Thank you Chanchal for your interview. Can you tell us a bit more about yourself?

I live in Bangalore, India. I work as an Industry Analyst with Frost & Sullivan. I'm a researcher and strategist tracking the shared mobility ecosystem including various segments like Carsharing, Ridehailing, DRT, Micromobility, MaaS, etc. – I track the trends, advancements, business models, innovations and opportunities, with a special interest towards the micro mobility segment.

I love reading about innovations, technology, and business side of products/services in the shared mobility space. I’m passionate about bringing sustainability principles in mobility in turn making cities more breathable and less congested through my research.

These days we are talking about terms such as Metaverse, cryptocurrency and digital assets like NFTs. How do you think they can be used in terms of mobility?

Metaverse is the space where the physical world meets the virtual world. The internet plays an important role in facilitating mobility across the world. Tech companies are exploring exciting ways in which the Metaverse, cryptocurrency and digital assets like NFTs can be used in mobility. There are certain ideas which have already gained ground like the ride - hailing industry shifting towards creating decentralized ride hailing apps built on top of a blockchain and using cryptocurrencies as payments. A blockchain layer also allows mobility companies to generate additional revenues by selling NFTs and combine itself with other blockchain-based mobility services.

In the future, these underlying technologies will allow the creation of private metaverses. This would enable Robotaxi companies to create revenue via mobility-themed virtual experiences, games, tokens and targeted advertising.

Do you think that MaaS tools should consider implementing gamification models to achieve a change of mentality in users and thus reduce the use of more polluting private vehicles?

Maas enables in transportation that is integrated, time and cost efficient helping people find the best modes of transportation from point A to point B. Gamification taps into the users emotions and demonstrates activities the user can complete to reach a mutually shared goal. Thus it influences users behaviour. In a use case like maas, where the user needs to be motivated to leave the comfort of his/her car, gamification can prove to be a great way to acheive this change in mentality in users by providing various levels, badges, user rankings, CO2 emissions and comparison of results of days, weeks and months.

In the current scenario where users are wary to move towards MaaS gamification, would definitely help in bringing about the change in behaviour and acceptance of other modes.

As an expert and opinion leader in mobility, which trend are you currently researching the most that you believe will be crucial in future years?

As seen till now, be it any form of mobility mode -  carsharing, Ridehailing, MaaS are all driven by technology. The underlying technology is what tips scale between a good service and best service for the customers. Even the traditional public transport systems can be modernized with contactless ticketing/payments, the traditional bus networks converted to dynamic networks and ultimately, all the different modes can be combined together to offer a comprehensive solution – all facilitated by Mobility technology. This is a segment where we expect to see a lot of operators and players from cross industries to shift their focus on.

Apart form that, we see a lot of potential in autonomous shared mobility segment. Shared mobility technology, after years of development and testing in the real world, is on the verge of reaching commercial viability on a large scale. Autonomous mobility solutions like shuttles will play a key role in de-congesting city centers and providing public transport in rural areas as it can have high utilization figures matching the supply and demand.

If you had to describe the mobility of the future in three words, what would they be?

Autonomous Shared Mobility.

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