Preface: Beyond the hood: The development of mobility services in themobile internet

Abstract

It won't only be the engine that changes the mobility of tomorrow. Where in the past, the focus of attention in automotive development was on the technology under the hood, today it is much more on road traffic as a whole. Traffic that is regulated by odd and even numbered days both in Paris and in Beijing. Traffic that moves at a speed of 19 kilometers per hour in London and five in Mumbai. Yet not only is the volume of traffic rising. Higher mobility costs and an increasing shortage of parking space, particularly in urban areas, have resulted in a change in values away from car ownership and towards convenient use when needed. Young people are growing ever less interested in having their own car; the option of having access to one is enough. The motto is: Mobility without restrictions. An ever larger range of mobility services is available to this target group today. Besides standard car-sharing services, it is possible to rent bicycles in large cities, ride-sharing services are becoming ever more appealing, and the public transportation network is increasingly being supplemented by other modes of transport. For instance, China aims to build an expected 170 new local transportation systems such as subways and suburban trains by 2030. In addition, connectivity and the mobile internet have a decisive influence on mobility. Today, people have a high affinity with the use of web-based services. They take their smartphone with them everywhere and the next item of information is just a finger tap away. But not only information can be obtained on mobile devices: whether for search, bookings, payments, or reviews - today, a simple tap of an index finger on a smartphone display is enough to operate and manage end-to-end processes and functionalities. All this shows that automotive manufacturers and suppliers must rethink mobility in big cities and beyond. Bosch sees the electrification of the powertrain and the automation and connectivity of driving as the greatest challenges and transformations in the development of the mobility solutions of tomorrow. These three development paths make individual mobility resource-conserving and appealing. What's more, they complement each other: it makes driving more relaxing to know that you can go online to find and book not only the nearest free parking space but also the nearest free charge spot. And automated driving is even safer if vehicles warn each other of blind junctions or the tail end of a traffic jam. Through the development of the internet and mobile applications, connectivity opens up numerous new possibilities. Today, control unit data and driving profiles are recorded and transmitted to digital platforms. Terms such as fleet management and mobility portals are used in everyday language. The internet is already in cars, and cars are on the internet. New mobility services are being created as independent ecosystems on digital platforms. They bring together those offering mobility and those seeking it in a kind of marketplace, combining data from both sides to form innovative value-added services through new mobile access options. This means that on the one hand mobility services offer new products that go beyond the car, while on the other they attract new customers - since in the future these might be all road users. The future aim is therefore not only to make the technology under the hood more efficient, convenient, and safe but to organize traffic as a whole so that it is individual, connected, and intermodal.