The climate crisis has triggered a complete redesign of transport modes. Sales of electric vehicles have soared, high-speed trains have re-emerged as an alternative to aviation, and advanced battery technologies are the great hope for sustainable shipping. In addition, new discoveries in semiconductor materials, computing and artificial intelligence will facilitate the progress of autonomous vehicles, which will change how we get around and how we design the cities of the future. In short, we are on the verge of a revolution. The intelligent transport revolution.
Many advances, already successfully implemented in rail networks and commercial aircraft, such as interconnectivity between vehicles and automated driving, will reach the automotive world. In addition, the development of clean energy and advances in high-capacity, long-range batteries will accelerate the electrification of the sector, making our way of getting around more sustainable. On the other hand, technologies such as new infrared sensors, LIDAR, artificial intelligence and 5G will give way to intelligent transport. These systems will help us mitigate the effects of the climate crisis but, above all, they will offer much safer and more efficient transport alternatives. The future of
Urban planning, services and global supply
The technological challenge of defining what the new architecture of environmentally sustainable economic growth will look like is completed by smart mobility. Its impact goes beyond the electrification and connectivity of vehicles with an increasing degree of autonomy, and the development of a whole industry of new services associated with it.
It reaches other areas closer to social cohesion, such as those related to the involvement of urban planning in the fight against inequality and the democratisation of access to basic and financial services in all areas of large cities and in rural environments. It will also have an impact on the reconfiguration of the global supply chain, which is evolving towards a reticular structure and will push many sectors to move towards distributed manufacturing formulas, increasingly closer to the end user and customisable thanks to digital technologies.
