Artificial intelligence is set to change the world of ITS. But exactly how – that’s the big question.
“‘AI’ is such a buzzword,” smiles Christian U. Haas, CEO of Umovity. AI has been around for decades, he points out: “In the 1960s or 1970s it was simpler forms of machine learning and now we are obviously talking about a completely different animal.”
In the ITS space, machine learning has been used in applications such as adaptive signal control, short-term forecasting and, more recently, image processing. “But the main di erentiator is the volume of data that the mobility sector now generates, which is far more extensive than anything we’ve seen in earlier years,” Haas says.
As CEO of a multinational, which takes in PTV Group and Econolite, Haas finds this fascinating. “Let’s say 20 years ago, you would be hiring a lot of people with a traffic engineering background. Having those people on board is still very important.” But given the sheer volume of information generated in intelligent transportation, data analysts are now key players in the ITS world.
However, this doesn’t mean that roles within traffic management will change anytime soon. “You will still need planners and traffic managers,” insists Haas. “But the underlying technology will evolve due to the potential for seamless data exchange between planning and management tools.
This will enable real-time interaction, allowing data outputs to directly influence the planning and simulation environments and vice versa – directly, rather than onestep after the other.”
Urban environments will provide important pointers on this. “In the ITS space, it’s crucial to understand how cities evolve, because that’s where it starts,” Haas continues. Umovity’s remit runs across the value chain from modelling, planning, simulation and optimisation software to hardware and associated services. Technology will be important in shaping the next level of smart city ecosystems – but so will the needs of “future citizens, the next generation”.
Haas sees the ‘planning’ world (simulation and so on) moving closer to the ‘real-time’ world of operations such as traffic management. “We can see that with our customer base already, globally,” he insists. “Those departments are really coming together more closely, there’s more interaction. And it makes a lot of sense to understand both worlds. The integration of simulation, planning, modelling and operations is a game-changer. I do see a more holistic approach, in order to get to more accurate, dynamic traffic management solutions. That is not so far away, really.”
Thirty years ago, mobile phones were just starting to take hold – an extraordinarily short time in the past when you consider how much the world now relies on them – but the time frames of tech development have since grown shorter.
Technology and computing power “are evolving at a speed that no-one at this point in time can really get his head around.”
And this will lead, Haas concludes, to “far more advanced AI than we currently can imagine”.
