TISA at the European Commission’s ITS Conference

The ITS Conference 2015 “A Digital Strategy for Mobility: from capacity to connectivity”, was held in Brussels under the aegis of the European Commission. The event gathered around 500 ITS stakeholders and policy-makers, including TISA President Thomas Kusche as well as Jacques Naves from Michelin Travel Partner.

The discussions focused on the present and future of ITS, and particular emphasis was given to Data as the fuel of the transport revolution, Mobility- as-a-Service and the difficult marriage between connected and automated vehicles.

DG MOVE and DG CONNECT, building upon their synergies

Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, opened the event with a speech that underlined why ITS is increasingly becoming a top priority within the Transport and Digital portfolios. Ms. Bulc acknowledged the need to deploy ITS technologies in order to achieve “sustainability and more efficient transport networks, more efficient logistics, clever use of existing infrastructure and better connectivity”.

Andrus Ansip, Vice-President of the European Commission in charge of the Digital Single Market, provided the closing remarks, focusing on the synergies between the transport and the digital sectors. “The Internet of Things extends to all sectors of economy, such as manufacturing, transport, logistics, and energy. It blurs the traditional industry boundaries while creating complex interrelations between sectors” Mr Ansip explained.

Along these lines, ERTICO CEO Hermann Meyer mentioned TISA during his speech as a model of stakeholder cooperation that establishes and develops specific ITS services successfully on a global scale. He said that there will be a need for additional focused initiatives that which implement subsequent generations of specific ITS services in Europe, just like TISA.