The second edition of the Politico Connected Transport Summit was held last month in Brussels, with the support of Orange. It was an opportunity to bring together representatives of the European institutions, NGOs and various industrial sectors (transport, energy, technology and telecoms) to discuss the practicalities of implementing a digital-based transport policy.
With Mark Scott (Chief Technology Correspondent at Politico) as a moderator, an all-female panel exchanged on the best ways to tackle this technological revolution in the transportation sector at the Connected Transport Summit 2018. The panel was made of Ms Merja Kyllönen (MEP, member of the Transport Committee), Sigrid De Vries (Secretary General of the Association of Automotive Equipment Manufacturers CLEPA) and Valérie Cussac (Vice President Mobile Business Unit, Orange Business Services).
A key takeaway from those exchanges is the need to involve all of the actors of the value chain in a more open ecosystem. This will help establish a trusted relationship and foster co-innovation in a complex environment where standardisation and the principle of technology neutrality play a major role. Valérie Cussac took the opportunity to highlight the long standing experience of telecommunication operators which are used to working with a large number of actors to ensure the interoperability of their services, although this time, the exercise is more complex because it goes well beyond the usual industrial and administrative silos. But the willingness is definitely there, and all stakeholders have expressed the desire to achieve a "harmonious integration" of the different actors in the value chain.
This panel also discussed the future use of data generated by transportation services in an increasingly connected world. If each actor defends his own vision on this subject, the technological bricks are already there to set the stage for the future of mobility.
