Transport & tech converge at CES 2020

This story first appeared in the january issue of evtalk CLICK HERE to download the magazine FREE

Hyundai and Uber, a Sony car, Microsoft and Bell helicopters … this year’s CES conference in Las Vegas was a winner for headline-grabbing transport concepts and technologies.

While some, like Sony’s Vision-S car, are undoubtedly vapourware, others show clear intent as the tech industry continues to invest millions in disrupting the future of transport.

Looking past the slick aesthetics and human factors in the designs that belong at a conference like CES, what is interesting is the increasing amount of consideration for investment in designing the transport systems that will underlie the radical new product concepts.

For example, the Microsoft/Bell partnership has developed human UAVs and cargo drones, the APT 70 cargo drone capable of carrying 30kg at over 120km/h.

Bell plans “beyond line of sight” testing next year and propulsion is either hybrid or electric, of course.

What is more surprising is the Bell Nexus’ smart cities showcase, development of an on-demand MaaS system and something called AerOS, an operating system, for managing aircrafts, fleets, cargo and more.

The concepts; designs and vapourware will need these systems and places to test them to become genuine contenders for future uptake.

Uber has chosen Melbourne as one of the places it’s likely to trial Uber Air, while New Zealand’s skies have proven attractive to the likes of Zephyr Airworks’ Cora and Rocket Lab, so could we see more contenders here soon?

Retrofitting vehicles with gadgets that improve autonomous functionality is somewhat less glamorous than flying cars, but that’s exactly what Comma.

AI continues doing and it showcased its latest development at CES too, promising to give a Toyota or Honda some Tesla-like driver assist safety features.

The combination of human drivers and robot drivers sharing the roads is one that continues to present a barrier to autonomous vehicle (AV) uptake, so systems like those from Comma.

Ai may smooth this transition, speeding up the proliferation of in-vehicle safety technologies.

Doug Wilson, senior lecturer and director of University of Auckland’s Transportation Engineering Laboratories attended CES 2020 and the North American Transportation Research Board annual meeting in Washington DC and will be reporting on this next month.

Last call for T-Tech conference programme proposals

ITS NZ is calling for applications from industry leaders, innovators, local government, universities and students to submit concepts to be part of the T-Tech 2020 conference.

T-Tech has rapidly become the leading forum to discuss challenges, innovations and solutions that help make transport safer, greener and more efficient.

At T-Tech 2020, there are six conference themes including:

Safety – Developing, trialing and integrating technologies to deliver Vision Zero.

Community shaping/place making – solutions to improve liveability, access and environments

Digitalisation – 5G, automation and Smart Cities solutions’

Freight and Business – Developing and adopting efficiency innovations to benefit NZ.

Sustainability – Energy as a Tech Enabler/Emission reductions/Modal shift and behaviour change

Resilience safeguarding and future-proofing systems and infrastructure

Those with ideas covering new vehicles, technology, solutions and research should submit their ideas via the ITS NZ website.

Submitting an abstract is very easy, simply upload a brief 250-word summary of the paper or presentation you wish to make at T-Tech.

Submissions will be reviewed by the programme committee.

Maintaining a high quality programme is key for ITS NZ and therefore we do not include commercial sales promotions.

However if your project, research or innovation is groundbreaking and you are willing to share genuine observations and results then please do submit.

We want to hear from those developing, testing, implementing and researching the best transport solutions.

To have your abstract considered it needs to align with at least one of the conference themes and be both original and informative.

Submissions are to be made via the website www.ITSNZ.org.

ITS NZ has a commitment to further innovation, research and skills development in New Zealand and so we are also offering two $5000 prizes for best paper and best presentation at the conference.

The 2019 winners used their winnings to attend international conferences in Singapore and the USA.

Earlybird tickets for the conference, which will be held in Wellington in May 2020, are expected to go on sale any day – visit www.ITSNZ.org for more information.

ITS NZ Youth Board member applications open

ITS NZ is looking for applications from those who wish to join the ITS NZ board to help us develop and shape strategies and engagement activities.

Through our international ITS relationships we already have opportunities to attend international conference programmes and we want to increase our support for those starting out in a career here in New Zealand.

The ITS NZ website has more information and a portal for making an application, alternatively please contact Simon McManus, simon.mcmanus@itsnz.org