For a decade, mobility-as-a-service (MaaS) has promised a revolution. Buyers and sellers of mobility services could meet in open digital marketplaces, it was hoped, bringing choice, efficiency and seamlessness to traditionally fragmented systems. In a handful of places worldwide, that vision is moving forward in bits and pieces. But for most of us, the MaaS vision is stalled, restrained by the market power of larger players, underdeveloped technology, and the limits of public wherewithal.
In this session we’ll map the promise of MaaS against its current market reality and potentially messier future, and zero in on the digital services, assets, platforms, and regulations needed to address the gaps. Hosts Andrew Salzberg and Anthony Townsend will join in conversation with guests bringing perspectives from the worlds of transit, ridehail, and micromobility.
Key questions will include:
- What is the public interest in the emerging ‘marketplace’ for consumer mobility?
- How are open APIs enabling integration of services across operators beyond what’s possible inside walled gardens?
- What barriers to data exchange and API adoption could threaten this innovation model?
About Cornell Tech:
This workshop is the second of three events in the 2021 Cornell Tech Mobility Roundtable, organized by the Cornell Tech Urban Tech Hub, a new venture in New York City that generates applied research, fosters an expanding tech ecosystem, and cultivates the next generation of leaders in urban technology. Our goal is to shape the field of urban tech with a human-centered approach that focuses first on the people that use the technology. We advance technology research and education to build a better world by increasing access and opportunity within the tech sector. Based at the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech, the Urban Tech Hub leverages the resources of Cornell University and brings together researchers, engineers, scientists, urban tech companies, government agencies, and community organizations to address the challenges facing cities today.
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