Tag ITS World Congress

The organisers of the 33^rd ITS World Congress at Birmingham’s National Exhibition Centre in October 2027 have announced the theme for the event:

Connect Ideas. Transform Transport.

Transport for West Midlands (TfWM), the Department for Transport, Department of Business and Trade, ITS UK and Visit Britain, are collaborating with the organiser, ERTICO – ITS Europe to bring transport technology to life during five days from 25 to 29 October.

“Intelligent Transport has come a long way since the UK last hosted a World Congress, under the banner of ‘Delivering Transport Excellence’,” commented TfWM’s Head of Transport Innovation Chris Lane, who is leading the planning for the host region.  “The Congress will enable experts from around the world to work together to solve global challenges, sharing their experience and details of successful implementations, as well as their cutting-edge innovations.  Therefore, we will connect all the ideas that are making mobility safer, greener and more efficient across the globe – so we can work together to transform transport.”

The host region has brought together suppliers, consultants and government, along with media, business and exhibition professionals to plan the event, both from a technical and user experience perspective.  They are working with ERTICO to deliver the event, which is expected to attract more than 15,000 people to the West Midlands.

“Bringing the ITS World Congress to Birmingham is a unique opportunity to connect public and private stakeholders across the global transport and mobility eco-system,” added Joost Vantomme, CEO of ERTICO – ITS Europe. “This does not only reflect our mission at ERTICO but also the collective ambition of fostering collaboration that drives transformative advancements in mobility.  As organiser for the EMEA ITS World Congress, ERTICO is pleased to collaborate with the UK in hosting the next edition in Birmingham. Together, we will bring transformative technologies to life.”

“We are looking forward to engaging with the international community to really explain how great our event is going to be,” Mr Lane concluded.  “With the Transport Technology Forum, we’ll be taking a lead role at the ITS European Congress in Seville in May and August’s ITS World Congress in Atlanta.  Here, we’re looking forward to engaging with potential sponsors and exhibitors, while our Technical Working Group is busy ensure the country’s strengths in ITS, and its cutting-edge technologies, are highlighted.”

TfWM is part of the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) which, through initiatives like the Future Transport Zone, is a global leader in the field and at the cutting-edge in key areas of research and development such as autonomous vehicle development, battery technology, the emerging very light rail system and smart ticketing. 

The congress will be a prestigious opportunity for public-sector bodies, businesses, and academics to showcase how cutting-edge innovations are driving progress towards tackling the climate emergency, making transport safer and improving traveller experience. TfWM is currently building the network of interested sponsors, supporters, and exhibitors.  Organisations and individuals can register their interest here.

The ITS World Congress is an annual event held in rotation between three global regions – the Americas, Asia-Pacific and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA).

(Picture – WMCA)

The network of national Intelligent Transport Systems associations is looking to add to its knowledge sharing network by inviting country associations beyond Europe to join.

The comment was made at a breakfast event hosted on the UK Pavilion at the ITS World Congress in Dubai where the work of the 25-year old network was celebrated.

Nationals chair Donal Hodgins discussed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between ITS Ireland and ITS Australia and looked to bring the Australians, ITS Canada and other interested parties into the network.

“Our network complements the excellent work of ERTICO, who set us up a quarter of a century ago, as we share best practice among individual nations’ ITS societies,” Mr Hodgins explained. “We are here to make sure all of these associations support their members as best as possible, and so the more members we have, the more we can copy our best bits and help each other solve their challenges.”

The breakfast event, hosted by ITS UK was joined by the Chair of ERTICO Dr Angelos Amditis and its CEO Joost Vantomme and attended by more than a dozen of the Network’s 30 members who are at the World Congress this week.

(Picture shows ITS UK Chief Executive Max Sugarman, ITS Australia President Silje Troseth and ITS Nationals Chair Donal Hodgins)

Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility (CCAM) encompasses a range of technologies that connect and automate transportation systems, promising to enhance safety, efficiency, and sustainability in urban and rural environments.  But, as the latest ERTICO World Congress webinar explained, to deliver it, there are remaining challenges around technological integration, infrastructure modernisation, legal frameworks, cybersecurity and public trust.

The webinar hosted by ERTICO on 27 June was the final one in a series of three focusing on the main themes of the 30^th ITS World Congress in Dubai this September. In this webinar, “CCAM – more than the sum of its parts”, experts from Belgium, the UAE, United Kingdom, USA and Japan delved into some of the intricacies of Cooperative, Connected, and Automated Mobility, and the journey from innovation to real-world deployment.

Stephane Dreher, Lead of CCAM at ERTICO-ITS Europe lead the debate, setting the scene by explaining that as well as being in the spotlight in Dubai, CCAM is one of the main areas that ERTICO is working on.  The vision is that, by 2025, there are operational CCAM services integrated in the current transport system that are, he said, “accepted, inclusive and supported by infrastructure in order to achieve the policy goals of the European Commission in terms of decarbonisation and safety.”

Picking up on the European strategy, Max Lemke, Head of the IoT unit at the European Commission’s DG CONNECT directorate, explained that the vehicle of the future will be electric, connected, autonomous – or at least featuring a degree of automation – and it will be shared, which means a big disruption for the industry.  He warned that this comes with technological challenges, explaining: “We see the lines of software code increasing, I would say exponentially, and that means productivity in software engineering is a key issue.  There’s a lack of talent, lack of resources and low productivity because we have to customise everything.”  He talked about different ways components are supplied and used, how value chains are changing and how vehicles become “smartphones on wheels” and must be affordable, before detailing how Europe is delivering its innovation strategy, and how the European culture is delivering with safety.

CCAM vehicles now have around a hundred million lines of code, and may need a billion lines by 2030.  “It’s staggering,” commented Dr Steve Dellenback, Vice President R&D at the Southwest Research Institute asking, “Does that code work, how do you test it? How do you make sure it works in all different scenarios?”  He warned about the management of expectations from the public around operational performance and safety adding: “If we’re truly going to be getting to 500 million or a billion lines of code, we are kidding ourselves if we think that these vehicles are going to be perfect. And so part of the discussion we need to be having moving forward is at what cost are we willing to deploy this technology, we can’t sell it as simply being crashless, that’s not going to be true to our travelling public.”

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The organisers of next year’s ITS World Congress in Dubai are reminding potential speakers at technical sessions that they only have two more weeks to submit their ideas for consideration.

Director of Communications, Congresses and Events, Lisa Boch-Andersen has written to the industry saying she wants to ensure that your valuable contributions reach us on time. 

You can submit your contribution here before the deadline of 15 December.

To guarantee a seamless submission, would-be participants are encouraged to create a profile here. This preliminary step is described as crucial to ensuring that you are well-equipped to submit your contributions smoothly. 

The event takes place in Dubai from 16-20 September 2024.

(Picture – ERTICO)

Countries and cities are being offered the chance to throw their hat in the ring to host a future ITS World or European Congress.

ERTICO – ITS Europe is looking for potential hosts of the 2025 and 2026 European Congresses and the 2027 World Congress which will be based in a location within ERTICO’s juristiction.

“For over 30 years, ERTICO-ITS Europe, ITS America and ITS Asia-Pacific have been hosting innovative ITS Congresses that present all that is new in the ITS sector,” said Lisa Boch-Andersen, ERTICO’s Director of Communication, Congresses and Events. “As a Host city, you join the extended ITS family of cities from across the world. Every Host city has felt the long-term positive economic impact on the business of their region and the benefits of being recognised as a key player in the smart mobility landscape.”

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