HERE Mobility is set to revolutionize the mobility ecosystem

The global mobility on demand market is expected to exceed US$228 billion by 2022, due to growing traffic congestion, continuous initiatives being taken by several vehicle manufacturing players, and increasing inclination of consumers, according to a TechSci Research 2017 study titled Global Mobility on Demand Market Forecast & Opportunities.

Another survey by McKinsey estimates that the new mobility services market already stands at US$150-200 billion today, and is expected to grow to US$1.5 trillion by 2030. In order to marmeet the needs of this growing HERE Technologies, the Open Location Platform company, launched a new strategic business unit, HERE Mobility this January. HERE Mobility’s business strategy is to bring together the mobility services sector on one platform.

The service is basically a one-stop-shop marketplace for smart, social and scalable mobility services. For service providers, the marketplace offers an opportunity to reach new customers. For consumers, it means greater choice and easier accessibility. The HERE Mobility Marketplace is a software solution that serves as a central hub for supplying and requesting mobility services. It functions as a unifying abstraction layer, providing a single, standardized point of contact for all mobility service types to seamlessly connect supply with demand.

Any business of any size, anywhere, can offer multiple mobility service options to best fit consumer needs. The HERE Mobility Marketplace increases exposure and demand for suppliers and allows customers to easily compare and select the best alternative for them. In conjunction with this launch, HERE Mobility announced that it will be releasing a beta of The Mobility SDK to enable demand partners to develop applications, connecting to the HERE Mobility Marketplace with mobility features for managing rides within their own interface.

“We’re excited to form HERE Mobility, a business with a clear mission to transform the way we access and use transportation and mobility services to simply ‘get around’,” said Edzard Overbeek, CEO of HERE Technologies in a January 2018 press release. “The business combines our leading location technology with the passion we have, to shape the future towards an autonomous world to the benefit of businesses and consumer alike.”

“Mobility is at the core of our lives, and vital for businesses and consumers in the on-demand economy where standards and expectations have risen,” said Liad Itzhak, Vice President and Head of HERE Mobility in the same release. “HERE Mobility strives to solve a real market need that provides consumers and businesses with true freedom of mobility. Our solutions democratize a fragmented and siloed industry, opening new channels to access the best mobility services available.”

This marketplace helps businesses in a variety of industries address the needs of their consumers to create a more holistic customer experience. From airlines offering facilitated transportation choices to and from destinations, to hotels enabling customers to find the most convenient ways of moving around, to large event venues broadening the transportation horizons of attendees, to self-service kiosks situated in public places, the Mobility Marketplace has countless possible use cases, says HERE Technologies.

HERE Mobility also launched its Mobility Dispatch solution – a real-time fleet utilization and optimization solution which consists of a web controller and driver application that easily connects fleet managers with their drivers to improve performance with increased demand and revenue. The Mobility Dispatch is a technological solution based on advanced algorithms for demand prediction, unprecedented fleet utilization and optimization capabilities, and the harnessing of Big Data for insight and analysis to maximize each demand opportunity. Sophisticated technology combined with the exposure to new demand sources through the HERE Mobility Marketplace gives all mobility vendors the opportunity to compete in a crowded ecosystem.

According to HERE Mobility, for all its remarkable growth, few markets are more fragmented than the mobility services sector. The plethora of options across public transit, taxi, car-sharing, air travel and rental services can make getting from one place to another a complex and daunting task. Often, access to the services on offer is only through their respective apps. HERE Mobility, hopes to make it easier to get around by bringing the diverse array of services on offer into one place.

“Fundamentally, the mobility services market lacks a facilitated portal or clear protocol. There are also huge technological gaps between the established providers and more recent entries. HERE Mobility endeavours to democratize the world of mobility by deploying products aimed at setting a new standard of mobility equality for all players in the mobility ecosystem,” says the company.

Automotive Industries (AI) asked Itzhak how he sees HERE Mobility revolutionizing the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) marketplace.

Itzhak: Mobility and transportation are undergoing a major paradigm shift – dozens of players in the game with competing technologies, and millions of consumers. We are developing a holistic mobility platform that will serve as a dynamic hub for connecting mobility services from the demand and the supply side. This not only benefits businesses, but the true beneficiary will be the consumer. Our marketplace is democratizing a monopolized industry by allowing all service providers to equally compete with larger giants – to achieve the goal of creating a better mobility ecosystem for the consumer.

Our Mobility Marketplace is revolutionizing the MaaS space by providing users with a neutral platform aggregating different mobility service providers in one place. Mobility users need a marketplace that gives them direct access to the full spectrum of mobility services, allowing them to make their transport choices in an open, equalized system.

This will enable cities and businesses of all sizes to provide a wide range of mobility service options and an end-to-end solution, seamlessly blending different modes of both public and private mobility services. This means that businesses can grow, consumers benefit, and the ecosystem can begin to evolve towards a healthier mobility future.

AI: How will it impact car-sharing, taxi, and other services? Will it help reduce car ownership?

Itzhak: Reducing car ownership is predicated on the advancements in mobility and autonomous driving. Here Mobility is building a critical mobility solution to enable cities to reduce traffic, expand mobility services and ultimately provide an open marketplace where connecting with all mobility services is simple. Our Mobility Marketplace supports both public and private transportation; whether you will need a bike, bus, limo or a driverless car- our platform will ensure that the most competitive, affordable, accessible and efficient options are available.  

AI: With the mobility market growing fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, what kind of tweaks will the Mobility solution have to make to take into account the complexities in the region?

Itzhak: The Asia-Pacific region is undergoing rapid transformation. New or small mobility partners are going to struggle to compete with the giant players of the region. Ultimately that will result in fewer options for consumers. Our platform confronts that reality as we offer all mobility providers the technology they need to remain competitive as we firmly believe that healthy competition is best for the end consumer.

AI: How revolutionary is your Mobility Dispatch solution and how will it improve efficiencies in the transportation and logistics market?

Itzhak: HERE Mobility strives to solve a real market need, opening new channels to access the best mobility services available. The system includes a dispatcher controller web interface and a driver app. The HERE Mobility driver app houses all the communications between the fleet for organizing rides, status updates, location tracking and other invaluable information. This is helping companies to better analyze their data, arming them with the opportunity to understand demand and today’s shifting mobility patterns. By empowering these businesses, we are in turn creating a smoother system of dispatch for moving anything from A-to-B.