Looking into the future #OFMNwebinar

Yesterday afternoon, I joined a webinar hosted by an initiative under ACEA, the Association of Automobile Manufacturers in Europe, called Our Future Mobility Now. The focus for this inaugural webinar was how automotive manufacturers view the future of urban mobility. To be honest, I didn't know what to expect, but I think it was an hour and a half very well spent.



The webinar featured presenters from Toyota Motor Europe, Dr Stephan Herbst, and Lars Akkermans, a researcher at Transport & Mobility Leuven who specialises in modelling human behaviour.

From Toyota's side, they presented the company's plans with the introduction of hybrid vehicles as well as future introduction of full EVs, plug-in electric vehicles and fuel cell powered cars. On top of that, they showed ideas to improve personal mobility with a Segway-like Winglet as well as the i-REAL. Pity, not much was said about the i-REAL which I think could be a really cool solution for the future. They ended off with an idea of what the future city could possibly look like.

Mr Akkermans then went on to discuss what urban mobility means, what it means to people and how they perceive it. He raised some interesting points prompting some interesting debate by the participants in the chat window. Do people still follow the model of: get license, get car, become mobile? Or have people now moved away from this model?

I'm full of praise for this wonderful initiative by Our Future Mobility Now. The next webinar will feature Daimler, then followed by Jaguar Land Rover. Looking forward!

You can check our their website here.

Image source: Our Future Mobility Now and Toyota Motor Europe