The world in becoming increasingly urbanised. The UN forecasts that by 2050, some 68% of the global population will live in urban areas.
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Already, more than half of the global population live in cities today. The United Nations predict that this number is expected to increase to nearly 7 in 10 people by 2050. The urban population globally has grown from just 751m in 1950 to 4.2bn in 2018.
Population growth in urban areas also means increased numbers of vehicles on urban roads, which generate more congestion and add to pressure on parking availability. Lack of space also means reduced availability for EV charging. What can be done to ease these pressures?
Last-mile mobility solutions provider, Arrive, aims to make cities smarter and more liveable by working with fleet operators, local authorities, parking operators and public transport providers.
We spoke to Cameron Clayton, CEO, Arrive, to learn more about how the company is working to make cities more connected, sustainable and EV friendly.
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Just Auto (JA): What are some solutions that Arrive provides to cities for EVs specifically?
Cameron Clayton (CC): We try to not delineate by vehicle type. What we try to consider is, for all citizens and decision makers over a city, what’s the best way for people to move about and how do we enable that to be more sustainable over time? How do we optimise transport supply and demand? EVs are a key part of doing that.
Norway has the highest number of EV vehicles in the world – per capita – and is a big market for us. We provide EV charging so you can park and charge all in a single app. It’s super easy. It’s four clicks, and you walk away from your car, you don’t have to worry about your parking, you don’t have to worry about your charging – it’s all taken care of. We do that across our markets around the world.
For decision makers in cities, there’s a whole other aspect of EVs; where should we be putting the charging ports? Where is the demand for EVs greatest? Where do the EVs charge during the day, and where do they charge at night? There are very different patterns of behaviour from vehicles at different times and in different places. Then there’s the difference between private individual drivers and fleet operators.
We are a decision support software company for cities to help them plan where they should be putting their EV infrastructure, and that cascades into not just the cities, but into power companies, into regulatory reviews. In the UK, each borough might be part of the same city, but the boroughs break up differently as well; each borough has got its own model and approach, and we try to help cross those regulatory or government borders with practical solutions that make it super easy for drivers of all kinds to move around.
How important is data for making the mobility experiences the best they can be?
Data is the heart of our whole system and model. We try to really harness real-time insights from vehicles, from payment terminals, from mobile apps, from the cars themselves.
We really want to optimise the mobility, reduce congestion, deliver smarter, more sustainable travel experiences for everyone; that really comes down to informed decision making, operational efficiency, and considering environmental impacts.
Data is the heart of our whole system and model.
It is estmiated that over 40% of car carbon emissions come from people looking for parking spaces. So, there’s a huge, huge impact around that. By using better data to help people find where they want to go, where they want to arrive and park up, then we can really help alleviate the environmental impact in a big way. Then it’s about personalisation; what you want for your trip is perhaps very different from what I want for my trip, and what both of us want for our trips is very different than what the UPS driver wants for their trip, and we have to support all of those people and their different transport needs.
What do you hope to see more of within city environments?
We support over 20,000 cities around the world today, in over 90 countries. There are some common themes that come out when you’re looking at that many cities around the world.
Seven out of 10 people will live in cities by 2050, so this is a massive urbanisation trend.
One of the themes that follow from next generation mobility systems is that of resilience. How do we use our Arrive solution to be reliable in all conditions with new technologies, supporting account-based ticketing, contactless payments and so on. Even using your phone adds some friction to the process. People are looking for a completely frictionless experience and flexibility based on where they are and what they want to do.
The other big theme is adaptability. We’re taking some of these mature, older systems and getting the latest, newest technologies. How do we help cities support that? That’s a combination of hardware and software.
We also see inclusivity where cities are trying to help all of their population, whether you’re a young person, a retired person, or disabled – we need to help cities go on that journey to be really inclusive. That includes public transport, green spaces. How do you take streets with cars and make them pedestrian-only to help improve the quality of life in the city? Which streets are the best ones for such treatment? This also comes back to the data points.
Ultimately, by supporting EV adoption and reducing traffic congestion, Arrive is helping create cleaner, quieter, healthier urban environments – all at different times of day. We see these solutions driving, on average, about a 25% improvement in journey times saved for commuters. The impact is pretty profound on cities, and also very measurable.
We save time for people; that’s the simplest way to think about it. We help you get from point A to arrive at point B quicker and more efficiently.
Ultimately, by supporting EV adoption and reducing traffic congestion, Arrive is helping create cleaner, quieter, healthier urban environments.
How does the company start working with a city?
Usually, we try to be customer centric. We try to listen to our customers and understand what their challenges their problems are, then we see if there’s a way to partner to solve those problems. Our mission is, working together, to make cities more liveable.
I think the together word at the beginning is probably the most important one, which is why we can’t do this by ourselves. We start from this basic point: how do we partner with cities? Also, how do we partner with other companies to solve problems? How do we partner even with our competitors to help solve problems, for cities, for drivers, in order to get the solutions everyone wants?
It really is an industry and a team sport. No one company can do it on their own, so we try to partner with everyone in the ecosystem to help solve these problems and make cities better.
What does the future of our cities look like?
I think cities are going to get bigger and more complex. Our job is going to be to make it easier for citizens of cities to get around in their communities more effectively, sustainably and flexibly. I think those are the things that will happen in both the short- and the long-term.
I think we will see continued adoption of EVs. I think at the end of the day, there will need to be a lot of flexibility to bridge the technology types, vehicle types, and the fuel types.
I think we all share some common things that that we all want. We all want safer, healthier, more efficient cities, and we want better public transport. We also want better connections between modes – walking, riding, driving as we get from point A to point B. It’s only with technology and embracing technology that it will get easier, but we have to connect all these different systems, all these different modes of transport together and make it easier for people to do it.
Most cars on the road aren’t connected with digital wallets, but the newest cars have digital wallets in the car. What that means is, when you pull into a parking space, and your car’s got a digital wallet, the car knows where it is, because of Wi-Fi or satellite service. It knows exactly where it is. It knows all the rules for that parking space you have pulled into, so it will now start your parking automatically. You go about your business; you don’t have to do anything. It just gives you a notice on your phone or in your car screen. You come back in your car, you drive off, and it stops your parking. It’s completely seamless process. In ten years, that will be commonplace for most cars on the road in the UK and around the world.
It’s an example of how technology can make our lives easier and better. However, we get to keep control, and I think that’s the key we want to provide. We want to make it seamless and easy, but we want to give control to the decision maker – in this case, the driver.
