Four cross-industry technologies changing global mobility

By 2025, innovations based on more integrated cross-industry cooperation that capitalizes on mostly existing technologies and preventive data analytics will radically improve how people travel and transport goods, according to a new report by the World Economic Forum, produced in collaboration with the Boston Consulting Group.

Based on the Forum's Connected World project, a yearlong research effort involving more than 50 leading companies from the travel, transportation, and information and communications technologies (ICT) industries, the report identifies several innovations that hold great promise for revolutionizing the travel and transportation ecosystem. Some of them have the potential to provide significant business opportunities and societal benefits. From an initial list of 100, the following four have been highlighted:

• An integrated proactive intermodal travel assistant would create one seamless ticket across road, railway, and air. Users would access the solution through voice- or gesture-controlled data glasses (or even contact lenses) that would offer real-time information on travel plans. Big data and artificial intelligence would allow a user confronted by a major flight delay, for example, to select from a variety of travel options -- possibly a flight to an alternative airport and a car rental.
• A condition-based megacity traffic-management system would integrate and process up-to-the-minute information from vehicles, travel infrastructure, individuals, surveillance cameras, and the environment to manage traffic in the largest cities around the world. Before congestion on a major highway hits problematic levels, for example, the system would automatically reroute drivers or adjust tolls to encourage alternate routes. Services such a system could offer also include forecasting air pollution levels, blocking access to areas caused by environment or emergency issues, and even smart parking. Rio de Janeiro in Brazil has already rolled out such a system three years ago, gathering traffic information from 400 surveillance cameras. China's Langfang city has also rolled out a similar smart traffic system recently, utilizing 178 cameras. Current research indicates the market for smart traffic systems could reach US$ 12 billion by 2025.
• A fully automated check-in, security, border-control, and smart-visa system would harness technology to eliminate the long lines at airport screening points and border crossings, simultaneously enhancing security. Visa applications would be standardized across multiple countries with data available to officials in all participating nations. Check-in for a flight would be expedited by replacing paper documents with an electronic passport, as well as biometric traveler identification through fingerprints, facial recognition, or an iris scan. New sophisticated behavioral risk-based screening systems would speed up security checks, allowing luggage to be scanned with liquids still packed. And boarding and customs processing would be made dramatically faster by the same biometric identity checks. While Dubai has one of the most advanced automated iris checking systems implemented since 2012, the world is still far away from implementing a fully automated check-in system at an airport. The International Air Transport Association's has scheduled pilot projects in 2014.
• A tracking and transparency-based logistics optimizer would solve some of the thorniest "last-mile" challenges associated with product deliveries. Under this system, cheap and ubiquitous RFID chips would be incorporated into product packaging and used to track not only the real-time location of items as they are moved but also factors such as the average temperature during shipping and the CO2 emissions associated with the production and shipping of the product. Such a system would both allow more efficient transportation of products and give consumers valuable information on the quality and environmental impact of the items in their shopping carts.

"These solutions will be game changers, and the technological know-how to make them a reality largely exists," said BCG Senior Partner Antonella Mei-Pochtler, who is also codirector of the Connected World project. "It is only through an integrated approach across industries and through active support by the public stakeholders that we can realize them. Business leaders need to create the prerequisites; strengthening data analytics is one of them."

The Forum and BCG are currently working with companies, governments, and other stakeholders throughout the world to map out plans for developing these solutions.

Although many of the technologies exist today, successful implementation will depend on surmounting several institutional barriers. The main obstacles, according to the report, are a lack of cooperation across industries and various public agencies. At the same time, the challenges that typically surround hyperconnectivity -- including data ownership, data privacy, and resilience against cyberattacks -- create additional hurdles. The Forum's push to bring corporate and government leaders together to promote development of these solutions is aimed at addressing such challenges.

In addition to the four highlighted solutions, the report notes eight others for their potential to shape the future of travel and transportation. They include: holographic communication platforms, mobile living rooms and virtual offices, integrated intermodal mobility providers, driverless swarm-car service, logistics drones, mobile pop-up hotels, preventive vehicle-maintenance systems, and vehicle operator and passenger health analytics.

The Connected World project and report are part of the Forum's Hyperconnectivity Initiative, which aims to provide insight into how the increasing prevalence and speed of connections around the globe will impact issues such as security, cybercrime, and privacy.