Near-term innovations for sustainable Public Transport

By AGENS

The process of energy transition to a net-zero economic system is driving the “seventh revolution” in transport. This change is taking place in three different ways: moving away from fossil fuels, autonomous and connected vehicles and new mobility options. The process of electrification, both direct and indirect, is already underway, and batteries are the key foundation for producing new and increasingly sustainable vehicle solutions. Despite the success of current lithium storage technologies, new and more promising advancements are being investigated to create increasingly powerful devices that can reduce supply chain impacts, offer greater resource independence and provide storage-extending performance (sensing and self-repair). Electrification has contributed to autonomous driving, and we already have level 3 solutions in industrial programmes. Interesting applications for collective transport are emerging thanks to intelligent automation that promotes flexible services, such as platooning systems based on the splitting and bundling of semi-autonomous modular units.