It’s the year 2030. Finland has the safest, smoothest and most environmentally friendly traffic in the world.
Fintraffic provides traffic information in Finland that helps companies to create new traffic and smart mobility solutions for people and goods. In the new video Fintraffic introduces their vision and how the Finnish transportation system will work seamlessly in the future.
The evolution of battery technologies and electricity production has made it possible to move towards low-emission transportation. In addition to the traffic, electrification is progressing in all fields of society. As the share of renewable energy increases, energy production becomes cleaner and more distributed. At the same time, the variation in production in different time periods increases. In order to match the production and consumption of electricity, the market needs to become more flexible and more and bigger energy storage solutions will be needed.
The task of the working group appointed by Minister of Economic Affairs Mika Lintilä in June 2020 was to prepare a battery strategy for Finland in order to strengthen the innovative environment of the battery sector, accelerate Finland’s sustainable and low-carbon economic growth and support the achievement of climate objectives in transport.
The working group proposes seven objectives for the strategy period 2021–2025: growth and renewal of the battery and electrification cluster, growth of investments, promotion of competitiveness, increased international awareness of the strategy, responsibility, definition of key roles in the sector’s new value chains, and promotion of circular economy and digital solutions.
In order to achieve these objectives, the working group proposes the following measures: promote cooperation through a national cooperation body, expand the competence of the sector, strengthen international contacts, develop an environment conducive to investments, promote responsibility within the sector, strengthen the brand and communications about the sector, and develop funding.
The Battery Strategy outlines the measures that can help Finland become an internationally important actor in the battery and electrification sector. The preparation of the strategy reinforced the perception among the authors that achieving the objective is possible but there is no time to lose.
Read the full publication the Finnish Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment here.
In conjunction with the launch of Finland’s national battery strategy, Fortum announced in January 2021 the further expansion of its battery recycling operations. In February 2021, Fortum will open a new mechanical recycling processing plant located in Ikaalinen, Finland. The new plant, which is expected to employ up to 20 employees, will complement Fortum’s existing hydrometallurgical pilot facility in Harjavalta, Finland, which is already capable of operating on an industrial scale.
The world will increasingly need sustainable raw materials for EV batteries, as the electrification of cars is rapidly increasing the need for the valuable materials and chemical elements that batteries contain, such as lithium, nickel, cobalt and manganese. In addition, a recent EU directive proposal will also require improved collection targets, higher recovery rates and the increased use of recycled raw materials in new batteries.
Fortum, a leading European energy company, is committed to engage its customers and societies to decarbonise and to help them in decreasing their environmental footprints. Moving forward, CO2-neutral societies will rely on battery technology. Fortum has been developing new and increasingly efficient ways to optimise the entire lifecycle of lithium-ion batteries for several years now and aims to further expand its battery operations in the coming years. Partnering with industrial and infrastructure customers is one of Fortum’s strategic priorities.
“Our new plant in Ikaalinen will enable us to leverage our existing recycling operations in Finland and will give us the annual capacity to recycle approximately 3,000 tonnes of used batteries, corresponding to about 10,000 EV batteries,” says Tero Holländer, Head of Business Line Batteries at Fortum. “We aim to steadily increase this capacity in the coming months and years in order to bridge the raw materials gap faced by the automotive industry with the electrification of transportation. Providing recycled and sustainable raw materials for batteries will bring significant value not only to our partners and customers but also to Finland’s battery industry, which is well poised to take the lead in the supply chain for EV batteries.”
The global lithium-ion battery recycling market was worth about EUR 1.3 billion in 2019, but it is expected to boom in the coming years to more than EUR 20 billion. According to a forecast by the International Energy Agency, the number of electric vehicles on the world’s roads will increase from three million to 125 million by 2030.
Many current operators that recycle battery metals often do so by smelting, which results in lower material recovery rates and higher emissions. In order to recycle used lithium-ion batteries efficiently, safely and with the lowest possible CO2 footprint, Fortum has taken an approach that includes using both mechanical and hydrometallurgical methods for the recycling process; this approach can reach a recovery rate of up to 95% of the metals included in the valuable active materials of a battery’s black mass.
Fortum’s unique mechanical recycling process has been optimised to complement the hydrometallurgical process and has been designed to minimise emissions and dust. During the process, used EV batteries are shredded and the metals are separated to create a black mass. This black mass is then delivered to Fortum’s processing facility in Harjavalta where a hydrometallurgical process is applied to create new recycled raw materials that can be used in new battery products.
Read Fortum’s press release here.
Telia partnered with Arthur D. Little to look into the digitalization of public transport in the Nordics and Baltics – the results of the study are published in a comprehensive report now available online.
Public transport is a in a period of intense challenges and remarkable possibilities. In this report, Telia and Arthur D. Little look at the goals, trends and pain points identified by public transport authorities and operators across the Nordics and Baltics – and how they can be addressed by the emerging possibilities of digitalization.
The new report covers following areas:
Analysts from Arthur D. Little interviewed public transport decision makers from across the Nordics and Baltics to understand their pains. Combining these findings with other local and global reports, we looked at how the emerging possibilities of digitalization can help to address them.
Read the full report here.
Stockton, CA & New York, NY 20th November 2020
The San Joaquin Council of Governments (SJCOG) and Masabi, the company bringing Fare Payments-as-a-Service (FPaaS) to public transit, announced November 20th 2020 the launch of EZHub, a cashless mobile ticketing and fare payment system, available in the Vamos Mobility App from Kyyti, that will make using public transit safer and easier to access and pay for throughout San Joaquin County.
Once downloaded, transit riders can use the Vamos Mobility app to plan their journeys and, thanks to the addition of EZHub, purchase tickets for any of the seven participating transit systems. The app is available from both the App Store and Google Play by searching for “Vamos Mobility” or “EZHub”, connecting residents of California’s Central Valley with affordable and clean local transit.
From 20 November 2020, riders on services provided by San Joaquin RTD, Manteca Transit, Tracer, eTrans, Altamont Corridor Express (ACE Rail), GrapeLine and City of Ripon can use EZHub to purchase tickets via the Vamos Mobility app wherever, whenever and ride across the agencies networks. This will cover the regional bus and rail transit services throughout San Joaquin County and local bus transit service in the cities of Stockton, Lodi, Manteca, Ripon, Tracy, and Escalon. Talks are ongoing to expand the app’s functionality beyond San Joaquin County, and to add further mobility partners.
Vamos is integrating EZHub using Masabi’s Justride SDK, enabling transit ticketing from within the Vamos Mobility app. This ground-breaking innovation will help open up ticketing across the region, giving people the freedom and flexibility to open a single app to plan a trip, get real-time information, and purchase a ticket in just a few taps.
Thanks to Masabi’s cloud-native and multi-tenant Fare Payments-as-a-Service platform, Justride, which powers EZHub, transport agencies no longer need to purchase their own design-and-build bespoke ticketing systems, which are expensive, slow and risky to deploy, and do not update regularly with new features and functionality unless significant amounts of money are invested. Instead, using a Fare Payments-as-a-Service approach, they can benefit from the latest innovations delivered quickly and cost-effectively, with regular feature updates everyone on the platform benefits from.
“The launch of EZHub represents the dawn of a new era for transit riders in San Joaquin County,” said Diane Nguyen, Deputy Director at SJCOG. “From now on, not only will people be able to buy their tickets at any time, anywhere, but that ticket will take them wherever they want to go in San Joaquin County, saving the hassle of keeping track of multiple tickets, schedules and services across different agencies. Masabi presented us with a compelling proposition, with a world-renowned product that will help streamline transit for people and communities, and we are delighted to have such an esteemed partner on board as we get to work making journeys smarter.”
“At Masabi, our Fare-Payments-as-a-Service approach to fare collection has brought time and cost-saving innovation to all sizes of transit agency across the world. Now, more than ever, when passenger safety is paramount, the reassurance of a fully contactless rider experience combined with an easier way to reach destinations throughout the region means that journeys can be undertaken safely and conveniently,” said Brian Zanghi, CEO of Masabi. “We’re excited about the launch of this ground-breaking regional project and pleased to bring the benefits of cashless technology to riders of all the agencies involved via a single solution.”
“SJCOG’s new regional fare payments system, EZHub, is a highly advanced solution to a technically complex problem. It seamlessly combines services from seven transit agencies. We are very happy to be the end user app provider for this project,” said Kyyti Group CEO Pekka Möttö. “We believe in making everyday commuting more convenient and more sustainable. Working with Masabi allows us to seamlessly combine passenger information with mobile ticketing over many operators, all within one app”, Möttö says.
Read the full story on Kyyti Group’s press release.
Finland needs a digital travel information market that motivates different information providers to produce travel data needed for high-standard digital services to be shared by all service providers. Travel information contains data related to the operation of public transport, such as route, stop and timetable data, as well as disruption information and real-time data.
In collaboration with key public transport operators, the Finnish state owned research institute VTT studied the current situation of the digital travel information infrastructure, development needs, organisational models and measures for achieving the target state. The aim is to make public and shared transport a genuine alternative to private motoring to reduce emissions and generate business-driven growth. The key measure to increase attractiveness is the provision of comprehensive, high-quality digital travel data and services based on it.
The operating environment of public transport has gone through many changes. Emissions targets, customer requirements and changes in legislation require increasing attention from service providers. Furthermore, new forms of mobility and flexible demand-driven and shared services increase the requirements for digital services. The implementation of smooth multimodal travel chains requires taking account of the needs of various actors and standard solutions to ensure interoperability. At the national level, the development of digital public transport services has come to a halt or been siloed into limited service packages, despite the efforts of the authorities to establish nationwide integration of travel data and a journey planner based on it.
“The current systems are beginning to be outdated, and they no longer support all needs and new forms of mobility services. All actors will need to renew their systems in the near future, which provides an opportunity for developing common and compatible solutions,” says Hannu Heikkinen from the Helsinki Regional Transport Authority (HSL).
The need for the reorganisation of the providers of travel information services arises largely from the need to provide interoperable services in a cost-effective manner. Another major change in the current situation is the restructuring of the maintenance and service provision of the Digitransit system, which serves as the foundation of, for example, matka.fi and the journey planners of HSL and TVV Lippu- ja maksujärjestelmä Oy.
In addition to services targeted to consumers, transport operators and other travel information providers need a clear integration environment, standards, guidelines and tools for producing high-quality travel information for all parties involved.
“Comprehensive travel information is needed by all, not only customers but also authorities for such tasks as planning and monitoring,” says Pipsa Eklund from the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency Traficom.
The VTT report describes different alternatives for potential organisational models for the travel information ecosystem, including the roles, necessary measures and technical solutions. The aim is to find a model that uses the work and business of different actors while taking account of the needs of the public sector. Tentatively, the hybrid model based on cooperation between the public and the private sector is considered the best option.
“The challenge with closed systems is whether they allow providing consumers with a service that is good enough to make them switch from private cars to public transport,” says Jari Paasikivi from TVV lippu- ja maksujärjestelmä Oy.
“As a small market area, it is not resource-wise for Finland to have different parties doing the same overlapping things that, at their worst, are not even compatible. A common ecosystem and trust network between the actors would give better opportunities for cost-effective action that, at best, could extend beyond national borders,” says Olli Pihlajamaa, Senior Scientist at VTT.
HSL, Matkahuolto, TVV Lippu- ja maksujärjestelmä, Traficom and VTT have decided to make an initiative on a travel information group, which will set off to specify the required measures together and ultimately decide on the organisation of the collection and integration of travel data. The aim is to bring Finnish actors together to join concrete cooperation, which would result in building a joint solution that serves all actors.
“To generate good services the project should engage a broad range of actors and service providers from both the private and public sectors in producing and utilising information. Genuine collaboration will benefit all the parties involved and enable the provision of better services to consumers,” says Mika Rajanen from Oy Matkahuolto Ab.
Further information:
VTT Technical Research Center of Finland
Olli Pihlajamaa
Senior Scientist
+358 40 5069153
olli.pihlajamaa@vtt.fi
Read the original article in Finnish on VTT’s webpage.
Tampere is planning to streamline public transport in more ways than just launching tramway services. In September 2020, the city started a free trial with self-driving Roboride vehicles.
This autumn, the self-driving last-mile busses provided by Finnish Roboride Ltd. have been transporting people among other traffic in Tampere around Hiedanranta and the Lielahti Manor. Customers can order a ride from this nifty vehicle with a smartphone for the “first and last kilometre” – meaning those stretches that public transport does not cover otherwise.
The self-driving vehicles travel at approximately 20 km/h and utilise several technologies for automatic driving, such as sensors, cameras and radars. With these tools, Robo takes the right way and identifies others on the road. The vehicle moves autonomously, but during the test run, there is a safety driver inside or near the vehicle. The vehicle has room for seven passengers, but due to COVID-19 restrictions, only four passengers at a time will be allowed in for the time being.
Roboride has developed its driverless transport service together with the Finnish state owned research institute VTT. Although permit processes and reports have taken some time, the authorities in Finland are positive towards automated traffic, says Matti Kutila, VTT Team Leader who participated in the project.
– The idea of self-driving vehicles is to increase the appeal of public transport and to make it possible for vulnerable groups such as children and old people to get around safely. With this new mode of transport, we expect to see a decline in the need to use private cars, which supports EU’s CO2 reduction targets. And that’s a positive outcome for the environment, says Kutila.
According to Kutila, the company’s first pilot was carried out last year at Kuparipuisto in Pori. The pilot laid the foundation for ensuring the safety and fluency of traffic in Hiedanranta. VTT was closely involved in the planning of the pilot and carrying out the risk analysis.
According to Kutila, operating a self-driving vehicle in Finland always requires a test permit, and the permits are managed by the traffic safety authority Traficom.
– They have requirements for how the risk assessment should be carried out and how the vehicle has to be technically implemented, plus they have a say on matters such as cyber security, describes Kutila.
Getting a testing permit required establishing several functional aspects, such as: how far ahead can the vehicle detect obstacles that are in front of it, what type of debugging system does the vehicle need to have, how do location services work, and what kind of challenges does the operating environment pose.
As an example, Kutila mentions a situation where there is a dark corner that makes it impossible for the vehicle’s sensor to properly see around it. Available options are to add sensors to ensure visibility or not drive the entire route.
– These are precisely the issues that VTT has been involved in solving, Kutila emphasises.
According to Kutila, monitoring a vehicle in traffic is one way of reducing risks. The person monitoring the vehicle must have a driving licence and preferably a road safety permit as well. The vehicles that are in traffic are not monitored remotely as such, but it must be possible to verify the route, and the error correction system requires a telecommunications link.
The systems in the vehicle are integrated by the manufacturer, but they always have certain limitations that need to be taken into account when planning operations.
– For example, maximum speed is limited by the resolution of the sensors that recognise objects in front of the vehicle. Another challenge with sensors is weather: you need to determine what kind of weather is suitable for using the vehicle. These issues are also included in our risk assessment discussions, says Kutila.
Tatu Nieminen, CEO of Roboride, explains that the objective of the Kuparipuisto pilot was to meet the right needs. In the pilot, visitors were transported from the gate of the industrial park to the customer.
– It’s a really complex area, so it was downright foolhardy to start operations there. There are no traffic lights or really no lanes either in the area. They have about 1,500 people working there who are walking and riding bicycles, with forklifts transporting copper reels. In addition, there is a train track that goes across the area with trains using the tracks without any fixed schedules, Nieminen describes the challenges they faced in the area.
Nieminen says that carrying out a risk assessment and planning operations was done in a fairly straightforward way in workshops. Roboride representatives, VTT experts, the vehicle manufacturers and the customer toured the area to explore it and see where potential routes could be.
The process model created in the Kuparipuisto pilot was also used to carry out the safety assessment of the Hiedanranta pilot; the report ended up being about 100 pages long. The assessment involved examining the intended route in detail, measuring signal coverage in the area, and observing the behaviour of others in the environment.
During the six-week Roboride pilot, there were no incidents or near-misses in Hiedanranta.
– This tells us that we did our homework well and did a good job with the safety assessment, Nieminen says.
Roboride hasn’t had any problems with legislation, and working with Traficom to obtain permits has gone without any issues according to Tatu Nieminen.
– Compared to other countries, Finland is very progressive in this respect: it is easier to get a permit here than in Central Europe, for example. I can pick up the phone and have a direct conversation with the decision-making authority. You can’t do that in China, France or Germany. A small country and liberal legislation create a lot of possibilities for companies in the sector, Nieminen says.
Outside Finland, according to Nieminen, people have not really grasped how Finland’s legislation can allow things that are not possible elsewhere. Not in Europe, not outside Europe. In addition to a permissive atmosphere, Finland already has expertise related to autonomous driving.
– It makes Finland interesting to the manufacturers of these vehicles and offers Finland the opportunity to create a genuinely new industrial sector. This is the opportunity of our lifetime, says Nieminen.
Read the original article on VTT’s webpage.
Safety Challenges of Autonomous Mobile Systems in Dynamic Unstructured Environments: Situational awareness, decision-making, autonomous navigation, & human-machine interface
RAAS Research Alliance for Autonomous Systems released their White Paper in November 2020 about safety challenges of autonomous mobile systems in dynamic unstructured environments.
Future autonomous mobile machines will be capable of operating in often unstructured and dynamic environment in a safe and meaningful manner and simultaneously work towards given mission objectives without being extensively controlled by human operators. In order to do that an autonomous machine has not only to monitor its internal state but also sense, perceive, classify and model what is currently happening around it and even predict what will most likely happen in the near future. The requirement is the same be it a modern highly automated mobile working or transportation machine, an intelligent field and service robot or a next-generation oceangoing vessel. The current wide range of high-quality sensor systems available commercially-off-the-shelf together with well-matured multi-sensor fusion algorithms provide a solid foundation for that task. In addition, the machine should be connected to any available supportive infrastructure (e.g., localization services, dynamic maps, etc.) and have tight interactions with other autonomous mobile machines sharing the same operation space. Furthermore, the autonomous mobile machine should, at all times, in any condition, be fully aware of any human presence – intended or unintended. The safety of humans must be ensured at any cost.
This white paper discusses the challenges, state-of-the-art solutions and future directions on four horizontals; situational awareness, decision-making, autonomous navigation and human-machine interface and over four domains; road transport, machinery, UAV, and maritime. The paper gathers the work done in RAAS and presents views from the state-of-the art scientific and policy literature, and industry reports. The paper will give the reader a comprehensive understanding of the relevant techniques and their shortcoming and will thereby serve as a starting point for development that will take the sector forward.
Read the white paper on RAAS’s webpage.
Autonomous systems bring up new opportunities to industries and supply chains. At the same time, they demand new business models, and challenge industries, and society, to change.
RAAS Research Alliance for Autonomous Systems released their White Paper in August 2020 about autonomous solutions and change in the technology companies’ business.
Digitalization means a step-by-step change from products to intelligent solutions and toward autonomous systems via remote diagnostics, remote control, and optimization. An ideal autonomous system is by definition autonomous, but it is tightly linked to other systems, organisations, and people. To achieve the intended benefits of autonomous systems; increased efficiency, quality, safety, sustainability and reliability; we need to better understand requirements of the systemic change from the perspective of firms and business networks
In our essay, we rationalize why and how research on autonomous systems need to address the implications for firms’ and their business networks’ activities as well as the institutional implications for society at large. As a conclusion, we present six research themes and related research questions that increasing autonomy of systems raises.
Research theme 1. Managing systemic change in development, integration, implementation of autonomous system. How to renew value creation and capture so that autonomous systems implementation and utilization is profitable? What kind of requirements are there for systemic change, and what are the phases toward profitable business?
Research theme 2. Ecosystem building, orchestration and synchronized change for autonomous systems, including business model transformation in firms. The ecosystems for autonomous systems challenge firm- and product- oriented business practises and requires new kinds of collaboration, competence and value sharing. What kind of new links between firms are needed, who is the “right” orchestrator and how to fairly share the benefits? How to synchronize the change in and between firms?
Research theme 3. Autonomous systems operational and technology platforms, their standardization locally, in Europe, and globally, and in different sectors of industry. The potential of digital marketplaces and shared technology platforms is understood but implementation is in its infancy in B2B sector. Standards are needed, but how to create and define them with competitors? When is a local approach best and where is global collaboration needed?
Research theme 4. Adoption and diffusion of autonomous systems technology, digital services and complex solutions between in business relationships; the capabilities and readiness of customers. To achieve the benefits of the new technology, it is often required that also customers and other ecosystem actors accept and adapt the new technology. How to make the new technology attractive for customers? How can the innovators – first movers – accelerate the change of late adaptors?
Research theme 5. Radical innovations in business strategy and execution of strategic change programs in ecosystems. Development and utilization of autonomous systems call for bold and strategic decision-making and abandoning old path-dependencies. Building a strong change-oriented mind-set, investment in innovation and keeping the current business profitable at the same time creates discrepancies. How to implement a strategy that contains disruptive elements? How to stand, or even exploit the uncertainty related to radical innovations?
Research theme 6. Decision-making and resilience; changes in organizations and in ways of working. Increasing autonomy challenges the prevailing mental models of management and forces to update decision-making criteria and practices to better fit the new systemic world. The nature of work, tasks and competencies required can change, and the readiness and willingness to change, i.e. resilience, become as prerequisite in all kinds of work. What kind of actions are needed to get the changes accepted and under way? How can firms share their best practises to foster ecosystem resilience?
The original RAAS white paper in Finnish can be read here.
Awake.AI has officially launched a new mobile app for the use of its Smart Port as a Service (SPaaS) solution, which provides maritime actors with improved situational awareness and more efficient port calls.
SPaaS is a real-time overview and collaboration tool which enables smarter operational decision-making and helps maritime businesses to become environmentally more sustainable, considerably benefiting the industry and society at large.
The new Smart Port Mobile app provides a more convenient way for users to access the company’s SPaaS solution on the go. Register for a free trial here.
Awake.AI said that with the Smart Port Mobile it is solving two main issues faced by all maritime actors today: poor communication caused by the lack of transparency and reliance on manual tools, as well as poor situational awareness.
SPaaS has already been offered as a desktop application for office use, and now the new mobile app provides also port personnel a convenient access to the solution on the go.
The app offers confidence and assurance to a smooth port operation. As an example, it allows port personnel to see the tasks that are assigned to them. They can mark the tasks as done when appropriate, as well as access real-time information as to any changes or delays to vessel arrival times may occur.
SPaaS provides a comprehensive overview and enables users to get the most out of their operations. It is a turnkey solution, easily implemented into any business process. The AI-based predictions of the solution is continuously improving and are significantly more accurate than other data sources used by the port actors today.
Awake.AI stated the benefits to include the following:
The ability to predict accurately originates from Awake.AI’s AI algorithms, utilizing multiple data sources, such as weather forecasts, vessel information and historical data. With more accurate predictions, all port call actors will save time and costs while increasing their operational efficiency.
To make precise predictions, Awake.AI also uses machine learning (ML) methods as an integral part of its service offering. ML enables progressive streamlining of operations by analyzing and gaining understanding from vast amounts of data. In addition, ML can provide a better general overview of the business environment.
Read more about the Smart Port Mobile on Awake.AI’s website.