Our Focus

Smart Mobility

Commerce requires efficient transportation for people to get to work and for goods to be moved around on schedule. But cities around the world are currently suffering from human-error road accidents, congestion and environmental effects. Beyond their direct negative effects on commerce, these have secondary impacts on unrelated sectors. For example, healthcare costs are increased due to the need for roadside medical emergency services, delays in response times and ill-health due to poor air quality and commuter stress. 

Smart mobility is critical to 3D urban mobility as it provides real-time data analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence which in turn creates a free-flowing transportation ecosystem, helping to reduce primary and secondary impacts that affect millions of people and cost taxpayers billions of dollars annually around the world. 

Of the more than $115 billion of investment that went into mobility startups between 2010 to 2018, 94% originated from outside the automotive industry. 

The automotive product is changing, with electronics and software growing in prominence and value. New mobility concepts such as electric aircraft capable of Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL https://transportup.com/ ) and Hyperloops are gaining extensive investment from commercially focused investors and public markets, whilst Micromobility is also becoming popular. Psion is also seeing business model innovation, where technologies are bundled to transition from an ownership model toward Mobility-as-a-Service (MaaS).

Autonomous

Vehicles such as cars, buses, and lorries are currently necessary for the transportation of people and goods. However, at one extreme most cars are under-utilised, being used only 4% of the time on average, whilst at the other extreme the drivers of lorries need to take enforced breaks, thereby reducing otherwise high levels of utilisation. 

Autonomous driving offers a number of benefits, from positive economic impact, as a result of time savings, productivity gains, reduced transportation costs and mobility for non-drivers, to increased safety and decreased environmental harm. 

Autonomous driving, coupled with Mobility as a Service (MaaS), is predicted to reduce the number of passenger vehicles on roads by 80%, reducing the number of parked cars in the built environment. 

Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) are already helping to reduce road accidents and congestion, and emerging tech in this area is increasing levels of autonomy guided by connected systems. 

Advancements in terrestrial & space-based broadband, 5G and Edge technology have reduced latency on data delivery which, combined with improved sensors, in-vehicle technologies, lasers and radar, all contribute towards safer and more efficient autonomous transportation. 

These technologies are critical to 3D urban mobility as transportation expands to include drones and air-taxis. 

Enhancements in software are enabling the analysis of  impressive amounts of sensor data necessary to navigate dynamic physical environments in real time. Psion is seeing development across the autonomy stack in terms of perception, prediction, planning and simulation.

Electrification

Improvements in the power to weight ratio and efficacy of electric motors, as well as in redundant energy capture systems and battery range, all enhance environmental-friendliness and already make for a viable alternative to the internal combustion engine in a range of ground and air-based vehicular use cases. 

With policy-makers increasingly focused on decarbonisation at a central grid level, even those electrified vehicles already in use will slowly become more environmentally friendly over their lifespan. 

Electric vehicles can also become part of a valuable decentralised battery network, a key component of Virtual Power Plants (VPP), which is useful for storing electricity generated by renewable energy sources at times of low demand and releasing it back to the network when demand is high. Electrification is critical to 3D urban mobility, enabling cities to rapidly improve air quality and to capitalise on future grid-level efficiency gains. 

The backdrop for electric vehicles is favourable, as governments across the globe prioritise electric vehicle adoption and technological advancements drive improvements in vehicle capabilities.

Psion is seeing developments across the digital infrastructure, including within on-vehicle software solutions that optimise energy delivery to the growing fleets of electric vehicles, eVTOLs (Electric Vertical Take-Off Landing) and drones.