A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS ASERVICE (MaaS):

WHITE PAPER

RICKY DROHANrdrohan@tssg.org

ABDULLAH HAMIDahamid@tssg.org

TELECOMMUNICATIONS SOFTWARE AND SYSTEMS GROUP (TSSG)

WATERFORD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY (WIT)

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The purpose of this White paper is to promote justification for the study of the Mobility

as a Service (MaaS) concept within the context of the Irish transport industry. As part

of this, a state of the art on the MaaS paradigm is presented. Originating from

Finland, MaaS describes the concept where all transport services offer customised

mobility solutions to users based on their individual needs.

Inherent in this idea is the transition from users driving their own vehicles to more

regular use of public transport. Hietanen (2014) defines typical MaaS implementations

envisage users interacting with a service provider interface which integrates a range of

services provided by companies. These services include infrastructures, transportation

services, information and payment services.

MaaS applications would allow users to book and pay for journeys involving the use of

multiple modes of transport. For example, an applications' trip planner feature may

show a user that they can travel from point A to B by taking either a 'train and taxi' or a

'bus and taxi' combination. Excepting the executive summary, this white paper consists

of 5 sections.

The first section outlines a brief introduction into MaaS, discussing its meaning as well

as current state of research within EU. Sections two and three investigate the

literature of the MaaS concept at EU and Irish levels respectively. The fourth section

of this white paper proposes potential themes for MaaS research that would provide

academics with ideal opportunities to make seminal contributions to the concept.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS): A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

The concept of MaaS is very new, conceived in 2014 by Sampo Hietanen of ITS Finland. Moreover, there has

not been much research outside of Finnish companies such as ITS Finland and MaaS.fi. As a consequence,

there is a dearth of research in the field of MaaS. Despite this, there is consensus on the understanding of what

MaaS is.

MaaS is a mobility distribution model where the transportation needs of individuals are satisfied by a service

provider over a single interface (Hietanen, 2014). Furthermore, Rantsalia (2015) refers to a paradigm shift in

personal transportation in which travelers use service providers for transportation, rather than using personal

vehicles such as cars.

This shift is fueled by a myriad of innovative new mobility service providers such as taxi companies, taxi hailing

apps, or ride-sharing companies like Uber or Lyft (Yuan et al., 2016. As a result, MaaS is gaining prominence as

a possible solution to the long-standing challenge of seamless mobility, overcoming the boundaries between

the different transport modes and achieving an integrated transport system for both people and goods.

MaaS describes a class of applications where traditional real-time control systems are enhanced by backbone

services accessed via the mobile Internet (Richter et al., 2015. According to the Finnish Ministry of Transport

and Communications (2014 , it is envisaged that these services will take the form of service packages currently

offered by mobile phone operators. Rantasila (2015) argues that MaaS represents the evolution of transport

paradigm as it emphasises changes in how transport services are provided by companies and used by their

customers.

Academics should take into account the concepts of privacy and security in MaaS research. Indeed, Sicari et al.

(2014 highlight that research on these concepts in loT is not yet comprehensive, and that understanding its

requirements at the initial development stages of any system is a necessary requisite to garner user trust in

loT-based services .

MaaS is a mobility distribution model where

the transportation needs of individuals are

satisfied by a service provider over a single interface

- Hietanen, 2014

WHAT IS MaaS?

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS): A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS): A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

Chiefly, the MOBINET (http://www.mobinet.eu/) project has laid

some of the groundwork for MaaS. In particular, this program aims to

fund research on user identification and payment management

systems as well as integration of trip planner applications.

The concept of multi-modal transport offerings is explored in the

USEMOBILITY (http://cordis.europa.eu/resu1Urcn/57984_en.html

project. Findings from the research suggest that more and more

Europeans have started mixing their mobility options and are switching

to the more environmentally friendly modes of transport in the past

five years, depending on their individual needs. This changing trend in

user mobility is a strong indicator of MaaS' potential and how it can

exploit this by offering viable multi-modal transport options to

customers.

In contrast, the CO-CITIES (http://www.co-cities.eu/ project examined

the impact of introducing traffic management centers in urban

settlements that are capable of managing real-time, two-way

communication between users and traffic information services within

various European cities (Bilbao, Florence, Munich, Prague, Reading, and

Vienna.

The European Mobility as a Service Alliance (http://maas-alliance.eu/,

launched in October 2015, is a step forward in making Maas available

throughout Europe, bringing together public and private stakeholders

and providing the essential business model for a successful

implementation of MaaS in Europe. This alliance however is in initial

stages with more potential partners to join in the alliance.

There is a need to build a coherent and sustainable business models to

help streamline the end user experience while utilizing the existing

private and public modes of transport.

MaaS AT EU RESEARCH LEVEL

Within the EU, there is a range

of projects focusing on

Maas research topics.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MAAS):A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

MaaS AT IRISH LEVEL

Although the MaaS concept is in its infancy, there have been related

EU projects in the past.

For example, the FLIPPER project focused on the study of 'good

practices' of flexible transport services that promote sustained social

and economic growth of regions whilst minimising energy usage,

environmental pollution, and social exclusion of vulnerable groups.

The group consisted of 11 partners, among them local authorities,

transport companies and universities, in 9 EU geographically isolated

regions - one of which was South Tipperary.

Justification for research into MaaS within an Irish context is

threefold.

Firstly, this is an emerging research topic which therefore provides

researchers the opportunity to carry out seminal work on MaaS.

Indeed, there are some organisations such as Transport for Ireland

(www.transportforireland.ie) and ITS Ireland (www.itsireland.ie)

serving as online hubs for current research at national level as well as

providing information on future conferences.

Secondly, such research could act as a guide to both existing and

start-up companies to implement MaaS applications within

geographic clusters in Ireland.

Finally, research would also contribute to EU-wide research on

MaaS .

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS): A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

THEMES FOR FUTURE

RESEARCH

The role of information and data is crucial in this system and hence

the privacy and security related to user data is of immense

importance in the MaaS systems.

The system will have sensitive user data like GPS locations, timings of the journeys and other personal details. It

is essential that this data is protected and is not shared without the consent of the user. An agreed level of trust

has to be maintained between the customers and the transport service providers. It is also essential to have

well-defined service level agreements.

However, the data collected can be mined to extract useful information that can help plan future trips of the

customers. The customers can be shown the most popular routes to their destinations. The system should also be

able to predict the transport demands based on the past trends of the traffic and transport usage

The mobility operators can use this information to allocate different modes of transport according to their

availability and traffic congestion. .

Waterford Institute of Technology (TSSG) has a key interest in further exploring the

research domain of MaaS with the focus on Security and Privacy of Data .

CONCLUSION

Excepting the abstract and consequent introduction, this paper offered a summation of

the literature review along with a brief overview of current and past EU-funded

projects within the field of MaaS.

Even though there is a lack of academic research in this emerging field, this in itself

provides a great opportunity for researchers to produce seminal EU research,

especially within an Irish context. In particular, the South Tipperary case study from

the FLIPPER project gives potential researchers an ideal 'stepping stone' for carrying

out similar research in other geographic clusters in Ireland.

Indeed, apart from the aforementioned example, there seems not to be any more

examples of MaaS research to date within Ireland. Despite this, such research

could benefit both start-ups and existing companies looking to adopt a MaaS-

centric approach to their business strategies as well as advice on implementing

high-quality mobile applications whilst providing EU academics with further case

studies to enhance their own research.

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MaaS): A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH

Alykkaan liikenteen verkosto - ITS Finland - Etusivu. (2016). ITS Finland [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.its-finland.fi/index.php/fi/. [Accessed 5 February 2016].

FLIPPER Project - Flexible Transport Services and ICT platform for Eco-Mobility in urban and rural European areas. (2016) FLIPPER Project. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.interreg4cflipper.eu/. [Accessed 15 February 2016].

Hietanen, S. (2014 ), "Mobility as a Service' - the new transport model?', Eurotransport, 12(2), pp. 2-4. Maas website of Finland (2016) Maas.ti [ONLINE] Available at: http://maas.fi/. [Accessed 5 February 2016].

Ministry of Transport and Communications (2014) 'Mobility as a Service - the new transport paradigm'. Helsinki: Stationary Office. Available at: http://www.lvm.fi/documents/20181 /798198/Fact+sheet+16-2014++Mobility+as+a+Service/4ab2de51-856d-4589-9b1c-4141e0635a89?version=1.0. [Accessed 29 January 2016].

MOBiNET. 2016. MOBiNET. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.mobinet.eu/. [Accessed 26 February 2016].

USEmobility 2016. USEmobility [ONLINE] Available at: http://cordis.europa.eu/result/rcn/57984_en.html. [Accessed 12 March 2016].

Project Overview I Co-cities. (2016). Project Overview I Co-cities. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.co-cities.eu/. [Accessed 22 February 2016].

Rantsalia, K. (2015) 'The impact of mobility as a service concept to land use', 2015 International Conference on Sustainable Mobility Applications, Renewables and Technology (SMART), pp. 276-279.

Richter, D., Grapentin, A. and Polze, A. (2015) 'Mobility-as-a-Service: A Distributed Real-Time Simulation with Carrera Slot-Cars', Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC), 2015 IEEE 18th International Symposium, pp. 276-279.

Sicari, S., Rizzardi, A., Grieco, L.A. and Coen-Porisini, A. (2015). 'Security, privacy and trust in Internet of Things: The road ahead'. Computer Networks, pp. 146-164.

Yuan, C., Thai, J. and Bayen, A.M. (2016) 'ZUbers against Zlyfts Apocalypse: An Analysis Framework for DoS Attacks on Mobility-as-a-Service Systems', ACM/IEEE International Conference on Cyber-Physical Systems.

The European Mobility as a Service Alliance [ONLINE] Available at: http://maasalliance.eu/ [Accessed 12th March 2016]

REFERENCES

THE FUTURE OF MOBILITY AS A SERVICE (MAAS):A CASE FOR EU AND IRISH RESEARCH