Leveraging Blockchain for Open Mobility-as-a-Service Ecosystems

Abstract

The mobility landscape has changed over the last years with the advent of innovative transportation solutions which are being constantly deployed whereas more are set to emerge in the near future such as autonomous vehicles and flying taxis. In this landscape a new mobility paradigm has come to the forefront during the last years through Mobility as a Service (MaaS). This refers to a seamless integration of various forms of transport services accessible through one single digital platform. The concept of MaaS is aligned with Smart mobility, one of main Smart City components which refers to smart manners of people and goods mobility through the integration of all transport modes, ICT solutions, zero pollution and congestions and so on [1]. A key enabler for MaaS is technology that can provide the means for complex mobility ecosystems to be integrated, while allowing diverse service providers and related stakeholders (e.g. payment management organizations) to perform transactions between each other (for booking, invoicing, payment, etc.) as well as interact with the traveler, acquire and exchange operational data, and process it into information that can be used to support MaaS related business processes. Such an ecosystem can be centrally coordinated when all participants in the value chain have the same understanding of what needs to be delivered and accept to follow a common approach, which can be proprietary, customized and aligned to vendor specific guidelines. As the MaaS ecosystem expands and the coordination of an increasing number of mobility solutions comes into play, the complexity can be such that new decentralized solutions are required. In this work in progress paper we discuss the role of blockchain technology for enabling seamless mobility for MaaS.