The future of transport (FoT) has the potential to provide greater convenience to citizens, reduce carbon emissions, pollution and congestion. Dynamic, on-demand and automated approaches to transport provision can work alongside traditional transport modes to plug gaps in ‘last and first mile’ transport and logistics provision. 

New approaches to mobility will enable individuals to plan and buy travel options from a range of multi-modal service providers, tailored to their needs. Services include: Public transport, car sharing, private hire, parking, taxis, bicycle hire, walking, emerging mobility modes including scooters, and connected autonomous vehicles, as well as private vehicles. FoT serves to address personal needs that can mix car ownership with access to more sustainable alternatives through efficient use of shared public, community, and private services. 

The Future of Transport is set to be ever more connected, with innovation across multiple modes of transport, between services providers, and beyond mobility itself. This creates its own challenges, from new commercial models, changed payment relationships, to data privacy, security and interoperability. 

Standardization will play a crucial role in delivering the next generation of private vehicles, passenger services, and their integration with the wider transport system.

The Importance of System Interoperability and Data Exchange

Successful take-up of new transport services depends very much on providing accurate and easy-to-use personalized services, that hide the complex relationships between the many service providers and ecosystem. 

These include transport providers, service aggregators, payment agencies, professional associations, regional transport agencies, and local authorities, each with a different role in the market, operating within government regulation. 

Ubiquitous, interconnected modes of transport rely on interoperability of systems across and between the transport modes and their operators and users. This interoperability depends as much on the policies and practices of the actors in FoT as the technology. There are, however, many actors involved with the deployment and operation of transport-related services; this creates fragmentation and barriers to data exchange, which may block FoT development.

Standards support system interoperability and data exchange in several ways, including: 

• Agreed specifications for the structure, content, and exchange of information 

• Agreed definitions and classification of data types 

• Agreed organization practices for the creation, exchange, and use of data

This range of topics is important to consider, as system interoperability is often limited by a combination of these factors. Organizational procedures can be a far greater block on data exchange than technological factors such as data formats. 

As automotive manufacturers make progress on autonomous, electric, and connected vehicle technologies, frameworks such as BS ISO 21219 series and PAS 1881, will play an increasingly important role. The industry needs consensus on standards and best practices to ensure effective interoperability if intelligent vehicles are to reach their full potential.

To learn more on the topic of connected and autonomous vehicles, click here.

Standards that Support the Future of Transport

In the same way that real change requires a holistic approach to issues such as decarbonisation, traffic congestion, and road safety, standards increasingly take a 'systems' approach and draw upon cross-sector knowledge to tackle problems and challenges.

BSI has been working closely with the UK government's Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV) to create a series of PAS standards to support safe trialling and development of automated vehicles in the UK.

PAS 1883, published in August 2020, sets out a taxonomy for describing the intended operational design domains (ODD) of an automated driving system (ADS) – a key piece of work to ensure developers and trialling organisations can communicate the safe operating conditions of their ADS including the physical environment, accurately and consistently. This will help reduce confusion in relation to vehicle capability and suitability for given environments.

Still in development, PAS 1882 and PAS 1884 will look at data collection requirements during trials to support forensic investigation and safety driver training and competencies respectively - both areas of significant interest for the legal and insurance communities. The role of data in supporting safety improvements and performance benchmarking is considered by some in this space as key to public acceptance of connected and autonomous vehicle technologies and wider deployment.

The changes to the transport and logistics supply chain are significant and bring a host of new opportunities as well as a range of new challenges. With a BSI Knowledge subscription, you will have the flexibility and visibility to manage the key standards you need in order to work with confidence and optimize your supply chain. Build your own custom collection of standards, or opt for access to our pre-built modules and keep up-to-date with any relevant changes to your standards strategy. Request to learn more.

Add all these standards to your collection today.