April 2016 to March 2017

Authors/Persons in charge:
Kenichi Abiko (Chief Fellow, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies)
Tadashi Shikimori (Chief Fellow, Institute for International Socio-Economic Studies)

 In these recent years it becomes the big social issue how to cope with urban problems globally, and it is urgently required that the next generation of modern and intelligent urban mobility service is in place with the assistance of IoT and AI and further measures are taken to make the city smarter and sustainable. In our research and study we studied the issue how the city could be smarter with IoT technology specially by focusing on the urban mobility. We also collected as much information as possible on advanced experimental projects, social institution, policies and existing social problems and issues.

 As for EU we first give an outline of their energy strategy (to promote energy efficiency), climate change strategy (to reduce CO2 emission) and smart city strategy, and further explain (1) how EU are progressing the smart city strategies to reduce CO2 emission and energy consumption in the urban area where 75% of the total CO2 is emitted and 70% of the total energy is consumed, and (2) how German government is promoting the smart city strategies to achieve energy efficiency goal and to reduce CO2 through the initiatives of “Smart Energy” and “Smart Mobility”. For example, German Government established the target to deploy 1 million EV in Germany by the year 2020.

 We also travelled several cities to investigate how they are progressing  their smart city and community projects and give outline of their achievements in the report.

 These cities are Cologne (Germany), Copenhagen (Denmark), Lyon (France), Santander (Spain) and Milton Keynes (UK).

 As for USA we report the following topics. (1) Autonomous Driving, its definition, latest technology, legal issues involved, ethical issues, and market, (2) Next Generation Intelligent Traffic System, its strategy and direction in USA, (3) Urban mobility projects and smart city projects initiated and promoted by the US Department of Transportation, and actual example of Columbus (Ohio State) smart city project in details, (4) Possible style of services realizing successful business models, (5) the city and society in the future where enormous data is commonly shared and utilized, developed with synergetic effect by the introduction of autonomous driving and connected car.

 At the last chapter of the report we make our proposal and suggestions to Japanese Government as follows:

 As for the smart city we stress the need of establishing coordinating organization to promote holistic approach for the wide area of smart city strategies, the need of establishing high-level group meeting, the need to keep the basic management circle of Target-Plan-Do-See. As for the smarter urban mobility we propose our suggestions that the Government (1) should enhance R&D environment and promote global R&D activities and coordination, (2) should organize the basic platform of traffic data and make best utilization of such traffic data,(3) should make necessary measure to protect privacy and to maintain the security, and (4) should organize the coordination and partnership structure throughout the society and promote people’s understanding or acceptance of Intelligent Traffic System or future urban traffic system in the society.