Mobility Solutions from Barcelona to the World
The most successful manner to design the future is through co-creation between complementary organisations which combine knowledge and vision to achieve goals. This is the intention of heads of Volkswagen Group Research, SEAT, and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), which have just publicly presented the Cooperative Automotive Research Network (CARNET project) to focus on urban mobility solutions in Barcelona.
CARNET is an open collaboration boost initiated by the 3 principle founding members, SEAT, Volkswagen Group Research and the UPC, and further mobility business partners like Applus + Idiada, Ficosa and Rücker Lypsa.
CARNET aims to be the future reference for technology-based mobility solutions in the metropolitan area of Barcelona.
On the 1st June 2016, over 250 representatives of companies, universities, research centres and government bodies came together at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya’s North Campus to celebrate the official launch of the CARNET Project.
The event included an official introduction, where the heads of the founding entities, Enric Fossas, Rector of the UPC; Jürgen Leohold, Executive Director of Volkswagen Group Research; Matthias Rabe, SEAT Vice-President R&D, directed a motivational speech, in which they explained their complementary visions on designing urban mobility of the future. Also Mercedes Vidal, Barcelona City Counsellor for Mobility contributed with the proposed plans by the city.
Prof. Dr. Jürgen Leohold, executive director of Volkswagen Group Research; Enric Fossas, UPC rector; Dr. Matthias Rabe SEAT Vice-president for R&D and Mercedes Vidal, Barcelona Council’s Councillor for Mobility.
The essence of both presentations was that all stake-holders in mobility topics must do their part to develop hands-on solutions which improve the quality of life of future metropolitan inhabitants.
The second part of the event was an open exhibition of mobility-related projects where CARNET partners could showcase their competencies. Special focus was given to projects born in CARNET network, such as:
- Microcities: to transform traditional parking areas into spaces where private and public vehicles and users interact in a form that goes beyond the conventional exchange and park-and-ride concepts.
- Parkfinder: a mobile application aimed at individual users and designed to optimize parking in real time.
- Urban Co-Car: the development of a car-share system that facilitates the choice of routes and stops through intensive, smart use of ICT.
- Creative Lab: the contribution of the youngest members of society. Students’ proposals to solve mobility issues faced by companies in the automobile sector.
The last part of the event consisted of open lecture sessions, where further challenges regarding urban mobility were discussed, taking into account the paradigm shift the automotive industry is facing these days.
You can find the link to the conference contents here.
Video of the event presentation of CARNET:
CARNET Office
