It has been 50 years since Semel Oy was founded. Known mainly as a taximeter manufacturer, Semel Oy has gone through many business challenges throughout the years. Technology of systems has shifted from analogy to digital, payment systems from offline to online etc.
Today, Semel markets state-of-the-art taximeter services that are world-class. We are a clear market leader in the Nordic countries and the only one to offer equipment as a service. Taximeter-As-A-Service and collaboration with Modulsystem Sweden AB have opened to new businesses for public transport, parking solutions as well as electric car charging services. We will continue to focus on our main perspectives and look forward into a successful future.
Automated driving can offer safer, cost-efficient and sustainable solutions to transportation needs in remote locations, extreme weather conditions and situations where it’s simply not necessary to have people sitting behind the wheel. Humans are great at problem solving and creative thinking but perform poorly at repetitive tasks – let’s focus on what we do best and let automation take care of the rest.
Automated driving is a thing of today
While visionaries have dreamed up self-driving cars since the 1920’s, the technology is now catching up and making it possible to turn those dreams into reality. Thanks to trend-setters like Google and Tesla, automated driving has entered the public consciousness in a big way in the past ten years.
“Electronics and software are the thing that creates value in cars these days, not the mechanical parts,” says Pertti Peussa, Principal Scientist at VTT.
Automated driving can offer a helping hand in making a business more profitable and sustainable. It can also make work safer and more efficient by enabling self-driving vehicles to handle transportation in remote locations and challenging weather conditions. Good applications for automated driving include factories, production sites, and last-mile solutions at airports and suburbs, where routes are repetitive and basically require no human problem solving to get the job done.
And there’s never been a better time to get involved – the interest around automated driving has meant increases in funding for research and development, which in turn has accelerated the progress of technology and brought new players into the field. Those interested in utilising self-driving vehicles in their operations have more options to choose from than ever; it’s become a matter of finding the right solution for your needs.
More efficient, meaningful work
Until now, transporting goods and people from A to B has required someone to be at the wheel, braving repetitive work shifts and at times poor driving conditions. Automation can bring much-needed relief here, allowing people to focus on tasks that really require a human to tackle them.
The Stora Enso-operated Uimaharju mill in Joensuu has been experimenting with an automated truck that transports wood chips from the sawmill to the pulp mill. “This frees up the driver’s time for other, more complex and supervisory tasks,” explains Peussa. Automation also makes the repetitive truck journey safer by eliminating the element of human error, and more environmentally friendly by fuel-economical driving and route selection.
Finding the right solution for you
With a whole host of automated and autonomous driving solutions to choose from, it can be hard to figure out what the next step should be for your specific needs. VTT is an independent, impartial institution dedicated to long-term research and development, and offer their expertise in the field of automatic vehicles to clients at all stages of their automation journey.
“Automated driving being still such a novel thing, many of our clients had a hard time figuring out where to get started,” says Matti Kutila, Research Team Leader at VTT. “We came up with an offering that helps them begin their journey and ask the right questions.”
Once you have figured out what your needs are, the next step is finding a solution that fits them. “We can help our clients take a quick and easy first step towards automated driving with our services,” says Peussa. “By prototyping what changes would need to be made to the client’s existing vehicles, we can offer companies that first spark of hey, this actually works.” This allows companies to try things out before committing to big purchases or getting locked into a particular technology.
Developed and tested in the changeable Finnish weather, VTT RobotDrive software pool offers robust, proven solutions for operating in remote locations and harsh Arctic conditions. VTT RobotDrive enables better, more reliable automated driving and in many cases can complement your existing technology, so there’s no need to start over completely.
If you’re further along in your automation journey, VTT’s experts can provide validation, safety analysis and impartial assessment documentation to help you to get your prototype accepted by your customer, or approved by authority.
“We are an impartial organisation with no ties to any particular car manufacturers or contractors,” says Kutila. “However, we’re happy to collaborate with everyone, and we have great networks all over Europe thanks to co-funded projects we’ve been a part of.”
Where will your journey take you?
Automated driving is what’s next in sustainable, profitable transportation. Whether your automation journey is already well underway, or you are still figuring out your roadmap for getting started, the right solutions are waiting out there. There are plenty of benefits to be reaped from automation, from the safety of workers to the efficiency of your operation.
The automatic traffic test area in Hervanta, Tampere, is an example of the future of urban development. The digital twin of Hervanta is a versatile and user-friendly service design tool.
Just one click and you are there: On the screen, you have a bird’s-eye view of a 3D model of Hervanta, a suburb of Tampere. When you scroll closer to the streets, you will be surprised how detailed the model is. All the traffic signs and bus stops are in place and the weather conditions are realistic. Another click and you are inside a car. You can drive the car around the model and activate various data streams that you might find useful.
In the near future, services created by using digital twins will become a more normal part of urban life.
A digital twin is like an ever-growing and developing sandbox for urban developers to play in. It is a framework for real-life services. In the near future, services created by using digital twins will become a more normal part of urban life. Their global market value is increasing at dazzling speed – even the most conservative estimates predict that the market value will increase tenfold over the next five years.
Finnish developers have also jumped on this bandwagon. In addition to the tests in Tampere, digital twins have been utilised in urban development in Helsinki and Oulu. In Oulu, Sitowise created an accurate model of the city port.
Digital modelling is not exactly a new phenomenon. Digital twins have been used in shipbuilding and designing of factory production lines for several years. Now urban development has adopted the technology. Thanks to cities creating 3D models of urban spaces, visual digital twins have become more accessible and less cumbersome tool of urban development. In Hervanta, the model is being used for training automated vehicles, for example.
Automated vehicles take digital driving lessons
Tramway traffic operation will begin in Tampere in August 2021. There are plans to introduce driverless vehicles to assist tramway feeder traffic. These vehicles would transport people to tramway stops. The vehicles would operate in an area of about one square kilometre around the Ahvenisjärvi lake. In this case, the digital twin is a platform for teaching vehicles to move safely around the area.
The pilot project is linked to a larger European project called SHOW (SHared automation Operating models for Worldwide adoption). The project pilots automatic traffic solutions. Sitowise is acting as the Finnish coordinator of SHOW. The City of Tampere supports the development of smart mobility strongly, and all their projects benefit each other.
To a user, the digital twin of Hervanta created by Sitowise looks like a combination of several visualised data streams and pleasing graphics. This is not the first digital twin created of Tampere. 3D simulation of urban spaces have been used for training tram drivers, for example.
– Digital twins have been utilised in Tampere for a few years now. All the new areas in the city centre have already been modelled. For example, the locations of buildings under development can be viewed digitally before construction has even begun. This makes urban development easier, says Jari Ikonen from Business Tampere.
In order to provide reliable support for ambitious projects such as training driverless cars, digital twins must meet high quality standards and depict the real word as accurately as possible. VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland played a key role in the project. VTT modelled unnoticeable but important objects, such as traffic signs and bus stops, and measured the coverage of a 5G test network in the area.
– In the Hervanta project, the accuracy of the model was, at best, as close as 10 centimetres. This helped us ensure that the model’s traffic signs and public transport stops took exactly the same amount of space as they take in real life, says Automated Vehicle Scientist Kimmo Kauvo from VTT.
Sensors and growing data streams support development
Over the past few years, digital twins have been introduced in urban development along with several significant technological leaps. The current level of 3D modelling, availability and amount of sensor data and standardisation of important technologies make utilising digital models easier than ever before.
– Telecommunication networks are now so fast that they allow almost real-time utilisation of sensor data. The City of Tampere is a pioneer in making city interfaces accessible and piloting new services. For example, anyone can access the city’s traffic light data if they are interested, says Riihentupa.
Game engines have also become more useful tools of urban development.
– The digital twin of Hervanta was created using a Unity game engine, which works well for projects of this scale. The rapid development of game engines has helped digital twins become more common in the field, says Technical advisor Niko Moreira at Sitowise.
Sitowise has a extensive expertise in field of digital twins, both accumulated from previous projects and constantly evolving. Elena Lassila, junior advisor at Sitowise who was involved in the project, is currently doing her master’s thesis on the topic. The actual digital twin exists in Sitowise’s virtual environment AURA. All the data generated via modelling and measuring is easily visualised and utilised in this virtual environment. Other people will also be able to benefit from the final product. The 3D model created through the digital twin will be released to the public.
This project clearly serves general interests. Here at Sitowise, our goal is to promote open digitality and apply it to different business models as widely as possible. – The digital twin of Hervanta is laying the foundations for countless of end uses that utilise the digitalisation of new urban spaces, Moreira adds.
Watch the video of the automated traffic test area digital twin:
The City of Vaasa aims to reach carbon neutrality by the end of the 2020s. The target is tough – carbon emissions must be cut considerably and rapidly. With the recently launched Vaasa Traffic 202x project, the City of Vaasa, in collaboration with Ramboll, is developing a new tool to support climate management.
The Vaasa Traffic 202x project aims to produce up-to-date information concerning developments in transport performance and carbon emissions in the city of Vaasa. It also aims to lead design work and measures so that the ambitious carbon emission goals are achievable.
In Vaasa, carbon emissions have decreased by about 30 percent between 2011 and 2019, the most significant reductions coming from electricity consumption and district heating. The biggest challenge is in road transport, where emissions have fallen by only 10 percent over the same period.
– The Vaasa Traffic 202x project is very important for the city’s carbon neutrality goals. Presumably, the development of vehicle technology will provide some of the required emission reductions, but at the moment, no one can say whether the car fleet is being renewed fast enough or what measures are needed to increase the popularity of walking, cycling and public transport, says Jukka Talvi, Municipal Technology Director in Vaasa.
– With the help of the tool that is now being developed, we will study various scenarios to achieve the goal and implement a system that can be used to monitor developments. Another important aspect is making the emissions target visible to every Vaasa resident, Talvi continues.
The strategic traffic modelling utilised in the project aims to depict the effects of various land use and transport planning projects on future volumes of traffic, the use of different modes of transport and CO2 emissions.
– The development project with the City of Vaasa is interesting for many reasons. The project fits well with Ramboll’s commitment to lead the way in sustainable development solutions. On the other hand, combining real-time data sources with strategic traffic modelling is an interesting development target that will enable new applications in the future, says Teemu Sihvola, Ramboll’s project manager.
Because of its accuracy, the BRUTUS traffic demand simulation model developed by Ramboll is very suitable for modelling sustainable modes of transport. The individual nature of the model allows the impact to be assessed in terms of socio-economic factors.
The project, funded by the Ministry of the Environment, is being implemented as a joint development project between the City of Vaasa and Ramboll, which is also co-financing the project. In the project, both new technology and a product with international novelty value are being developed. The monitoring group also includes parties from other parts of Finland.
Did you know that a flurry of activity starts around a ship as soon as it arrives in port? Cargo is loaded and unloaded, any required maintenance work is carried out, and the ship’s basic needs – such as waste management, fuel and provisions – are taken care of. For passenger ships, the disembarking of both passengers and vehicles must also be coordinated alongside all these other activities. But what happens at the port when a ship is late?
If a ship arrives five hours late at a different location than agreed, operators face multiple challenges. Schedule data has not previously been available in real time from a single source. Instead, it has been provided to all of the various operators by phone, in messages, and through several different systems. Port Activity is an app that has been developed to solve this problem. It seeks to improve information flow between the various stakeholders operating at ports, in order to enable the most efficient and economical port visits possible.
“The pilot version of Port Activity was developed in cooperation with the Ports of Rauma and Gävle. However, we quickly noticed that there’s high demand for this kind of service, as the app started spreading to other ports on a market-driven basis,” says Olli Soininen, Project Manager at Fintraffic VTS.
Ingredients for international cooperation
More than ten Finnish ports have already signed up to use Port Activity, and it is also being used in Sweden. The Baltic Sea is one of the world’s busiest shipping areas, with more than 2,500 vessels on the move around the clock. Every year, 17 per cent of all global maritime transport passes through its ports. The aim is to encourage other countries around the Baltic Sea to start using the app, before sailing on into global waters.
“By sharing schedule data, and thereby making ports more efficient, the app can generate considerable savings in terms of both money and emissions. This definitely has the ingredients for international cooperation,” says Soininen.
The port app was born as part of the EU-funded STM EfficientFlow project, which sought to create new tools to streamline maritime transport, improve safety and reduce emissions by utilising modern data and information sharing. The project’s closing seminar was held at the beginning of June, and Port Activity will now continue on its own journey to promote more efficient port visits.
Port operators’ schedule data in one place
The real-time sharing of schedule data boosts the efficiency of the entire logistics chain. The app collects schedule data on the port’s various stakeholders from a number of different systems in real time and then collates it in one place. It informs users of any potential schedule changes. This enables everyone to keep fully abreast of the situation, so they can plan their own schedules accordingly.
“If the app informs a transport company that the ship won’t make it to port that day after all, the driver won’t need to wait around and spend the night at the port. Instead, the driver can arrange to come back later, when the ship is actually arriving,” says Soininen.
The app works both ways, meaning that not only the ship but also other users can report their schedule information in real time. For example, if a waste management vehicle has broken down on the way and its replacement will be a little late, others will be able to prepare for this.
App can be customised for each port
Port Activity is an open source app, which means that ports can customise it to meet their own needs in cooperation with their chosen development partner. This will help promote internationalisation, as although port operations are often fairly similar the world over, there are national requirements that can be taken into account in the app. Ports have already been actively developing the service. An SaaS-based version of the app that is already in use in Finland is now scheduled to be launched in Sweden during autumn 2021.
A mobile and desktop version of the port app have been created, making it easy to use both in the office and in the field. The results of the pilot project indicated that it was the right time to go digital.
“Phones are the most important tools for many port operators. It was therefore important for the app to be as easy to use as possible on mobile devices. Now you can check, edit and inform others about schedule data with just a couple of clicks,” says Soininen.
Fintraffic VTS’ mission is not only to improve the safety of shipping, but also to promote smooth and efficient vessel traffic. Port Activity is a good example of a service in which these smoothness and efficiency goals can be mobilised on a broad front with the aid of evolving digitalisation.
Since the middle of 2018, CEVT (China Euro Vehicle Technology AB) has been active in the vibrant start-up ecosystem of Oulu. At the beginning of 2020, a test-car was dispatched in Oulu to increase the possibilities to collaborate and recently the test-car has been upgraded and CEVT will now take the next step. Up until today, CEVT has had great support from Business Oulu to scout and organize events in Oulu, and now we would like to announce the additional collaboration with a very innovative and agile company, Kaira Clan.
“Through what we call open innovation we want to explore what happens if we create a co-creation culture and combine two vibrant high-tech ecosystems – Israel, and Finland. We also have a test-car in Tel Aviv, Israel. Three different cultures, two world-leading innovation hubs with CEVT in the middle as a facilitator, enabler and a way into the mobility market. Win-win!” – Peter Stavered, Head of Innovation at CEVT
“Our goal as facilitators for the Oulu based CEVT Innovation Hub, is to offer Finnish startups and innovation research companies a clear path for the productization of their solutions in the automotive industry.” –Janne Siltari, Kaira Clan Chairman
Kaira Clan will provide educational content, mentoring, and best practices through lectures, master lessons, workshops, webinars, and other supporting services such as rapid prototyping. The focus for the talents will be to push their ideas from their earliest stages, all the way to market readiness.
“We are proud to see Kaira Clan get recognition for the way we innovate and build solutions. We feel it is important to encourage the collaboration of SM Es, large enterprises, and local ecosystems. This collaboration with CEVT Innovation Center will benefit the existing Kaira Clan innovation lab network as well as the local community, businesses, and future startups.” –Tero Blomqvist, Kaira Clan CEO
“Opening of CEVT’s innovation hub in Oulu marks a new milestone in our collaboration which started already in 2018. Companies and researchers in Oulu have globally unique expertise in radio technologies, printed electronics, embedded software, loT solutions and 6G research. We are looking forward to creating new and sustainable solutions for future mobility with CEVT. ” states Juha Ala-Mursula, Director of BusinessOulu.
The innovation center will offer even more possibilities to Oulu. “I’m especially proud to see another significant international company set foot in Oulu and see the possibilities we have to offer. The CEVT Innovation Hub will offer local companies and startups a great opportunity.” –Päivi Laajala, Mayor of Oulu
Get to know more about Kaira Clan and CEVT by reading the original article.
Ramboll have co-ordinated studies on the impacts of teleworking and new transport services on greenhouse gas emissions as the part of the implementation of the Roadmap for Fossil-Free Transport, the aim of which is to help achieve the Finnish government’s pledge to halve greenhouse gas emissions from domestic transport by 2030.
The studies, part of the implementation of the Roadmap for Fossil-Free Transport, were completed under the co-ordination of the Ministry of Transport and Communications. According to the studies, teleworking could, on an annual basis, reduce emissions by up to 0.125 megatonnes and transport services by 0.080 megatonnes by 2030. The results obtained in the various studies partly overlap, so the combined CO2 reduction potential of teleworking and transport services is not necessarily the sum of these results.
The impact of telework on emissions is moderate
According to the study, the impact of telework on greenhouse gas emissions from transport is moderate. Owing to the increase in teleworking, CO2 emissions from passenger cars would decrease by a maximum of about 0.125 megatonnes per year by 2030. In the longer term, the lower emissions from the car stock will reduce the impact of telework. By 2045, the increased teleworking could at best achieve an emission reduction of about 0.082 megatonnes. According to this forecast, the number of teleworkers will be 577,000 in 2030 and 582,000 in 2045.
In 2019, there were about 357,000 teleworkers in Finland. During the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, the number of teleworkers rose to approximately 790,000. This number is estimated to be the maximum achievable figure with the current regional and employment structures. According to the study, teleworking is becoming more common independent of the encouragement from the central or local government.
Services leading to lower car ownership reduce emissions
According to the study, the emission reduction potential of transport services in 2030 will be relatively small, approximately 0.080 megatonnes. For the purposes of this study, transport services were defined as services for sharing and renting cars and other vehicles, as well as taxis and public transport. Further in the future, the emission reduction could be significantly higher by 2045, up to as much as 0.580 megatonnes.
The main explanation for the reduction in emissions is the reduction in car ownership. In the long run, autonomous transport and the widespread use of demand-responsive transport will also reduce emissions. If the proportion of e-vehicles used in transport services grows faster than car ownership, the greater use of transport services could reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport even more than the above estimates suggest.
– Challenges to the study were brought about by the fact that data related to new transport services are not yet sufficiently available for modeling purposes. Due to this, changes in car-ownership, for example, could not be modeled, says Teemu Sihvola from Ramboll.
– The project was interesting, and we were able to utilize Ramboll’s extensive experience in using the national traffic model, as well as an understanding of the forms and effects of new mobility service. There will certainly be a need for methodologies used and developed in the project in the future, as the transport servitization will gain momentum in one form or another.
The Six City Strategy, 6Aika, began a new chapter in the development of Finnish cities – an era of co-creation and agile pilots. Since 2014, dozens of projects that have made cities more open, climate-wiser and smarter have been completed as part of the Six City Strategy. Nearly 4,000 businesses have participated in the strategy, and in this way the strategy has promoted the success of various sectors, boosting vitality throughout the country.
Era of Cities is a new publication from the Six City Strategy that summarises experiences and best practices of cooperation and development in Helsinki, Espoo, Vantaa, Turku, Tampere and Oulu.
As populations grow, traditional traffic infrastructure is pushed to its limits. Mobility is, therefore, expanding into the third dimension – the airspace. AiRMOUR is a research and innovation project supporting sustainable air mobility in urban contexts via emergency and medical services. The project will test both manned and unmanned drones in real-life conditions in 2023.
The EU-funded AiRMOUR project focuses on the research and validation of novel concepts and solutions to make urban air mobility safe, secure, quiet and green, yet also more accessible, affordable and publicly accepted. As the airspace opens up for new transportation systems, new forms of Urban Air Mobility (UAM), such as passenger drones, are gaining more attention. Similar to the adaptation process of electric cars, there are challenges to overcome related to technology regulations, for example.
In order to tackle these challenges, a great deal more research is needed and cities need to integrate air mobility into their urban planning processes and acquire suitable tools for this. The AiRMOUR project drastically advances the understanding of necessary near-future actions – not only by urban communities, but also by operators, regulators, academia and businesses.
Real-life demonstrations in cooperation with Emergency Medical Services
The AiRMOUR project aims to tackle one of the most critical real-life applications of urban air mobility, namely Emergency Medical Services. Within the AiRMOUR project, personal air vehicles for doctors and medical supplies are validated in real-life demonstrations in Stavanger (Norway), Helsinki (Finland), the region of Nord-Hessen (Germany) and in simulation in Luxemburg.
Read the original article by AiRMOUR project to find out about key outputs and tools to bring European cities quickly up to speed in UAM application.
Moovit will show users where TIER scooters are available nearby, in real-time, for more convenient first and last-mile options
Moovit, an Intel company, a leading Mobility as a Service (MaaS) solutions provider and creator of the #1 urban mobility app, and TIER, a leading European shared micromobility provider, are announcing a partnership that offers users more convenient first and last mile options. With a shared vision to get more cars off the road, Moovit will show users where nearby TIER scooters are available in real-time in 77 cities across 13 countries including Finland.
Alternative transport modes and micro-mobility made accessible
As more COVID restrictions lift and traffic increases once again in many European countries, offering more alternative travel options will help riders save time getting to their destination and reduce the need for a private car for first and last-mile journeys. About one out of three TIER riders predominantly uses e-scooters during the week for commuting or running personal appointments and almost half of TIER users take e-scooters as a first-/last- mile solution, combining it with other modalities. However, many people still drive their car to connect with main transport hubs.
Moovit, which has served over 1 billion urban users around the world in 112 countries, offers its service in over 1,500 cities across Europe and the Middle East, and TIER, which recently launched in its 100th city — will enable Moovit users to embrace multi-modality and discover TIER scooters in the Moovit app to better connect with public transport. Moovit will show its users in real-time where a TIER scooter is available nearby, including how long it will take to walk there, as well as battery range.
“Offering more alternative forms of transport that can easily get people to their destination is a critical component of any Mobility as a Service platform,” said Yovav Meydad, Moovit’s Chief of Growth and Marketing Officer. “That’s why we are excited to partner with TIER and empower riders to more easily combine micromobility with public transport to enjoy the most efficient ways of getting around some of the most congested cities in the world.”
“Our mission to change mobility for good is largely about creating strong partnerships to expand everyone’s access to sustainable, easily accessible and multimodal mobility solutions,” says Tinia Mühlfenzl, Director of Market Development at TIER. “Teaming up with a leading MaaS solutions provider will allow us to expand access to our micro-mobility services in many cities across Europe and the Middle East.”
Read more about the partnership between TIER and Moovit on TIER’s press release.
