles. The further development of ITS relies heavily on the technological advancements of sensing technologies, which have not yet reached their mature stage. On the other hand, the privacy and security issues that are associated with ITS remain controversial. In 2016, the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and the Environment released new regulations addressing the problem related to development of ITS in Amsterdam. With the technology advancements and perfection of relevant regulations, a new era of smart mobility is coming along the way.

Reference

Basulto, D. (2018). The future of innovation belongs to the mega-city. [online] Washington Post. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2014/10/28/the-future-of-innovation-belongs-to-the-mega-city/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4c035a31dd28 [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].

Choudhary, M. (2018). What is Intelligent Transport System and how it works. [online] Geospatial World. Available at: https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/what-is-intelligent-transport-system-and-how-it-works/ [Accessed 13 Sep. 2018].

Dimitrakopoulos and P. Demestichas. (2010) Intelligent Transportation Systems. IEEE Vehicular Technology Magazine, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 77-84, March 2010.