The transport industry as it stands is no longer sustainable and, one way or another, cannot continue to exist as we know it today. Either we find new, smart, green alternatives and drive the world into a new age ourselves, together, or we risk an international collapse. This is where innovators like ourselves, and , Hydrolift Smart City Ferries and YETI MOVE come in.
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For the teams in Norway, evolution is an inevitability, as populations grow and streets become overcrowded. Around the world, not only are we struggling to cope with the number of cars on the roads, but we cannot continue to rely on diesel and fossil fuels.
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鈥30% of emissions are produced in the transport sector, and that鈥檚 way too much. We just can鈥檛 go on like this,鈥 says Rebecca Ronke, Project Lead, . 鈥淭here has to be a shift.鈥
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The public transport sector has an image problem, and is dedicated to fixing it through the power of autonomous, self-driving vehicles. Already trialled in the Norwegian town of Kongsberg, is investing in the EZ10 electric autonomous minibus. Initial tests have been positive, with the zero-emissions craft replacing two full manned diesel buses in the town; but this is just the start.
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鈥淲e have to achieve full autonomy,鈥 explains Ronke. 鈥淲e have to just do better than what we鈥檙e doing today, we don鈥檛 really have a choice.鈥
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Sustainable mobility needs collaboration
is a part of SAMS Norway, a cluster of companies that have combined their resources and skills to help further drive meaningful change across various transport sectors, and bring automation to Norway as well as to the global market. 鈥淭ogether with the companies we collaborate closely with both regional authorities like Viken County Council, Innovation Norway and government representatives鈥 says Torun Degnes, CEO of SAMS. 鈥淭his close and iterative collaboration across industries and between sectors is instrumental to reaching the necessary systems change towards sustainable mobility. This applies to all cities and regions across the world; a sustainable mobility system will not be achieved by actors working alone 鈥.听
One of 鈥檚 partners is Yeti Move, a technology development company committed to developing snow operation solutions.听
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鈥淎utomation can give you much more consistency of operations,鈥 says Peter Due, CEO of Yeti Move. 鈥淲e鈥檙e all working towards something greater and if we鈥檙e looking at the world, we鈥檒l need to implement more sustainable solutions.鈥
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The problems facing the industry are the same at land and sea, and the solutions are very similar. Hydrolift Smart City Ferries is looking to replace large, heavy and fuel-dependent ferry boats with smaller, efficient, autonomous smart ferries. Instead of launching bigger and bigger fuel-powered machines to ferry as many people as possible in one vessel, Hydrolift鈥檚 solution is to create much smaller, regular links with zero-emission, automated boats.
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鈥淚 think the challenges that cities around the world are facing are much bigger than what we would like to admit,鈥 says Halvor Vislie, COO, Hydrolift Smart City Ferries. 鈥淚f we can provide better solutions to reduce emissions, make sure that people can get to where they鈥檙e going faster and more efficiently, we achieve so many things that go far beyond just one element of technology."