Human-centered mobility: This is how our human senses are allowed to join the journey

Travel and transport, a matter of cost- and time-efficient solutions with respect to the environment and human adaptation to technology. Eller? Vad would instead happen if human needs and experience were allowed to shape our mobility systems? And how can technology help us promote increased well-being and sustainable travel habits? These are issues that Vinnova wants to take a new approach to in the call for proposals Human-centered mobility.

Erbjudandet Människocentrerad mobility | Vinnova

The starting point is human well-being and health in order to develop new sustainable solutions for how we travel and transport ourselves.

- You often start by finding a technical solution to a problem and then people need to adapt to the technology. We want to think based on what people experience and what the individual needs look like so that we can create sustainable mobility solutions. In this way, conditions can be created for everyone to make decisions that are sustainable both for themselves and for society at large, says Alma Jacobson, responsible for the call for proposals at Vinnova.

It is above all about bridging the gap between mobility and behavioral science, she explains. By using knowledge about how our senses and experiences affect our behaviour the call for proposals can contribute to better mobility solutions that promote well-being, sustainable travel habits and community development. When climate and economic policy objective are set, often based on hard values, the focus instead ends up on reducing climate emissions and maximizing the number of passengers on public transport.

- After all, it has other consequences in the form of, for example, a stressed population who may then not be able to do their best during the day. Being able to find solutions that turn it into a positive experience can thus mean a big socio-economic gain if you also factor in social aspects such as stress, mental illness or a successful integration for that matter, says Alma Jacobson.

Human minds – the next big digital trend

But at the same time that it is the human perspective that gets to play the main role with this way of thinking, there is still a lot of help to be obtained from – precisely – technology. Our senses are getting more and more space in new technology, which is already advanced in its development today. We asked Charlotte Mattfolk, future strategist with a focus on digitalisation, AI and driving innovation and transformation, to foresight how technology can influence the design of new mobility systems. With more than 500 completed future studies and as the founder of the company and the AI platform IAMAI, she sees how the human senses are finally taking their place after years of rapid, technological development.

- We are on our way into a new era, where technology is to a greater extent adapted to people's senses and needs, says Charlotte Mattfolk.

Att AI plays an important role is already a well-known and self-evident fact. Optimizing traffic flows and more tailored and flexible systems are examples of things that are becoming increasingly easier with AI. But with AI also comes a toolbox that is becoming more and more complete and similar to how humans work with all our senses, explains Charlotte Mattfolk.

- AI can read text and patterns, record sound and also translate text into sound and helps us both digitally and mechanically move data or things. What we talk a lot about now is Generativ AI, which means that you can auto-generate new texts, images and videos based on a question or an instruction. And development has recently been very fast, which makes many believe that we may be closer to AGI, i.e. artificial general competence, faster than we previously thought.

Something that is also coming big is new hardware, which takes us from our dependence on screens and mobile phones to an everyday life where all our senses will be used, says Charlotte Mattfolk. The new hardware relies on us using our senses much more, such as sight, movement, voice and thought. And since the mobile phone was our main department, we see more and more hardware in the form of rings, sweaters, glasses, gloves and so on.

- Like, for example, bracelets you can wear on your wrist, which is a part of the body with a lot of nerve cells and where therefore an extremely large amount of information can be captured based on your intention. You won't have to move your arm, all you have to do is think, says Charlotte Mattfolk.

From workplace to meeting place

But how does it change the way we travel? How the technical solutions at our workplaces will look, also affects how we move, explains Charlotte Mattfolk. Many are today back in their offices after the pandemic, but it is actually just a recoil guided by long leases, conservative managers and that the hybrid meetings are only in their infancy, says Charlotte Mattfolk. Because what good is being tied to a desk and a computer screen when brand new tools can document and preserve what we do? And when technology takes giant steps forward and makes it possible to experience the feeling of being in the same room, we will have a different need for meeting places.

- Instead, we get meeting places, hubs and environments where we want to meet, but which are more purpose-driven, depending on what it is we want to arrive at, whether we are to find a solution to something, learn something, or come to an agreement, says Charlotte Mattfolk.

This, in turn, changes our everyday travel, where the congestion situations that occur twice a day today are smoothed out by workplaces becoming increasingly location-independent. And what happens if human needs are given more space when mobility systems are shaped with the help of new tools remains to be seen, says Charlotte Mattfolk. She does not believe that public transport will be able to solve all our needs for movement and that the future holds more transport options than what exists today.

- It is a very interesting starting point and I think we will see a lot of creativity in the development of this.

Alma Jacobson at Vinnova hopes to see a series of new interdisciplinary approaches and concepts that can eventually provide more sustainable and accessible mobility solutions that take into account people's unique experiences, preferences, driving forces and needs.

- For example, it can be about concepts related to visual stress, air quality, sound frequencies and noise, motion perception, and more, she says.

In order to be able to apply for funding, it is required that at least two parties cooperate, of which at least one of them has behavioral science competence. In a first step, it involves analysis and concept development, which is then followed up by a call for proposals where a concrete solution can be further developed. Project in the first phase may last for a maximum of 12 months and may be granted a maximum of SEK 1 million in funding per project.